Fiscal Highlights - June 2015

During June's Executive Appropriations Committee meeting, Shane Marshall, Deputy Director for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), explained to the committee that maintaining bridges and roads was similar to maintaining a car; you can be either reactive or proactive, but at some point, maintenance needs to be done. H.B. 362, Transportation Infrastructure Funding, 2015 General Session, converts the gasoline and diesel tax into a sales tax which is estimated to increase revenue to the Transportation Fund by about $25 million in FY 2016. This new revenue will allow UDOT to perform more level 2 pavement maintenance and bridge replacements and improvements.

Bridge maintenance is a crucial part of extending the service life of structures; it also helps minimize future repair costs. Going back to the car analogy, performing regular oil changes costs a little bit of money each year, but it is cheaper than replacing the entire engine a few years down the road in order to save money upfront.

The graph below illustrates the condition or health of bridges with three scenarios: no additional funding (red line), $21 million (blue line, where we were prior to H.B. 362), and $46 million (orange line) from 2014 through 2034.


Chart Source: Utah Department of Transportation, June 2015