Assessment of Local Road Funding Needs at a Midwestern US State

Abstract: Funding needs assessment essentially involves comparing supply and demand, measuring the supply deficit, and assessing the cost needed to close the deficit. This can be done for supply that may arguably be considered from at least one of two perspectives: quantity (traffic volume capacity) and quality (a physical condition that is a proxy for traffic load capacity). This paper focuses on the latter only. In the context of this study, demand refers to the level of service or performance standard. The study adopted an aggregate condition-based approach which (a) estimates funding needs for each family of assets rather than for all assets combined or for each individual asset, (b) assesses, for each family, the funding needs based on the current asset condition, the performance standard, and the cost needed to raise the current condition to the target (minimum) level. The current asset conditions were generally determined using the asset management databases of the county, city, and town agencies. The cost needed to raise the current condition to the target (minimum) level was determined based on the historical cost and observed effectiveness (jump in condition ratings) associated with all treatments typically applied to that family of assets. As such, the needs assessment approach is sensitive to the current condition of the assets and the treatment cost. The results shed much light on the magnitude of funding needs. For pavements, the total need associated with a performance standard (target rating) of 6 (which corresponds to the middle of the “Fair” range) is approximately $940,042,000. Given the pavement inventory size of 73,187 centerline (CL) miles or 174,074 lane-miles, this funding need translates to $12,800 per centerline mile or $5,400 per lane-mile. After the backlog is cleared (that is, all pavements are upgraded to a minimum rating of 6), the annual condition-based funding needs is $1,507,668 per year, that is, $8,662/lane-mile or $20,600/CLmile. These refer to condition-based needs only and do not include capacity-enhancement pavement needs such as lane addition. For bridges, the total need associated with a performance standard (target NBI rating) of 8 (which corresponds to the lower limit of the “Good/excellent” range) is $1,159,155,000. Normalized using the four different metrics of road inventory, this immediate need translates into $6,658.97/lane-mile of road, $15,838.19/CLmile of road, $88,303.11/bridge, and $36.22/sq.ft of deck area. Subsequent to clearing the backlog, the annual need is $115,891,000. Normalized using the four different metrics of road inventory, this annual need translates into $655.76/lane-mile of road, $1,583.49/CLmile of road, $8,828.45/bridge, and $3.62/sq.ft. of deck area. These are condition-based needs only and do not include capacity enhancement such as bridge widening or replacement due to inadequate lanes or clearances. Assuming the backlog is cleared, the annual need will be $19,091,000 ($260.86/CLmile or $109.67/lane-mile). Overall, the total immediate need for all local road assets was determined as $2,120,230,954 ($12,181/lane-mile and $28,970/CLmile). Assuming the backlog is cleared, the annual need will be $1,639,830,088 ($9,421/lane-mile or $22,406/CLmile). These are condition-based needs only.