5.5. SR 03-24-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

their annual road improvement budgets to maintenance. The annual appropriation committed to maintenance among this sample of cities has been growing at a rate of about 4 percent per year. Spending on construction, meanwhile, has stabilized over the last three years. These trends would suggest that cities are Figure 21 shows the distribution of spending between construction and maintenance during the years 1997 through 2001 for a representative sample of the larger Minnesota cities. The spending trends reported by these cities suggest that larger cities in Minnesota are dedicating slightly more than half of Figure 21: Construction and Maintenance Trends for 32 Cities over 5,000 I1 Total Maintenance (MSA and City Street System) I ] Total Construction / Reconstruction (MSA and City Street System)i $250 ~ $200 ~ ~ $150 '~ $100 I-- $5O $- 1997 1998 1999 ',1 Total Maintenance (MSA and City I $111,463,945 $113,680,899 $118,110,185 [__S!reet S~,tem> .......... !_ _ ~ . ~f~lAC~anndS~;t~t~e/etl~esCyOs;;tmr~Ction! $74,280,258 ! $83,203,789 '-i95:i~',6~0- $93,178,892 Source: 2002 City Road and Bridge Funding Survey committing a greater share of funds to maintenance in order to save money by deferring more substantial construction and reconstruction costs. This conclusion is supported by the narrative explanations provided by cities responding to the survey. Figure 22 shows the same relationShip for cities under 5,000 in population who receive no state assistance through the MSA program. Once again, the general spending trend on total construction and maintenance is slowly increasing, however- unlike the larger cities - construction and reconstruction appears to be the driving force behind the annual budget increases. One reason that reconstruction and construction represents a greater share of the annual budget than maintenance in these smaller cities is that Figure 22: Construction and Maintenance Spending Trends for 108 Cities Under 5,000 ~l[] Construction · Maintenance $25 ._q ~ $20 o $15 $10 $5 1997 1998 1999 il Maintenance $7,249,743i$7,513,867~$7,319,363 Construction $3,412,3601 $~0~'~I-$7,927,197 2000 2001 $7,865,602 $8,947,363 $7,840,401 $10,251,98 Source:2002 City Road and Bridge Funding Survey many of these cities are adding capacity to meet the demands of growing populations, and the additional demands brought on by new housing and economic development. As a result, these cittes have less to apply to regular maintenance activities which may be more costly over the long run. #A-2: Cities have implemented a variety of strategies to address the maintenance funding gap. The 2002 City Road and Bridge Funding Survey specifically asked cities to identify any funding strategies they employ in an effort to maximize the efficiency of their road construction and 24