With GOP gains, transportation projects could slow
Share with others:
High-speed trains flew off the tracks in at least two states and prospects grew cloudier for mass transit, bike trails and transportation in general as Tuesday's election returns poured in.
Ohio and Wisconsin, which in January won a combined $1.2 billion in high-speed rail grants from the Obama administration, both elected governors who have vowed to stop the projects.
Voters in Minnesota ousted a leading advocate of increased federal transportation funding, longtime U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who had pushed a six-year, $500 billion program to improve the nation's infrastructure.
Pennsylvania elected a governor, Tom Corbett, who has acknowledged an urgent need to upgrade the state's infrastructure but faces a multibillion-dollar projected budget deficit and has pledged not to raise taxes.
"I think it's going to present a very serious conundrum for the new governor and new legislative leadership," said state Rep. Joseph Markosek, D-Monroeville, chairman of the Transportation Committee. "During a time when there's huge sentiment for cutting spending and cutting programs, our infrastructure is quite in need of the opposite."
Still, there were some currents of optimism in transportation circles on Wednesday, partly stemming from Mr. Corbett's campaign promise to empanel a bipartisan working group on transportation funding and seek solutions in the first six months of his administration.
"He has committed to moving on this early on," said Robert Latham, executive vice president of Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, a Harrisburg-based trade association of construction companies and suppliers.
Pennsylvania's budget for highways, bridges and transit suffered a $472 million setback when the federal government rejected the state's application to toll Interstate 80.
A state advisory commission estimated this year that Pennsylvania is $3.5 billion per year short of spending enough to bring its transportation network to a state of good repair.
Mr. Latham, whose organization favors increased spending on road and bridge construction, said contract awards by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation next year are expected to fall to roughly half of the $2.8 billion that was awarded in 2009.
First Published November 4, 2010 12:00 am
