In Budget Crises, States Reluctantly Halt Road Projects
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:49 am
LOS ANGELES — With cars whizzing behind him along one of Southern California’s most congested and detested freeways, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned Monday that the state was “on a track toward disaster” as it ceases highway, school and bridge construction because of budget and credit woes.
California, which has suspended nearly $4 billion in public works projects, is one of a half dozen states delaying or halting projects because of capsizing budgets, an inability to attract investors to the municipal bonds used to bankroll many projects and a reduction in gasoline tax revenues — which underlie a lot of transportation financing.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has identified 5,000 transportation projects nationwide that lack the dollars to proceed; many of them, like the $730 million project here to add 10 miles of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to the 405 Freeway — Mr. Schwarzenegger’s backdrop on Monday — have been stopped midstream.
“They just haven’t been able to find the resources,” Tony Dorsey, the spokesman for the association, said of the halted projects.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23 ... &th&emc=th
California, which has suspended nearly $4 billion in public works projects, is one of a half dozen states delaying or halting projects because of capsizing budgets, an inability to attract investors to the municipal bonds used to bankroll many projects and a reduction in gasoline tax revenues — which underlie a lot of transportation financing.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has identified 5,000 transportation projects nationwide that lack the dollars to proceed; many of them, like the $730 million project here to add 10 miles of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to the 405 Freeway — Mr. Schwarzenegger’s backdrop on Monday — have been stopped midstream.
“They just haven’t been able to find the resources,” Tony Dorsey, the spokesman for the association, said of the halted projects.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23 ... &th&emc=th
