Report: States should spend more on repairing existing roads

State could spend less overall on transportation if they spent more of the money they allocated to it on repairing existing roads, a new report released Wednesday said.

The report, titled "Repair priorities: Transportation spending strategies to save taxpayer dollars and improve roads," says that states currently spend 43 percent of their total transportation money on repair, compared with 57 percent on new projects.

However, the report, which was sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Smart Growth America and Taxpayers for Common Sense, also notes that new construction only accounts for 1 percent of state transportation projects.

"Federal taxpayers have an enormous stake in seeing that our roads are kept in good condition,” Taxpayers for Common Sense policy analyst Erich Zimmermann said in a statement. “Billions of tax dollars were spent to build our highway system, and neglecting repair squanders that investment. Keeping our roads in good condition reduces taxpayers’ future liabilities.”


Smart Growth America's director of land use and transportation, Roger Millar, agreed.

“Spending too little on repair and allowing roads to fall apart exposes states and the federal government to huge financial liabilities,” Millar said. “Our findings show that in order to bring their roads into good condition and maintain them that way, states would collectively have to spend $43 billion every year for the next 20 years — more than they currently spend on all repair, preservation and new capacity combined. As this figure illustrates, state have drifted too far from regular preservation and repair and in so doing have created a deficit that is going to take decades to reverse.”

The report comes as Congress to begin debating a new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU, transportation bill. Its penny-pinching message could play well with lawmakers who have already expressed concerns with President Obama's proposal to spend $556 billion over six years on the measure, which funds highways and public transportation.

Congress is putting the finishing touches on the first draft of the SAFETEA-LU bill, and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said there could be a draft as early as this week.