In legislative updates to their constituents, Republicans in the Minnesota legislature have been touting the transportation bill that shifted money from the general fund to pay for project, but didn't raise the state gas tax.
That's nice.
The Le Sueur News Herald reported on Tuesday in State highways projected to get worse before improvements are made:
Local state-funded road projects may be underfunded for the next decade.
During a Le Sueur County Board of Commissioners meeting, Minnesota Department of Transportation representatives gave a presentation on their 10-year plan for road projects in the county and District 7.
According to the presentation, MnDOT needs over $39 billion in revenues that would go toward various road projects in the area from 2018 to 2037. However, revenue projections over that same period predict that only $21 billion will be made available.
Commissioner Steve Rohlfing said that the differences in funding versus needs hurt the county’s ability to maintain and improve roads.
“There just isn’t enough money,” he said. “We’ve got to find more options or we just don’t do them.”
About 54 percent of the need would go toward system maintenance projects that would help keep existing roads and
According to projections from the MnDOT, about 26 percent of the roads in District 7 will be considered to be “poor quality” by 2021. Meaning more than one in every four miles driven in the county will be on rough or otherwise damaged thoroughfares. . . .
County Commissioner John King said that there is a disconnect between what the legislature provided and what MnDOT needs.
“Until that is figured out, the future is going to look like this: poor roads,” he said.
Read the entire article at the paper. Apparently, pavement quality in the Metro area is even worse. Who knew?
Photo: A random internet photo of Highway 13 near New Prague. Rough road predictions ahead.
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