DOT pitches $131M transportation bond

loading...

AUGUSTA – Trying to keep pace with road and bridge repairs in Maine in recent years has been like a bicyclist trying to follow a car on I-95, proponents of a $131 million transportation bond said Wednesday.

With a 35 percent spike over three years in the cost to build or repair roads and bridges, the state Department of Transportation has fallen further and further behind, Transportation Commissioner David Cole and others said.

Gov. Baldacci’s bond proposal, which would dedicate $100 million of the $131 million for roads and bridges, would still not be enough for the DOT to catch up on all the needed work, proponents of the bond told members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, but it would begin to close the gap.

The governor’s transportation bond, if approved by the Appropriations Committee and then the full Legislature, would go before voters in June. If approved by voters, it would secure a 10-year note, with road and bridge repair and construction funds being applied to DOT’s 2008-2009 project cycle.

Cole said the increase in the cost of road and bridge work has jumped 35 percent from 2004 to 2006, driven largely by enormous road construction projects in China, India and elsewhere.

“It is driving prices up everywhere,” Cole said. “We no longer set the market in this country. The market is being set globally.”

Over the course of the current two-year budget cycle, “We have deferred, canceled or re-scoped over $200 million worth of capital projects in dozens of communities across Maine,” he said.

“We’re still playing catch-up due to this significant erosion in our purchasing power,” Cole said, despite making cuts in positions and other belt-tightening.

He said DOT is responsible for repairing and rebuilding 2,380 bridges, 49 percent of which are more than 50 years old, and 2,850 miles of arterial highway, which carry 60 percent of Maine’s annual traffic.

Former DOT Commissioner John Melrose, speaking in support of the bond for the Maine Better Transportation Association, was more blunt than Cole.

“In brief, your pavement conditions, structural road conditions and bridge conditions are all in a free fall,” he told the committee.

Laurie LaChance, former state economist and now president of the Maine Development Foundation, noted transportation infrastructure is “the foundation of our economy,” and said Maine has “fallen behind in the New England region fairly significantly.”

Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, chairman of the Transportation Committee, brought a 60 pound chunk of concrete that was removed from a bridge by DOT workers because it was threatening to fall on traffic below.

“This is symptomatic and this is emblematic of the situation we are facing,” he said.

The remaining $31 million in the governor’s bond proposal includes:

. $16.8 million for passenger and freight rail systems: $6.7 million for the Downeaster Amtrak system, $750,000 for the Rockland-Brunswick corridor, $1.6 million for industrial rail access statewide, $1.8 million for freight rail interchange improvements, $1.6 million for state-owned track upgrades, $1.7 million for the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railroad, and $2.5 million to study and engineer improvements to the Gorham to Fryeburg corridor.

. $3.4 million for port and ferry improvements: $1.2 million for the Small Harbor Improvement Program, $280,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers channel deepening study for Searsport, $500,000 for the Portland International Marine Terminal, and $1.5 million for passenger ferry service.

. $5.6 million for transit, intermodal and park and ride efforts.

. $3.4 million for aviation.

. $1.7 million for pedestrian and bicycle trails.

The governor’s proposed borrowing would be repaid from the state’s highway fund. Unlike in past years, when state funding could draw as much as four times in federal funding, Cole said the $100 million in the governor’s bond proposal would leverage just $161 million in federal funds.

Baldacci’s proposal is competing with other transportation bonds, such as LD 417, a $60 million highway and bridge bond sponsored by Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford. It also would be put before voters in June.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, submitted LD 1692, a $40 million bond proposal slated for the November ballot dedicated to expanding passenger rail service north and west of Portland.

The Appropriations Committee also heard brief explanations of:

. LD 188, sponsored by Rep. James Schatz, D-Blue Hill, which would borrow $2.5 million for public transportation.

. LD 718, sponsored by Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, which would borrow $4 million for highway and rail projects in the Brunswick area relating to the redevelopment of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station site.

Both LD 188 and LD 718 would go before voters in November, if they are approved by the Legislature.

Cole, Damon and other transportation proponents agree the funding of road and bridge work must be rethought, since traditional revenue sources like the fuel tax are not providing enough to keep up with necessary projects.

The Appropriations Committee may vote to recommend a bond ballot as early as next week.