01/21/1987 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e sponsoring a bill before the Legislature. He said the study had surveyed future road needs, current revenuest and growth potential for all jurisdictions) and that had resulted in an estimate that over the next 18 yearst there would be $32.4 billion in road needs and that $11 billion in revenue for roads would be available from all sources. Mr. Smith said a needs assessment had been made on 5,000 mile-long segments of roads throughout Oregon, and that assessment had included determinations of conditions, repairs, capacity, and safety problems. He said that sample then had been expanded to provide an estimate of conditions on the entire 42,000-mile road network in Oregon, and he added that such a sample should provide data with a confidence rating of about 90 percent. He said population growth had been considered, a set of minimum standards for tolerance had been estimatedt and suggestions for improvements had been sought. Mr. Smith said a computer then had analyzed all the data to provide an estimate of engineering needs over the next 20 years. He said a current $6.5 billion backlog had been identified, for a problem of $32 billion over 20 years. He also said addressing the current backlog would require an additional 16~ in the gas tax now, increasing to 55~ by 2005. Mr. Smith showed charts illustrating State needs for preservationt operation and maintenance, and capital needs (both new and reconstruction). He said preservation was the largest single need. Mr. Smith then showed charts illustrating needs of cities, and he said cities would be the least able to meet their needs. He said if the backlog was not addressed now, problems with spending would occur as if in a deficit. Mr. Smith showed a road deterioration curve, illustrating that 75 percent of a road's deterioration was expected to occur in the last 25 percent of its life. He said Oregonls infrastructure was younger than that in some other states, but 30 percent of the roads already were below fair or worse conditions and in need of preservation. He said 40 percent of urban roads needed preservationt and although only 10 percent of the road system needed reconstruction, that 10 percent accounted for nearly two-thirds of the $6.5 billion backlog. Mr. Smith noted that many roads had been built in the 1950s and 1960s, and they were aging at about the same rate. He also noted that road-related revenues had not grown over the past 10 to 15 years, while construction costs over the past 25 years had increased about 500 percent. Mr. Smith showed figures indicating the number of drivers in Oregon per mile of paved roads and said the figure of 50.9 drivers was closer to agricultural states 1 i ke Iowa than to i ndustri a 1 states 1 ike Mi chi gan, whi ch had 95.2 drivers per mile. Mr. Smith said the steering committee had attempted to rank needs according to priorities, but no consensus had been reached. He said funding priorities for the first six years of programs had been recommended as follows: 1) funding of at least 80 percent of operation and maintenance needs; 2) stop the growth of the backlog; 3) repair and preservation of important arterials and collectors; and 4) addressing some capacity problems on arterials, with very little attention to collectors. He said a consensus had recommended allocating new funds according to a formula in which the State would receive 50 percent of funds, counties would receive 30 percent, and cities would receive 20 percent. Mr. Smith said if the Legislature passed the entire MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 21, 1987 Page 5