Crisis presents an ‘opportunity’

Crisis presents an ‘opportunity’

All across the state, local com- munities were getting bad news from the Ohio Department of Transportation last week: There’s no money for the road construction projects you’ve been anticipating.

The biggest project locally to be put on the back burner — way, way on the back burner — was the $100.5 million addition of a third lane to Interstate 80 between I-680 and Belmont Avenue. Preliminary engineering work was slated for 2013. Steve Faulkner, an ODOT spokesman, says that under the revised calendar, that project has been pushed back roughly a quarter of a century. Maybe in 2036, Faulkner suggested.

Some of the problem is that previous administrations raised unrealistic expectations about how much money was available for projects.

The funding source

Some of it is the fact that ODOT is funded with state and federal gasoline and diesel taxes, and revenues have been shrinking. Fuel taxes are set amounts, so no matter how much a gallon of gas increases in price, the tax revenue stays the same. And as motorists turn to more fuel efficient cars or drive less in response to rising gas prices, road tax revenue goes down.

ODOT Director Jerry Wray warned nearly a year ago that the construction calendar had to be brought “back into balance.” So much of what was announced last week about projects being delayed wasn’t a surprise to those who had been paying attention.

And here’s something else that won’t come as a surprise: Someday in the not-too-distant future Gov. John Kasich will get the results of a study being done on the feasibility of leasing the Ohio Turnpike to a private investor. Our prediction: Not only will it be found to be “feasible,” but the proceeds of that sale, Ohioans will be told, would allow the state to put those delayed projects on a new fast track.