The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

July 2, 2009

Highways still need fix

Think tank says stimulus isn't enough

By Dan Linehan

ST PETER — Like Highway 169 itself, Minnesota’s transportation network is slowly crumbling and current spending levels aren’t even going to maintain — much less expand — the state’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The stimulus, though, is a definite nudge in the right direction.

That was the message Thursday from Minnesota 2020, a progressive think tank founded by Democrat Matt Entenza, who is considering a run for governor. He stepped down from his role as the chairman of the board this spring, but remains on the board.

“Our transportation policy is, in effect, Highway 169,” John Van Ecke, executive director of Minnesota 2020, said during a roadside press conference Thursday morning.

The highway’s driving surface is pockmarked by the efforts of stopgap fixes.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation measures ride quality and the rating for Highway 169 in St. Peter is 2.6 for the northbound lanes and 2.4 for southbound traffic. Both scores on the 1 to 5 scale fall in the “fair” range.

It doesn’t help that the cast-iron water pipe — installed in the ’50s and ’60s — beneath the highway ruptures because of the vibrations caused by vehicles, Public Works Director Lewis Giesking said.

The pipes are also only four or six inches in diameter, making them smaller than today’s standards. They’ll be replaced with 12-inch pipes as a part of this summer’s stimulus-funded work to the highway, a capacity boost that will also improve water pressure for firefighters.

The stimulus is helping to pay for $16.2 million worth of highway projects in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties, according to Minnesota 2020’s compilation of state data. The federal stimulus bill has helped Minnesota allocate almost $600 million in road, bridge and transit projects, they said.

The spending is expected to boost the state’s transportation spending by 50 percent this year.

The one-time money is dwarfed, though, by the shortfall between MnDOT’s long-term goals and projections for funding over the next 20 years.

The department has projected it’ll have $15 billion to spend through 2028. It’ll cost $16 billion just to maintain what we have, but the department plans to spend only $11.55 billion in order to have some money left over for new stuff.

It’d cost an estimated $65 billion to build what the department suggests would be prudent.

Conrad deFiebre, a fellow at Minnesota 2020, said more than half of the state’s highways are rated as less than good. More than 5,000 bridges are more than 50 years old.

He said one solution is to increase user fees for drivers.

Last year’s addition to the state’s gas tax raised it to 27.1 cents per gallon, and it will rise to 28.5 cents in a few years.

DeFiebre supports increasing state and federal gas taxes with inflation so that the money doesn’t do less each year.

Minnesota 2020 is funded by Entenza, individuals, unions and other organizations, Van Ecke said. The only Minnesota 2020 benefactors in the construction industry are the 49ers, a union representing heavy equipment operators.

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