What We Need
County engineers receive 70% of every $20.00 collected for motor vehicle registration fees each year. Though this may seem like a large percentage, two important facts mitigate this impact:
- These fees have not increased in over 20 years, and
- The population of almost all the most populous counties has been in decline.
Because of this, less funding is available for county engineers to maintain and repair Ohio's roads, bridges and culverts.1 County engineers also receive a portion of the 28 cent-per-gallon motor vehicle fuel tax collected by the State; but this funding source is also threatened due to the increasing number of fuel-efficient vehicles on the road.
An Ohio family with two cars driving an average of 24,900 miles per year contributes less than one cent/annual mile driven to the maintenance of Ohio’s entire county highway and bridge network.
Unless something is done to prevent these funding sources from shrinking, Ohio’s infrastructure will continue to deteriorate; increasing safety hazards for Ohio drivers, as well as contributing to lost revenue and job opportunities for the State and its residents. County engineers cannot keep up with their own repair and reconstruction schedules, so aging county highways and bridges have become hazardous for travelers in many locations.
According to a 1997 study by the Ohio County Engineer’s Association, only 25% of all county highways meet generally accepted standards for safe roadway width; approximately 54% of Ohio's county bridges have reduced legal weight limits, and nearly 25% of all county bridges are classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete; hundreds of miles of needed guardrails go uninstalled; and signage is terribly inadequate.
It is calculated that for every $1 billion invested in transportation, more than $2 billion in economic activity is generated through the economy. Additionally, more than 47,500 jobs are created; and the jobs are not just construction jobs, but positions throughout the work force. Based on the Ohio Department of Transportation’s $1.3 billion construction program for 2002, investment in transportation yielded approximately 61,750 jobs across the state.
The County Engineer’s Association of Ohio (“CEAO”) estimates that it costs approximately $310 million each year to maintain a fifty year replacement schedule for all the bridges in Ohio. The CEAO also estimates that it costs roughly $2.3 billion each year to repair and resurface Ohio’s roads every ten years. Accordingly, Ohio’s yearly infrastructure needs are in the order of $2.6 billion each year, and are approximately $13.0 billion for five years. Therefore, the approximately $935.7 million dollars Ohio will receive from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act only counts for roughly 7% of Ohio’s infrastructure needs over a five year period.