U.S. Governors Warn That Road Repairs Stalled by Congress

By Mark Niquette Jul 14, 2014 12:01 AM ET

U.S. governors say they won’t be able to plan or build all the major highway and bridge projects the country needs as long as Congress delays action on a long-term funding plan.

Republicans and Democrats who gathered in Nashville during the weekend for a National Governors Association meeting said that at minimum Congress should approve a short-term fix before the federal highway account becomes insolvent by the end of August. Yet they want a longer solution to remove uncertainly that could stop or delay projects worth an estimated $3.6 trillion to fix crumbling roads and bridges.

The inability of Congress to agree increases pressure on states to find alternative financing for their share, governors said. It affects the work needed to create jobs and boost the economy while repairing outdated infrastructure to avoid disasters such as the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145.

“These sort of half-solutions, kicking the can down the road, short-term sorts of things, this is not a way to inspire business confidence or consumer confidence,” Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, said in an interview. “Some of these investments are multiyear investments that require multiyear funding streams.”

Frozen Congress

While the U.S. needs the $3.6 trillion by 2020 to improve its highways, bridges and other infrastructure, spending by all levels of governments is projected to fall about $1.6 trillion short, according to a 2013 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. States and the federal government rely heavily on gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes to pay for transportation projects. Congress hasn’t raised the gasoline levy since 1993, and the revenue it generates hasn’t kept pace with the needs and rising costs, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

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