Report: Transportation Funding In Jeopardy

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A plan to divert more tax dollars for transportation needs will boost efforts to repair Oklahoma's deteriorated roads and bridges but is in danger of losing $32.5 million in its

Thursday, May 10th 2007, 4:14 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A plan to divert more tax dollars for transportation needs will boost efforts to repair Oklahoma's deteriorated roads and bridges but is in danger of losing $32.5 million in its first year, according to a report released Thursday by a nonprofit transportation research group.

Frank Moretti, director of policy and research for The Road Information Program in Washington, D.C., said legislation approved last year would provide an additional $1.6 billion over the next eight years to repair or replace hundreds of bridges and improve more than 1,000 miles of state roads and highways. But the program may be cut by $32.5 million this year because the state's revenues did not increase by at least 3% in 2006, a trigger for the release of some of the additional transportation money, Moretti said.

"This would be a significant setback," Moretti said. "Oklahoma continues to have the highest rate of deficient bridges in the country."

Moretti and Neal McCaleb, former Oklahoma transportation secretary and President of the T.R.U.S.T. Road Coalition, an Oklahoma road funding advocacy group, urged lawmakers to restore transportation funding by dipping into some of the $175 million in surplus revenue the state is expected to have at the end of the fiscal year June 30.

McCaleb said the trigger would have been met and the money automatically funneled to transportation needs if the surplus had been included in the Board of Equalization's estimate of state revenue earlier this year.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation this year launched a $4 billion road, highway and bridge construction program partly funded by the additional $1.6 billion.

"We're not getting the full amount of money intended by the Legislature," McCaleb said.

TRIP's report, entitled "Future Mobility in Oklahoma: An Analysis of the Ability of Oklahoma's Transportation System to Meet the States Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility," found that Oklahoma roads have high rates of pavement deterioration, a traffic fatality rate higher than the national average and increasing levels of traffic congestion.

"Traffic congestion is going to become an increasing issue," Moretti said.

The TRIP report said 27% of Oklahoma's bridges are rated as structurally deficient and that 40% of major roads are in poor and mediocre condition. It also found that an average of 733 people were killed in traffic accidents annually in Oklahoma from 2001 to 2005. In addition, the efficiency of Oklahoma's transportation system, particularly its highways, is critical to the health of the state's economy, the report said.

About $78 billion in goods are shipped annually from sites in Oklahoma and another $83 billion in goods are shipped annually to sites in Oklahoma, mostly by commercial trucks on state roads and highways, the report said.

TRIP said vehicle travel on Oklahoma's major highways increased 42% from 1990 to 2005, jumping from 33 billion vehicle miles traveled in 1990 to 47 billion in 2005. Vehicle travel in Oklahoma is expected to increase by another 40% by 2020, reaching 66 billion vehicle miles traveled.