Few Minnesotans look forward to winter, but this year could be different given our fits of frustration over the state's other main season -- road construction. Seldom has driving been harder than during these past few warm months with those ubiquitous orange signs popping up everywhere to constantly warn of closed lanes, closed exits, bridge repairs and other annoyances just ahead.
It's been enough to make a person, um, smile with gratitude knowing that the state's roads and bridges are finally getting the attention they've needed for so long.
Much like the baby boom generation, the nation's transportation infrastructure is aging all at once. Its centerpiece, the interstate highway system, was born in 1956 and largely built during the 1960s. Forty years of mounting traffic, deteriorating roadbeds and, in Minnesota's case, severe temperature changes, have taken a toll. Pressure to keep gasoline prices artificially low -- and to hold down the fuel taxes earmarked for road repairs -- has led to huge shortfalls in the money needed to keep up with the work.
Estimates vary on what it would take to fix the nation's roadway and transit systems, but most experts place the amount at more than $200 billion a year well into the future, with less than one-third of the funding expected to be available. In Minnesota, the state Department of Transportation (MnDOT) projects a $50 billion shortfall for highways between now and 2028, and that's not counting tens of billions more in unmet needs for local roads, bridges and transit systems.
But while the landscape looks bleak in the long run, it's flush for the moment. And that's a good thing.
MnDOT will spend $1.2 billion on about 500 roadway and bridge projects during the current fiscal year. That's the largest program in the agency's history, thanks largely to President Obama's stimulus package and extra bonding money from the state's 2008 transportation funding bill that the Legislature passed over Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto.
In dollar amounts, this year's road and bridge construction program is twice as large as in 2008. Among the higher-profile projects: a smoother ride on Interstate Hwy. 94 between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul; critical bridge repairs in Hastings, Mower County and elsewhere; an extension of Hwy. 610 in the northwest suburbs, and improvements along Hwys. 35E and 36 on the north rim of St. Paul. (The Crosstown and Wakota Bridge megaprojects are in a separate budget.) Add to the list $60 million for safety improvements (cable fences, safer curves, etc.), and you begin to expect that the state's road fatality rates will continue to fall.
If you're inclined to dismiss those projects as "government waste," think again. Spending in a recession allows MnDOT to get more for the money. Bids are lower, right-of-way costs less and jobs are provided -- thousands of them. For every $1 million spent on road construction, 27 people are employed full-time for a year as the benefits ripple through the economy. That's the equivalent of 32,000 Minnesotans employed because of the current surge in road work, according to MnDOT.
