Idaho Board Warns About Infrastructure Deterioration Trends, Funding Challenges

AASHTO Journal, 9 January 2015

The Idaho Transportation Board is warning that the state’s roadway infrastructure is on course to get significantly worse unless new revenues are pumped into the system.

The seven-member board that oversees the Idaho Transportation Department reviewed transportation facility trends with ITD staff in its December monthly meeting, and then issued a press release renewing the board’s “concerns about maintaining an adequate transportation system for the state’s future.”

Chairman Jerry Whitehead said “the state’s transportation system is vital to Idaho’s economy, and the board believes it’s crucial we address the issue before the transportation infrastructure deteriorates to the point it becomes a liability rather than an asset.”

But based on the staff presentation, board member Jim Kempton said: “At current funding levels, data indicates that Idaho’s pavement condition will decline from 15 percent deficient to approximately 25 percent deficient by 2019.”

Kempton said state highway bridges are even more of a concern. ” As we look forward,” he said, “the number of state bridges older than 50 years will grow beyond the current 42 percent and will continue to deteriorate toward the rating categories of structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.”

Noting that the state legislature could address these issues in a session that starts Jan. 12, the board said Idaho last increased its gasoline tax in 1996 and that the tax of 25 cents a gallon is worth 17 cents in today’s dollars.

“The cost of diesel fuel used by ITD’s snowplows more than tripled from 1997 to 2014, and the cost of a new snowplow has more than doubled in that same timeframe,” said Whitehead.

Trying to stretch its dollars to help put more money into road work, the ITD announced Jan. 5 it will begin charging a service fee to customers who use credit cards to pay for vehicle and driver service transactions. Until now the state agency has absorbed the credit card processing fees, but said county offices already pass card service fees to their customers.

“While we never want to increase costs to Idahoans, eliminating this extra internal cost will generate additional funding for the state transportation system,” said Alan Frew, ITD motor vehicle administrator.

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