AUGUSTA – Roadside signs warning of repairs ahead are a sure sign of spring. But how well is Maine doing in taking care of its highways and bridges? Better than you might think after that last pothole you hit.

“Maine’s roads are in pretty good shape,” concludes David Hartgen, professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of an annual study of how all the states compare in the management of highway spending to assure adequate roads and bridges. “Maine is rated 15th, up one spot from 16th in 1999.”

But Hartgen, who lived in Orono for several years where his father, Vincent Hartgen, was a well-known art professor, said improvement in the ranking does not mean the state does not have some serious problem areas. For example, compared to most states, he said Maine puts too much money into maintaining roads and not enough into rebuilding roads. Maine Transportation Commissioner John Melrose agreed.

“We are not doing as much as we should in rebuilding,” he said last week, “but we are doing a lot better than we were. The state has got a backlog of nearly 50 percent of its roads that have not been built to modern-day standards, a standard that was set in the ’50s.”

Melrose said a decade ago the state was seriously neglecting its roads and bridges. As part of the budget balancing during the early ’90s recession, millions of dollars were shifted to pay for state police at a time when gas tax revenues dropped.

He said in the budget years of 1996 and 1997, his agency only could propose 35 miles of reconstruction. Maine DOT is responsible for more than 8,400 miles of highways. In the current two-year budget, the state is rebuilding 200 miles of highways.

“That is still only two-thirds of what we were doing back in the ’70s,” he said, “so I think we are on the right track. If the Legislature had not just passed indexing [of the gas tax] we would be at zero in the next budget.”

State Rep. Charles Fisher, D-Brewer, the House co-chairman of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, said even as difficult as it was to get the gas tax indexing proposal adopted, it will not solve the problem of not enough road reconstruction cited in the Hartgen study.

“I said it in debate, but I don’t think people were listening,” he said Friday. “The indexing is not enough. We still have a funding problem for highways and it’s going to get worse.”

Under the gas tax proposal adopted last week, the 22-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline and 23 cents a gallon on diesel fuel would be adjusted for inflation retroactive to 2000 and would take effect July 1, 2003. For example, if inflation over the three years was 3 percent, the gas tax rate would increase by 3 percent.

But the increase is not automatic. Lawmakers next year will have to consider whether the increase should take effect.

DOT is estimating indexing would raise about $47 million of the projected $88 million shortfall in the highway fund in fiscal budget year 2004-2005.

“We know we will need a bond issue to make up the difference,” said state Sen. Christine Savage, R-Union, the Senate co-chairwoman of the Transportation Committee. “And that just keeps us at current levels of reconstruction, not where we should be.”

Savage said her committee is very concerned that the DOT budget problems could worsen. President Bush’s proposed budget calls for cutting back federal highway allotments to the states. If approved by Congress, Maine could lose $37 million in funds it has planned on receiving.

“We are hoping the [congressional] delegation is successful in preventing that loss,” she said. “There are other states that will be hurt, so I think Congress may not go along with that cut.”

Fisher said even if federal funds are maintained, he fears the state’s roads will fall further behind in needed repairs and reconstruction.

“We are seeing cars and trucks that get better mileage,” said Fisher, “and while many argue that is good, I see the problem of less gas tax revenue in the future. When I drive down the road, I keep seeing these new hybrids and I think how are we going to fund our road program in the future.”

Melrose said all states are facing the problem of less revenue from fuel taxes as vehicles become more fuel-efficient. He said the major reason for the push to index the gas tax is to start to solve that problem.

“That’s what we were talking about when we argued for sustainability,” he said. “Just raising the tax by a penny or two does not get at sustainability. Indexing the tax does.”

But Melrose acknowledged the increased revenue expected from indexing the gas tax will not provide the funds needed to “catch up” on needed road and bridge repair and replacement.

“That’s an issue the next Legislature needs to address,” he said.