Think the roads in Onondaga County are terrible? Well, they’re actually no better throughout the rest of the state. Just about half of the county’s roads are rated either poor or in need of some repair or reconstruction, according to transportation research group TRIP. Statewide that number is 47-percent, with only 44-percent of roads in good or excellent condition. According to TRIP, the general goal for state and local organizations which maintain road conditions is to have 75-percent of roads in at least good condition.
Their report also estimates the county falls 6 million dollars short of funding necessary maintenance…and twice that much to really repair everything that’s faulty. TRIP’s Rocky Moretti points out, putting off repairs costs taxpayers.
"Doing simple improvements when they need to be made saves you a lot of money in the long run. What we've found is that deferred maintenance today costs you about 5 dollars in the future. It's like that old advertisement, "You pay me now, or you pay me later." Unfortunately, when you pay later, it's four or five times a s much."
But what can be done? Moretti pointed toward Congress, which has continually stalled to get a transportation bill passed.
"A long term well-funded federal program would be very helpful because a lot of that money would trickle down to the local area. What would be helpful would be putting in place a long term, let's say a 5-year capital program, with the types of funding in place that would really be very critical in helping local governments address some of their road and bridge problems."
Of the roads the county maintains, 49-percent of the roads the county maintains need some work; county bridges fared better, with 29-percent faulty but only one in poor quality. Moretti adds spending money on repairing roads and bridges would create jobs and would be attractive for businesses. Plus, people would spend a lot less on repairing their cars.
