Political lapses and structural collapses
By Marc Herbst - Featured in Newsday on August 8, 2007
Marc Herbst is the executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association and a former New York State Assembly member from Nassau County.
Failed political priorities, the surging economy of China and the swelling waters of the Mississippi River all combined to help bring down the Interstate 35W bridge last week in Minneapolis.
Of the three factors, Long Island bridges lack only the Mississippi. Of course, we have the Atlantic Ocean and the Long Island Sound, not to mention the occasional battering from hurricanes.
Two Long Island bridges that have been identified as structurally deficient and in need of reconstruction - the Roslyn viaduct on Route 25A and the Goose Creek bridge on the Wantagh State Parkway - have been addressed. But, according to a study two years ago by a national transportation research group, 6 percent of the New York City area's bridges are considered structurally deficient, showing significant deterioration, and 55 percent more are considered obsolete.
And procuring the money to build and repair Long Island's bridges and roads is getting more difficult every year. Infrastructure funding is often the orphan child in the budget process.
I was a New York State legislator from 1994 to 2002, so I know the pressures that are applied for non-transportation priorities at budget time. And even when a legislator is successful in getting a much-needed appropriation to fix a deadly road or to build or reconstruct a bridge in his or her district, the media derides the effort as "pork."
Quite frankly, improving roads and bridges just isn't sexy. Bigger headlines come to those legislators who ban trans fats in foods or prohibit cell-phone use while driving. And when the budget gets tight, routine maintenance is often the first thing to go.
Long Island is losing out on funding two ways: It's getting fewer dollars as well as a smaller slice of the transportation pie. A few years ago, Long Island regularly received 21 percent of the state's share of federal funds for roads and bridges. Today, we get just 8 percent. And this year our share of this money was slashed by $23million, down to $224 million - a 9 percent cut.
To add insult to injury, when you figure in normal inflation plus the 30 percent increase in costs for raw materials like asphalt, concrete and steel - driven by China's voracious appetite for raw materials and the extra costs associated with moving materials through the New York City transportation bottleneck to Long Island - the Island's share of the federal capital program is buying less and less each year.
You are not going to eliminate "Blood Alley" on the Southern State or properly maintain bridges with that kind of funding.
Even when the money is spent, unscrupulous bidders often win contracts with lowball prices. The state does a good job at quality control and inspections, but many local governments lack the staff and budget to check up. Is the asphalt the same quality as was promised in the bid? Is it applied to the proper thickness? Are the workers trained and complying with state wage laws? Is the steel a lesser grade than promised? If not, our residents aren't getting what they paid for.
With real dollar cuts, a smaller slice of the transportation funding pie and spiraling costs of raw materials, we can't even maintain the status quo in spending, let alone make the improvements that will save lives, help sagging local economies and provide real savings to consumers through quicker and safer commutes and efficient transportation of food and other essential products.
The federal, state and local governments need to concentrate on finding reliable funding for the very expensive but necessary bridge and road work that must be done if we are to avoid future incidents like the one in Minneapolis. In the process, they'll help strengthen our economy.
The federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon has remained unchanged since 1993, and the New York State tax of 8 cents a gallon has been unchanged since 1991. Even in the face of high gasoline costs, legislators need to bite the fiscal bullet and consider a modest increase in these taxes to help ensure safer bridges and roads.
This is not a cost. It's an investment in Long Island's future. The Federal Highway Administration estimates a national average of $5.40 in benefits in improved safety, reduced travel delays and lower vehicle operating costs for each $1 spent on road and bridge improvements.
The residents of Minneapolis would surely have approved higher taxes to avoid the tragedy of the Interstate 35W bridge. How can Long Islanders and other New Yorkers fail to learn from their bitter lesson?
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