Lawmakers tackle road-project funding

State lawmakers on Wednesday began tackling an issue they don't expect to solve with one simple vote or bill — how to pay for the state's road and transit improvement needs through 2030.

The Utah Department of Transportation and local metropolitan planning organizations have identified $22.6 billion in highway projects and $5.6 billion in public transit improvements they say are needed by 2030.

Current revenue streams, however, are expected to account for only 38.5 percent of the money needed for those improvements.

The Legislature's Transportation Planning Task Force on Wednesday attempted to assess whether those identified needs are accurate and how additional funds might be raised. What the task force heard from state transportation officials is that the needs are not only real, but they are increasing — and a lack of funds also threatens the state's ability to preserve and protect existing roads, bridges and other structures.

"It's almost inconceivable the amount of needs that we have outlined in front of us," UDOT executive director John Njord told the task force.

According to UDOT and the metro planners, the state will need at least an additional $515 million each year, through 2030, to meet Utah's needs.

The Centennial Highway Fund (CHEF), created to finance road construction projects, has generated less than half that amount each year in its first eight years of existence.

Njord said the CHEF's existence and current structure is part of the reason why UDOT cannot keep up with its maintenance and preservation needs, let alone build new roads or additional lanes not on the CHEF list. New state and federal resources that have become available over the past 13-16 years, including a 5-cent increase in the state's per-gallon gasoline tax in 1997, have gone toward building the 41 projects in the CHEF program.

And that's a good thing, Njord said of the 10-year statewide road-building program that included the $1.59 billion I-15 reconstruction project. But that method of funding the CHEF has left the state's regular maintenance and capital improvement programs operating on the same funding amounts they received in the late 1980s and early '90s, he said.

"We've been doing more than we've ever done," added Utah Transportation Commission chairman Glen Brown. "It's just that we can't keep up with the growth and demand that's out there."