Oklahoma: Transportation Officials Face (funding) Shortage

[phantom power]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma transportation officials say they are concerned about the future of federal spending on road and bridge projects.

Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and other agencies discussed their concerns Wednesday during a meeting of the Oklahoma ROADS Task Force.

Mike Patterson, director of finance for the Transportation Department, says the state has lost $391 million in federal highway funds since 2002 because Congress did not appropriate as much money as it authorized.

Patterson also says fuel taxes collected by the state and federal governments for roads and bridges are not raising enough money.

He says the high price of fuel has forced motorists to travel less, reducing the amount of fuel tax revenue.

http://www.ksbitv.com/news/66987642.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Since half the roads in Oklahoma are toll roads, I thought they paid for themselves.

[AndyA]

2. Here's what they don't talk about.

Many of the highways in the state are toll roads. Some of them were only supposed to be toll roads until they got paid off, which is what the voters approved, but the constant expense of repairs has kept them toll roads for 50 years. Who could have predicted the roads would cost money to maintain?

Add to that many of them are crap. Our freeze/thaw/freeze cycle here every winter is hell on roads, as we get rain which seeps into the cracks, then it freezes, which causes more damage as the moisture expands.

Our rest stops are mostly disgusting, although they are building some new ones finally. Many are just McDonald's restaurants, where the rest rooms are always disgusting/broken/waiting room only.

Our representatives? Inhofe and Coburn. Enough said? :puke: