NYSAOTSOH Commissions 20 year Needs Study of Local Roads and Bridges

NYSAOTSOH Commissions 20 year Needs Study of Local Roads and Bridges

Local Infrastructure has $45.7 Billion Need

To read the full Local Roads 20-year Needs Study, click here.

For the first time NYSAOTSOH has done a needs study of New York's local highways owned by over 1600 towns, villages, cities and counties. This massive system consists of 97,000 centerline miles and over 8600 highway bridges. Approximately 48 percent of total travel vehicle miles in New York occurs on local highways. This means that over 67 billion vehicle miles are traveled annually on local roads and this travel is increasing at a rate of almost 2.5 percent per year placing even more stress on our pavement and bridge infrastructure.

The purpose of this report is to provide a needs estimate for our local pavement and bridge infrastructure for the period of 2010-2030. The study complements the recent transportation needs analysis conducted by NYSDOT and presented by Commissioner Astrid Glynn. The report describes the magnitude of the local highway system, provides condition data where available, and estimates the needs for the pavement and bridge infrastructure. The study was prepared by John J. Shufon, an expert in infrastructure condition forecasting. John worked at NYSDOT for over 30 years, serving as Director of the Agency's Condition Forecasting Unit until his retirement in 2006.

NYSAOTSOH's Board members were concerned with the Commissioner's report because it didn't review our local system pavement needs and provided virtually no increase above our current funding level for local highway assistance (CHIPs). Her report did however analyze the 20 year needs of the state's private rail roads, local transit system's, airports and ports.

Our report clearly shows the 20 year local bridge and highway needs for every DOT region in the state except New York City:

• Capital District $4.6 billion
• Utica Region $1.8 billion
• Syracuse Region $3.5 billion
• Rochester Region $3.5 billion
• Buffalo Region $4.2 billion
• Hornell Region $2.2 billion
• North Country $2.0 billion
• Hudson Valley $8.7 billion
• Southern Tier $2.9 billion
• Long Island $12.1 billion

The overall local bridge and highway need translates into about $2.28 billion annually. The state's share to meet these needs translates into an additional $1.2 billion annually.

We need to start gathering pictures of some of the worst bridges and roads in our system region by region, so when we release this report the media and legislators will have real visuals to better understand our needs . Together we will take these needs to every level of government. We will fight to ensure the needs of our local system get the same funding consideration as the state's infrastructure.

The following is a brief summary of the report's highlights:

New York's State and Local System.

Table 1 demonstrates the sheer size of the local highway network. Centerline mileage and number of bridges are provided by region for both local jurisdiction and State DOT highways. As can be seen from the table, local highway mileage dwarfs State highways in all regions and local bridges outnumber their State counterparts by almost 1000.

Table 1: Local and State Jurisdiction Centerline Mileage and Number of Highway Bridges

***Sources: NYSDOT 2007 Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) submission to FHWA, NYSDOT 2007 Official Bridge Data

Local Roads by Jurisdiction

Table 2 provides a regional breakdown of local jurisdiction centerline mileage by municipality type. The table shows town owned highways comprise 60% of total local mileage.

Table 2: Local Jurisdiction Centerline Mileage by Municipality Type and Region

***Source: NYSDOT 2007 HPMS submission to FHWA

BRIDGE CONDITIONS

Without Increased Funding an Additional 1,300 Local Bridges Will Become Deficient by 2030.

NYSDOT collects comprehensive condition data for the entire population of bridges on the State's public highway network. Over 17,000 bridges are inspected biennially or more often if conditions warrant. The table shows local bridges are in worse condition than bridges on the State highway system. Further, the NYDOT needs study indicates an additional 1300 local jurisdiction bridges will become deficient over the next ten years and that at current funding levels (unadjusted for inflation), the percentage of deficient local bridges will grow to 45% by 2030.

Condition Summary for Local and State Jurisdiction Highway Bridges

***Source: 2007 Official Bridge Data, NYSDOT

ROAD CONDITIONS

Local Roads are in Worse Condition than State.

The key to the needs assessment process is to realistically estimate repair strategies and costs for local highways. This is not a simple process due to the diversity of the local network from high volume county roads on Long Island to the unpaved local functionally classified roads throughout rural New York State. In order to determine repair strategies, costs, and ultimately "needs" the following steps were undertaken:

1)      Working with both local officials and representatives from the construction industry, and with input from the NYSDOT Pavement Needs Assessment Model (PNAM), baseline repair costs were determined by region for four general treatment types--major rehabilitation, minor rehabilitation, corrective maintenance, and surface treatment. It should be noted that consistent with the DOT analysis, these costs are contract costs and include repair of roadside furniture (guide rail, drainage structures, etc.) at the project site.

2)       The mix of repair strategies to be applied to the mileage necessary to reach the 12 year paving cycle goal was based on region and the distribution of functionally classified roads within that region. For example, local roads in a region with a high proportion of urban principal arterials are assumed to receive a more rigorous mix of treatments (major rehab vs. minor rehab vs. maintenance) than local roads in a region with a high proportion of rural collectors and roads functionally classified as local. Table 4 provides an example treatment mix matrix for local roads in a typical region.

Example Treatment Mix Material for Local Roads in a Typical NYSDOT Region

3)      Pavement capital needs were calculated by multiplying the mileage in each cell by the appropriate costs as determined in steps 1 and 2 above. One preventive maintenance treatment (e.g. crack sealing) per 12 year paving cycle is included for roads receiving a major or minor rehabilitation.

The resultant annual and 20 year needs estimates (excluding NYC) are given in Table 5. This table shows the annual pavement need for local highways is $2.014 billion or $40,280 billion over the 20 year analysis period.

Estimated Pavement Needs for Local Jurisdiction Highways ($ Millions)

NEEDS ESTIMATE: BRIDGES

$5.4 Billion Needed for Local Bridges.

The New York State Department of Transportation utilizes sophisticated computer models to forecast future bridge conditions at various funding levels. These models consider a multitude of variables including bridge type, materials, geometrics, repair costs and deterioration rates. The NYSDOT modeled local bridges and estimated an investment level of $13.2 billion (including New York City) is required to improve conditions at a rate comparable to State bridges. According to Commissioner Glynn's testimony, this will reduce local bridge deficiencies by 5 percentage points over the 20 year period. It should be noted that in order to remove New York City from the analysis, needs were allocated across all regions based on square footage of deficient deck area. Table 6 shows the results of the apportionment process. The annual capital bridge need for local highways (excluding NYC) is $270 million or $5.4 billion over the 20 year period.

Estimated Bridge Needs for Local Jurisdiction Bridges ($ Millions)

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Expenditures on local roads are not even close to keeping pace with the deterioration process. Bridge conditions are also slipping. Forecasts show local bridge deficiencies will grow to 45% by 2030 and this forecast does not consider the debilitating effects of construction inflation brought on by soaring oil and steel prices. Pavement conditions even on the most important and best maintained local roads are significantly worse than conditions for other State maintained highways. Approximately $1.2 billion is needed annually in additional pavement and bridge investment to reverse the deterioration process.

Total 20 Year Pavement and Bridge Needs for Local Jurisdiction Highways ($ Millions)

***excludes New York City