Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/370987
September 2014 | EquipmentWorld.com 66 L ike a bad slapstick comedy that constantly repeats the same embarrassingly bad gags, Con- gresses dating back to the Bush Administration have been unwill- ing or unable to draft and fund a long term transportation bill appropriate to today's challenges. For those who despair over this inepti- tude, don't jump from one of our crumbling bridges just yet, for there is hope. No, not that Congress will pass significant legisla- tion any time soon. Rather, the reason for hope is that this has all happened be- fore. Indeed, the history of our Republic's elected body might be characterized as long periods of mediocrity interrupted by intense periods of sheer uselessness. Legislative acts of brilliance are brief moments that come and go like flashes of lightening. Congress' most historic achievement in transportation legislation – authorizing and funding the Interstate Highway sys- tem – was just such a flash of brilliance, but even that was marked by bitter partisan in-fighting and the legislation that passed contained nearly fatal compromises that we had to deal with for the next 50 years. The Interstate concept championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower was gener- ally favored by liberals and moderates in both parties and opposed by conservatives in both parties. The project was funded by a new, three-cents-per-gallon federal fuel tax. The program that won Congressional approval in 1956 put a heavy priority on finishing 42,000 miles of roadway in 20 years and placed significant limits on pave- ment depth and quality to achieve that goal cheaply. One of the incentives for building roads cheap and fast was that the feds were paying for the original pavement, while maintenance and repair costs were to be the responsibilities of the states. The feds wanted to get in, get out and stay out by sticking the states with the future bills for rebuilding and renovating the system. For better and for worse, the Interstates revolutionized the American way of life, economically and socially. The fast, cheap original pavements outperformed their de- sign lives, often by decades, but have been systematically replaced by stronger, more sophisticated and more cost-effective pave- ments. States have administered the rebuild- ing and maintenance of these roadways, but most of the money still comes from the federal fuel tax which swelled to 18.4-cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4-cents for diesel by 1993. The tax has not increased in the past 21 years, which is the focal point of today's futil- ity. The Highway Trust Fund, which collects and distributes federal fuel taxes, is nearly insolvent; general tax revenues have been needed in recent years to sustain the federal program while the leadership of the House of Representatives dithers over how to increase revenues without increasing taxes. Some ideologues want to see the federal program die, with federal taxes reverting to the states, along with design and engineer- ing authority, but that would return us to the unholy mess American roads were prior to the Interstate system. We can only hope that, as in 1956, our bumbling Congress eventually sees fit to fund a national road system. final word | by Kirk Landers They funded interstates, didn't they?