President's Message - January/February 1999

ACCA Announces Bond Issue for County Roads and Bridges
If you were part of the County Road and Bridge Summit back on Feb. 11 and 12 in Montgomery, I don't have to tell you that it is time to do something about our rural transportation system. You heard that message loud and clear.

If you've taken a hard look at the proposed bridge bond issue that was released during the Summit, I don't have to tell you that the proposal is one that should be exciting to all county commissioners. That message, too, is loud and clear.

With the 1999 regular session of the Alabama Legislature just around the corner, county officials must now begin to educate and persuade the public to support - and even demand - that we repair the bridges on county roads.

Each day school buses in our state detour around more than 1,600 county bridges. We can - and we must - replace those bridges. The $300 million bond issue announced at the Summit would replace all "structurally deficient" county bridges in Alabama and provide a few counties with resurfacing money. The money is long overdue.

The media coverage of the Summit was incredible. The details were broadcast and printed from every corner of this state. The issue was even reported in U.S.A. Today and other regional newspapers. We have a crisis in our transportation system in Alabama and that message was finally delivered to the public.
Below is the overview of the $300 million bond issue proposal. This overview was released at the Summit and has been the subject of editorials and news reports throughout the state.

The Birmingham News may have stated it best when it wrote on Feb. 16, 1999: "The Legislature ought to take the Association's idea and ride it. Let's not wait for a bridge collapse with a busload of children before acting."
Proposed County Bridge Replacement Bond Issue

Purpose:
Provide funding for the replacement of the aging bridges on Alabama's rural roads.

As of July 15, 1998, a total of 2,966 bridges maintained by Alabama counties were classified as "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete" according to federal standards. Some 1,685 of the bridges were in such a state of disrepair that the posted weight limit prohibited the use of the bridges by school buses. Detouring around these 1,685 bridges would result in an estimated 17,547 miles of extra school bus travel each day.

Details:
The repair or replacement of the bridges would have an enormous economic impact on Alabama's economy both immediately and in the long term. The Department of Transportation's average cost on replacement of bridge footage indicates that all 2,966 structures that are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete can be improved to federal standards for a cost of $350,194,703.70. The bridges that are structurally deficient - that is, bridges that are weight-limit posted - can be replaced to federal standards for a total of $264,790,807.

Replacing ONLY those bridges that are weight-limit posted means the proceeds of the bonds are allocated solely to those counties that have poor bridges. Counties that have made bridge replacement a priority over the years would qualify for only a minimum amount of funding from this bond issue.

A total of 14 counties have maintained their bridges in such a way that at least 85 percent of their bridges meet federal standards. To reward these counties and to allow them to catch-up on road resurfacing, which may have suffered during their emphasis on bridge replacement, the proposal includes another $35 million earmarked for road resurfacing in the 14 qualifying counties.

Impact:
The improvement of these bridges would have a uniquely positive impact on Alabama's economy and its governmental spending. The cost of the 17,547-detour miles for public school buses is an extremely expensive expenditure to be paid from the Alabama Special Education Trust Fund. Assuming a 35-week school year, public school buses face a staggering total of 3,070,725 detour miles per year! Officials with the State Department of Education estimate that the average cost of operating a school bus in Alabama is approximately $2.25 per mile. Applying this estimate to the detour miles produces an estimated annual cost of traveling around the weight-restricted bridges at $6,909,131.

The cost of the detour miles can be calculated, however, other factors are not as easy to estimate. For example, the extra travel time for the thousands of school children is an unproductive use of time that could be spent with family or used as study time. The increased risk of accident for the school buses traveling the more than 3 million extra miles is troubling. In Alabama we can do better. We do not have to ask our children to make an intolerable choice - ride in a heavy school bus across an unsafe bridge or ride an extra 3 million detour miles each year.

Industries that depend on Alabama's rural transportation system will also benefit greatly from this bond issue. The forestry industry, Alabama's largest employer, faces a crisis in the coming years as more and more Alabama bridges are weight-limit posted. Replacing Alabama's unsafe rural bridges will allow products such as lumber to move safely from Alabama's rural areas to the production sites.

Funding:
Under current Alabama law, a statewide tax is levied on the sale of motor fuel (diesel) in Alabama. Although a substantial portion of the miles driven by diesel-powered vehicles is on roads maintained by the county governing bodies, the state Department of Transportation receives ALL of the proceeds of the diesel fuel tax.

County governing bodies receive a substantial portion of the statewide levies on gasoline, which is used to provide maintenance activities on rural roads and bridges. However, in fiscal year 1997-98, the diesel tax produced more than $111 million for the Department of Transportation's exclusive use on state roads.

In 1992 the state of Alabama levied its most recent statewide tax on gasoline, but did not include counties in the distribution of ALL of the proceeds of that tax. Specifically, counties were allocated approximately half (the traditional county share) of only two cents of this five-cent levy. The remaining three-cents of the 1992 tax were earmarked solely to the Department of Transportation.

A $300 million bond issue financed for 25 years produces an annual debt service of approximately $21 million per year. The annual bond payment can be made very easily by either utilizing a portion of the gasoline tax that is retained solely by the state or a portion of the current levy on diesel fuel tax. The use of either the gasoline or diesel-fuel tax proceeds could be lessened if a portion of the federal highway funds allocated to Alabama could be applied to debt service.

Support of Bond Program:
Because the bridge projects are listed in the annual bridge inventory, it will be possible to identify each project in the legislation. This unique procedure should generate more public support for the program. A bond issue that has no provision for "political" discretion, but rather allocates funding according to objective criteria will be received as a refreshing new approach in Alabama.

Lobbying support for the program should be substantial from county governments, forestry, other transportation-oriented industries, concrete interests, other bridge-construction interests, education and the residents of Alabama that drive on the decaying county bridges.