States giving rural road work a boost with new federal aid

US 50 near Delta, Colo., below Grand Mesa, after rehabilitation (Colorado Department of Transportation photo)

Some states are using last year’s federal infrastructure law make up for deferred maintenance on rural roads, Jenni Bergal reports for Stateline. "Many rural roads carry heavy trucks and farm equipment, and some haven’t been repaved in decades, transportation officials say. With many state budgets healthy and new money arriving . . . states are spending more.

Bergal's first example is 19 miles of US 50 south of Grand Junction, Colo. It "was filled with bulges and dips, making it unpleasant to drive and sometimes downright dangerous," Bergal repports. "Colorado transportation officials decided to target the stretch, spending $15 million in state and federal money on it as part of a statewide rural road improvement initiative," completed in July.

Other examples: Democratic Gov. Janet Mills of Maine "touted a $9.2 million project to revitalize the rural highway corridors that lead to the state’s western mountains, where several ski slopes are located. In Texas, the Department of Transportation plans to invest $14 billion over the next decade on rural projects. That’s a 600% hike in planned rural funding compared with just seven years ago, according to Alvin New, a Texas Transportation Commission member. And in Oklahoma, transportation officials received a $41.5 million federal loan earlier this year; it will fund nearly half the cost of a rural safety improvement project in eight counties. . . . In Kansas, officials have doubled the amount they’re spending on rural road safety upgrades."

Rocky Moretti, director of policy and research at nonprofit research organization TRIP (formerly The Road Information Program), funded by highway-construction interests, told Bergal, “Rural areas are absolutely critical to the functioning of the nation’s economy, and you need a safe, reliable transportation network. If the system deteriorates to the point that it becomes difficult to move trucks that carry food and products, that’s a big problem.” Also, “The worse the shape the roads are in, the more the cost of operating a vehicle increases.”

Bergal notes an October report by TRIP saying that the U.S. has a $109 billion backlog of rural road and highway rehabilitation and a $36 billion backlog of rural roadway enhancements, such as safety: "The report said that in 2020, 12% of major rural roads were rated in poor condition, 19% in mediocre condition and 17% in fair condition."

The infrastructure bill has $2 billion "over five years for state and local governments to improve and expand transportation infrastructure in rural areas," Bergal notes. "Part of that funding is aimed at making roads safer. Nearly half of fatal crashes in the U.S. occur on rural roads, even though only 19% of the population lives on them, according to a September report by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices. Transportation experts say higher speeds, narrow shoulders, lack of lighting and lots of curves contribute to the high number of rural road deaths. So does the fact that emergency responders might be some distance away and can take longer to arrive at the scene and transport injured drivers and passengers to hospitals."