Nebraska's road infrastructure has fallen into a rut, the chairman of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee told senators Tuesday who recommend state spending.Â
And a proposal to create a "transportation infrastructure bank" to provide up-front money for major highway projects that might otherwise take years longer to complete is the way to pull out of that rut, Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion told the Appropriations Committee. Â
Smith introduced the bill (LB960)Â on behalf of Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is urging its passage.Â
Supporters filled the hearing room: Mayors, county commissioners, state highway commission members, contractors, engineers, economic developers and representatives from both rural and urban areas of the state and those pushing for completion of the long promised expressway system.
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They gave a list of reasons as to why the Appropriations Committee should make added funding for roads and bridges a priority of the state budget.
"It will accelerate completion of the Heartland Expressway. It will encourage state and county partnerships to bring dilapidated bridges up to standard. It will stimulate economic growth ... and it will modernize contracting methods to stretch our dollars further," Smith said. Â
It's not an alternative to the Build Nebraska Act -- which sets aside a quarter-cent of the state's sales tax for road projects -- but builds on what has been done to date, Smith said.Â
Here's the catch. Smith would like to take $150 million from the state's rainy day fund, the cash reserve, over seven years to fund the bank.
Appropriations Committee members had questions.Â
* Would this $150 million, combined with other funding methods, even come close to meeting a $1.4 billion unfunded need for expressways and bridges?Â
* If the federal funds the state is counting on disappeared, could this proposal be carried out as it is presented today?
* Can the committee be assured that some of this work on roads and bridges would go to the private community and not be kept in-house by the Roads Department?Â
* Why is the department asking for money from the cash reserve and not from the state's general fund, which would give the Legislature a chance to evaluate the process every two years as it renews the budget?
* What kind of economic return will the state get for its $150 million investment from the cash reserve?Â
"It is disconcerting to me that (you're) asking for a significant piece of that cash reserve without a really clear picture of what the payoff is in terms of a quantitative number," said Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell.Â
Lancaster County Commissioner Bill Avery emphasized to the committee the county has 20 of 308 bridges that are in need of major repairs, five that are structurally obsolete, and two that had to be closed because they presented a danger to the public.Â
The average cost of replacing a single bridge is $1 million, he said.Â
"More funding is critically needed to address the overwhelming backlog of bridge projects across the state of Nebraska," Avery said. "LB960 is a move in the right direction. It will not, of course, provide all that is needed, but it will help us make a huge dent in our current needs."
No one testified in opposition to the bill, but several provided neutral testimony, including Lancaster County Engineer Pam Dingwell.
While she supports additional infrastructure funding, she said, she had concerns about a section of the bill that would authorize use of alternative methods of contracting projects, including the "design build" contracting method.
On certain large-scale projects, it is believed to be a faster, more cost efficient manner to deliver projects.Â
"I believe it is important for this bill to limit the use of design build," she said.
There is significant research that shows the design build method can be more expensive, she said. But in cases of extreme emergencies, it can be a solution.