Reluctantly pushing aside a highway program that would chart a course for the future, leaders of the U.S. House Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved a six-month plan that would ensure continued federal funding for smaller road projects–but jeopardize major Chicago-area repair work–during the upcoming construction season.
The move ended a standoff between the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who has sought to tap into billions of dollars in collected but unspent motor fuel taxes, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who considers Shuster’s original multiyear transportation formula a budget-buster.
The stopgap measure sent to the House Wednesday would provide $11.5 billion to cover the first six months of fiscal 1998. Shuster’s original three-year plan proposed spending $103 billion on projects ranging from roads and pedestrian-friendly designs to anti-pollution and congestion-mitigation programs.
Two Senate committees, meanwhile, continue working on a six-year bill that carries a $145 billion cost. But with the legislation that was approved in 1991 expiring Tuesday, and lawmakers eager to begin a recess in November for the rest of the year, the sweeping changes sought in both houses of Congress will have to be postponed until 1998.
When the funding battle resumes, House lawmakers will likely use as a starting point a six-year, $218 billion proposal that Shuster’s committee unveiled Wednesday along with the temporary plan that was approved.
“The two-track approach is the best for getting the best infrastructure program for America,” Shuster said. “True, we can end up in (another) battle, but our objective is to work out an agreement.”
Illinois transportation officials lamented Wednesday that, unlike Congress, they don’t have the luxury of waiting until next year to decide what to do about reconstructing crumbling, high-use roadways such as the Stevenson Expressway, which will cost $567 million to rehabilitate.
“We need to make a decision about the Stevenson by the end of November or put off the job” until 1999, said Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown.
Brown said that under the temporary bill approved Wednesday, the state would receive about $50 million in federal funding for all interstate repairs statewide.
“The dilemma we face is that for the Stevenson alone, we need to let contracts within two months totaling nearly $130 million if we are to meet a two-year reconstruction schedule,” Brown said.
“Congress is hoping to increase funding next year in the budget cycle, and we don’t disagree with that strategy on the surface of it. But we have a short-term horizon on some very pressing issues.”
Other high-priority but currently unfunded projects in the Chicago area include widening the Eisenhower Expressway; alleviating traffic congestion at the “Hillside Strangler” intersection, where the Tri-State Tollway, Eisenhower and East-West Tollway converge; rebuilding Wacker Drive; and addressing $2 billion in urgent capital-improvement needs at the Chicago Transit Authority.
Colleen Corr, spokeswoman for Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.), said the stopgap measure that passed the Transportation Committee was a “necessary evil” that will allow Illinois to pay for its current road contracts. But she said Lipinski advises state planners to hold off on all long-term projects until a multiyear deal is reached.
But a wait of even six months to a year could have a “devastating impact” on motorists and the thousands of laborers in Illinois’ road-building industry, said Bill Grams, executive director of the Illinois Road Builders Association.
Grams said the backlog of projects continues to grow on the state’s 137,000 miles of roads and 25,000 bridges, and he warned:
“The strength of the economy is built on the condition of the infrastructure. Delaying improvements, no matter the reason, will mean the taxpayers will pay more in the long run.”
