Worn out roads

Think the roads around your house are crying out for a facelift or maybe a just nip and tuck?

Well, there's a reason they may look rough around the edges.

State transportation officials told state lawmakers Wednesday afternoon that the agency's road maintenance program is short by more than $80 million a year.

"We are doing as much as we can with the dollars we have," deputy transportation secretary Robert Ortiz told lawmakers.

Added Gary Giron, another high-ranking transportation official: ""We are now facing critical decisions on how to maintain roads."

Ortiz stressed after the hearing that this money shortage doesn't mean roads aren't being maintained. It just means, for example, the state's chip and seal program may not get to an individual road as often as it has in the past, Ortiz told NMI.

The gap in money for road maintenance is just one area where the state is feeling the strain.

An extra $245 million a year is needed to keep up with new road construction, which includes highway interchanges, Ortiz said.

The Rail Runner Express commuter train, meanwhile, lacks about $15 million a year to pay for operations.

And about $80 million a year extra is needed to address bridge needs statewide, according to an agency handout. Many of the state's interstate bridges were built before 1970.

Several reasons are contributing to the financial squeeze, including double-digit inflation on the cost of materials used to build roads.

And New Mexico isn't the only state struggling under the pressure. States across the country are facing rising costs of materials and other pressures that are leaving them in a quandary as to how to address the skyrocketing costs, lawmakers and transportation officials said.

Transportation, not health care, ranked No. 1 for the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.

A New Mexico legislative task force has recommended ways to generate additional money to help pay for road construction and maintenance. They include raising the state gas tax and vehicle registration fees.

But so far, neither the governor nor the Legislature has emerged to champion some of the ideas.

"We need more than just this dialogue," said Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe. "What decisions are we going to take on this as a Legislature, what decisions is the executive going to take? We need to know." 

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