THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130356
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 70 lines
More than half of Virginia's highways are in poor to mediocre condition. About a third of the bridges are deficient or obsolete.
Our transportation system - the backbone of our economy and lifestyle - will continue to deteriorate and endanger lives unless changes are made in the way highway building and maintenance are funded, the American Automobile Association warned Wednesday.
The 39 million-member auto club, known for ``triptik'' maps and emergency towing, has taken the unprecedented step of urging its members to lobby policymakers for better roads. It's part of a national campaign called ``Crisis Ahead: America's Aging Highways and Airways.''
AAA says that only 66 percent of the amount needed to maintain roads is spent, or some $35 billion. About $53 billion is needed to maintain roads properly, and $72 billion is needed to improve conditions, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Adjusting for inflation, total spending on the nation's highways per mile of travel has declined 50 percent and capital spending dropped 60 percent between 1960 and 1993, the AAA report says.
``Our highways are crumbling,'' said E. Wallace Timmons, a spokesman for AAA of Tidewater.
Road conditions are worse in Virginia than in the nation as a whole. The Federal Highway Administration says 57 percent of Virginia's highways are in poor condition, compared to about 35 percent nationwide. And 30 percent of bridges in Virginia are ``structurally deficient'' or ``functionally obsolete,'' whereas 25 percent of bridges nationwide fall into that category.
``The needs we have far outweigh the money we have,'' said Bob Spieldenner, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman. ``We've known that for quite some time. We do what we can with the money we have.''
That's why the state is looking more closely at putting tolls on roads, Spieldenner said. A toll will be charged to cross the rebuilt Coleman Bridge at Yorktown starting in August. Other proposed road projects where tolls are being considered include the main route to North Carolina's Outer Banks, Route 168 in Chesapeake, and Pinner's Point connecting the Midtown Tunnel to the Western Freeway in Portsmouth.
To help remedy the funding crisis, AAA suggests that money collected in gasoline taxes for road projects be used only for roads. Currently, 23.5 percent of federal highway funds is used to reduce the deficit. In Virginia, $600 million was removed from highway funds about five years ago to balance the budget.
Additionally, the auto group wants highway trust funds removed from the federal budget so they are not subject to politicking. A measure to ``off-budget'' highway funds has passed the House and is working its way through the Senate.
In the meantime, motorists are paying dearly for the substandard conditions.
An estimated 12,000 lives could be saved if highways were better lighted, free of dangerous curves and equipped with guardrails and barriers, the AAA says. More than 44,000 people die in motor-vehicle crashes every year.
Motorists spend about $21.5 billion per year - $122.34 per person - in additional car and tire repairs and extra fuel costs because roads are not adequately repaired, according to the Road Information Program, an industry group. Potholes cause a large percentage of these extra costs.
The AAA's report also takes aim at the nation's air transportation network. It says that hundreds of daily flight delays in an overworked system cost the airline industry and its customers an estimated $3 billion annually.
The number of air travelers is projected to grow 45 percent in seven years, from 550 million passengers last year to 800 million in 2002. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
The Virginian-Pilot
SOURCE: American Automobile Association
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB