How does the new State Budget affect the State’s Infrastructure?

It will take some time to fully digest the impacts of the State budget on the state’s infrastructure. Two of the obvious impacts include the sunseting of the temporary $30 motor vehicle registration surcharge and what amounts to be a two year moratorium on the funding of new school infrastructure projects.

The money raised from the motor vehicle registration is directed to Department of Transportation and Department of Safety operations and betterment funding which includes the paving of State roads and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of municipal bridges. These funds help remove municipal bridges from the municipal red list.

The Department of Transportation recommends the overlaying of about 500 miles of road each year. This puts the state roads on about a five year maintenance cycle effectively preserving this critical asset. The funding in recent years has only allowed for approximately 250 miles per year with the exception of the year 2010 which was bolstered by the stimulus package and allowed for about 750 miles to be paved.

Roads need to be managed as an asset. We may think the decisions to invest in our infrastructure are like a decision to buy a new coat. With this type of purchase, we may decide to tighten our belt and wait until next year to make the purchase without any ramifications. The cost of the coat is really not different from one year to the next.

Infrastructure investment is more like a decision to fix a leaking pipe. Each year the pipe is not fixed, the damage increases geometrically. In very rough numbers, the cost of overlaying a two lane road is about $100,000 per mile. If the maintenance is deferred to the point where more than an overlay is needed, the cost of rehabilitation quickly rises to about $500,000 per mile.

Attendees at the legislative breakfast would have heard many references to the Sewall’s Falls Bridge in Concord. It is likely that the reconstruction of this bridge will be one of the many projects that may be delayed as a result of sunseting the motor vehicle surcharge.

Also part of the budget, school infrastructure projects already underway will continue to receive funding, but no new projects will be funded during the two year budget cycle. This is in addition to a moratorium on new funding that had already been in place for the last year.

The budget will impact many state programs and it will take some time to fully understand the full effects, but it will be critical for us to continue to keep the needs of the infrastructure at the forefront of the discussion. A well maintained infrastructure is vital to the state’s economy.