In 1999, Arkansas voters approved a ballot initiative that allowed the Arkansas Highway
and Transportation Department (AHTD) to issue bonds that funded a much needed
Interstate Rehabilitation Program. This program allowed AHTD to rehabilitate more than
350 miles of Arkansas’s interstate highways. Today, more than 10 years later, Arkansas
voters are being asked to renew the bond program. If renewed, the program will
provide a funding mechanism to AHTD to rehabilitate an additional 300 miles of
Arkansas’s interstate system that were not initially included.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is concerned that our nation’s roads,
bridges, dams, levees and water/wastewater systems continue to suffer from
underinvestment. ASCE has sought to advance solutions to the problems highlighted in
the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that provide for an improved quality of life
and support a recovering economy. A report at the local level for Arkansas is currently
being compiled by ASCE members. We believe that passing the 2011 Interstate
Rehabilitation Program will significantly enhance the rehabilitation program that was
started in 1999 by providing funding to repair a vital piece of Arkansas’s infrastructure—
our interstate systems.
Deteriorating conditions and performance of Arkansas’s infrastructure, such as
highways and bridges, impose costs on Arkansas households and businesses in a
number of ways. Interstates that are in poor condition lead to increases in operating
costs for trucks and cars. Additional costs include damage to vehicles from deteriorated
roadway surfaces, imposition of both additional miles traveled and time expended to
avoid unusable or heavily congested roadways, as well as the added cost of repairing
facilities after they have deteriorated.
Designing these infrastructure facilities to last indefinitely is possible, but unfortunately
it is something that is cost prohibitive. The average design life of infrastructure products
such as highways and bridges is 30 to 50 years, so we must regularly provide the
necessary funding to keep our infrastructure in safe and workable condition. Before the
1999 program was passed, 21% of Arkansas’s interstates were considered “good”.
Today, thanks to the 1999 program, more than 70% of our interstates are considered to
be in “good” condition. If planned rehabilitations are not made due to funding shortfalls,
AHTD expects that figure to decrease to nearly 50% by 2016. We cannot afford that to
happen, especially since we have made such substantial progress since 1999.
ASCE reports in its recent report, Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current
Investment Trends in Surface Transportation Infrastructure, that in 2010, it was
estimated that deficiencies in America’s surface transportation systems cost households
and businesses nearly $130 billion annually. This included approximately $97 billion in
vehicle operating costs, $32 billion in travel time delays, $1.2 billion in safety costs and
$590 million in environmental costs. Failure to Act also states that if the present trend
continues, by 2020 the annual costs imposed on the U.S. economy by deteriorating
infrastructure, such as highways and bridges, will increase by 82% to $210 billion, and by
2040 the costs will have increased by 351% to $520 billion.
Deteriorating infrastructure needs are avoidable if we recognize the need early and
provide regular maintenance to our highways and bridges. The avoidable transportation
costs that hinder the nation’s economy, as well as the economy of Arkansas, are
imposed primarily by pavement and bridge conditions and highway congestion. As time
passes and our infrastructure continues to age, we must find new and innovative ways
to finance the critical transportation infrastructure needs of the nation as well as
Arkansas. Our infrastructure needs far outweigh available traditional funding sources
and ASCE believes that the 2011 Interstate Rehabilitation Program is making wise use of
“non-traditional” sources of funding.
Jaysson Funkhouser, PE; President, Arkansas Section ASCE;
jayssonfunkhouser@hotmail.com; 501-766-3663; http://www.asce.org/