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As funding grows scarce, roadwork under way
Published November 1, 2009
As crews sprayed fresh yellow and white stripes on a newly resurfaced Highway 35 this week, other crews moved dirt and set up orange cones to start construction on Highway 332 and FM 2004.
Overpasses are being built at five intersections along Highway 332, and FM 2004 is being widened to four lanes.
All three projects have been sorely needed for years and thanks to the recent federal stimulus, the Highway 35 and FM 2004 projects now are under way, officials said.
“This is much more than we’ve had in a long time,” said Larry Heckathorn, Texas Department of Transportation Brazoria County area engineer.
But officials said it could be a while before the county again sees that many state highways with construction crews buzzing around them.
While the number of cars moving through Brazoria County is set to increase with population growth, funding to prepare state highways for that growth has slowed to a crawl.
With reduced funding and a growing list of needed highway projects, competition is growing to get projects under construction, officials said.
“You have 254 counties in Texas,” County Commissioner Donald “Dude” Payne said. “Every one of them wants a piece of the pie.”
TRADITION BUCKED
Highway funds usually are provided by the state, which receives 80 percent of its funding from the Federal Highway Administration.
Though Brazoria County is expecting to see more headlights on its highways in the upcoming years, fewer people are traveling statewide, which means fewer federal funds, said officials with the Texas Department of Transportation.
“The amount of revenue we receive from motor fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees has stopped increasing and may actually be declining due to several factors, including increasing fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, and reduced travel,” said John Barton, assistant executive director of Engineering Operations, in e-mail.
Contributing to the problem is the rising costs of construction over the past seven years, he said.
“To put it simply, the tax revenues we receive just haven't kept pace with our cost of doing business to address our state's growing congestion relief and maintenance needs,” he said.
FIGHTING FOR FUNDING
Transportation Department officials said one way local governments can improve their chances to get a project moving is by offering its own money.
“It’s a simple matter of the cost effectiveness of the project by leveraging the local dollars with the state investments,” Barton said in the e-mail.
A pamphlet the Texas Department of Transportation distributes about highway funding selection points to two possible solutions: bonds and toll roads.
Brazoria County is working with state officials now to widen segments of Highway 36 in hopes it will become an alternate evacuation route. The county could pay for work using some mobility bond money approved by voters in 2004, but has not determined how to pay for all work, officials said.
The Texas Transportation Commission in September approved $29.4 million in widening projects on Highway 36 for a “pass-through” toll agreement. Pass-through projects are funded by a local entity with the state reimbursing a negotiated percentage of the cost.
The final cost to local entities that is not reimbursed can be as high as 35 percent, but officials have said the county presented its share of the projects as between 20 and 25 percent.
Payne said however the project is finally completed, the county will have to pay something.
“That’s the only way that we’re going to get that project done,” he said.
While toll roads are not popular with drivers, that is another alternative to get a highway project going, Brazoria County Commissioner Matt Sebesta said.
“With little federal money available and little state money available, we either let the congestion go or you go to toll roads,” Sebesta said.
Toll roads also are a fair solution in the future because the drivers who use them are the ones who pay, he said.
STIMULATED CONSTRUCTION
While getting state dollars to build highways has become difficult, two of Brazoria County’s recent construction projects are funded by the federal stimulus.
Texas received about $1.1 billion in added highway funding from the federal stimulus package passed in February. There were $6 billion in requests from local entities for the added funding, Brazoria County Engineer Gerald Roberts said.
The almost completed Highway 35 project between Alvin and Angleton received federal stimulus money, and the FM 2004 widening also was paid for by stimulus funds.
The federal money was awarded based on need, and it helped that the resurfacing and widening projects already were prepared, Roberts said.
“Readiness is the key word,” he said.
Sebesta said though the stimulus has pushed some projects forward, a recent cut in state allocations, called rescissions, could hurt other projects.
The Federal Highway Administration pulled $742 million from the state earlier this month.
About 8 percent of the federal stimulus was set aside for infrastructure, and that was not enough, he said.
“A lot of our roads and bridges are 40 to 50 years old,” Sebesta said. “That is where the stimulus should have gone.”
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