Rhode Island got high marks overall for fixing its roads and providing transportation choices to its residents in a recent national report that examined how states spend federal transportation dollars. In particular, Rhode Island was praised in the Surface Transportation Policy Project’s report for working to repair and maintain existing roads rather than building new ones.
The nonprofit research and advocacy group rated Rhode Island’s transportation spending “open to change,” its highest rating. The nine states that got the top rating generally spent at least 60 percent of their federal highway money on maintenance from 1998 to 1999. Most spent at least $15 per resident annually on alternate forms of transportation such as bicycle paths and public transit and at least $2.50 per resident annually on safety.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Connecticut and Vermont also received the highest rating. Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire were rated “middle of the road.” The lowest rankings, in descending order, were “offering few options” and “behind the times.”
State Department of Transportation Director William Ankner was mostly pleased with the report, particularly its finding that Rhode Island is focused on maintaining its existing roads.
“That really has been the direction that the governor and I have wanted to go,” Ankner said. “If you take a look at our six-year plan, or even our 2020 long-range plan, the only new roadway that we’re talking about is the Quonset/Davisville access road. All of our other investments are really replacing what we’ve got or rehabilitating what we’ve got.”
The Surface Transportation Policy Project, or STPP, found that Rhode Island spent 64 percent of its share of federal highway funds on maintenance from 1998 to 1999. By comparison, the state spent just 46 percent of the federal money on maintenance from 1990 to 1991.
Massachusetts spent 49 percent of its federal highway money on road and bridge repair in the period ending last year, slightly more than it did from 1990 to 1991, according to the report.
But transportation advocate Seth Kaplan, a lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, which is loosely affiliated with STPP, said he was most concerned with the Bay State’s lack of safety spending. The report found that Massachusetts spent an annual average of 48 cents per resident of its federal transportation money on safety projects from 1990 to 1999–by far the lowest amount in the country.
“That certainly gets your attention when you come in dead last in the country by such a large margin,” Kaplan said.
New Hampshire also spent, on average, less than a dollar per resident of its federal transportation money on safety projects annually during the period. The amount of federal money spent on safety projects here in Rhode Island during the period, however, came to an average of about $2.28 per person annually. Vermont led the country with $15.17 per person annually.
Ankner, the DOT director, also considered the report an affirmation of what he said is his and Gov. Lincoln Almond’s commitment to providing alternatives to cars.
The state spent an annual average of $1.20 and $16.22 per resident of its federal transportation money on bicycle paths and public transit, respectively, during the 1990s, according to the report. In the last two years, an average of more than 17 percent of Rhode Island’s federal transportation money went to bicycle, pedestrian and transit spending, up from an average of about 11 percent in 1990 and 1991.
Massachusetts spent less of its federal money on bicycle and pedestrian projects in the 1990s, about 42 cents per resident annually, but it spent more on public transit, nearly $30 per resident annually. The national average amount spent per person was 41 cents for bicycle and pedestrian projects and $16.85 for public transit.
Ankner said Rhode Island’s growing number of bicycle paths eventually would be interconnected into a statewide network. Bicycle paths still under construction already are used heavily by bikers and walkers, he added. “People are, to some extent overwhelming us.”
A spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Chapter of the Sierra Club said the group is pleased overall with the local results of the STPP study. The Sierra Club and STPP are loosely affiliated.
However, the report’s finding that Rhode Island’s commitment to fixing existing roads may be eroding, troubled the Sierra Club.
“This report said we are actually backsliding on that,” said local Sierra Club spokeswoman Alicia Karpick. “That’s something we need to take a look at and find out why we are backsliding.”
Ankner said he can understand why STPP might have come to that conclusion because the state’s repair and maintenance spending was lower than normal last year as engineers completed the design work on many upcoming projects.
Last year, the state began work on 61 maintenance projects with a combined price tag of roughly $71 million. This year, however, Ankner expects to do 80 such projects at a cost of about $150 million.
“STPP will find that we’re going to be spending quite a bit of money again on fixing it first. We’re going to be spending for the first time $20 million on resurfacing and pavement management,” he said. “We’re ready. We’re raring to go, and the projects have already started to get pumped out.”
