WMUR Highlights Highway Needs
November 14th, 2008
New Hampshire’s WMUR TV ran the story “As Motorists Drive Less, Highway Budgets Suffer” on Sunday, November 9th. The idea for this story came from Safer Roads’ DVD “A Safer Road to a Sound Future” that was sent to WMUR to inform them about the condition of the state’s infrastructure. Not long after they received it, WMUR’s Sean McDonald interviewed AGC’s Gary Abbott, a partner of the Safer Roads coalition.
During his interview, Gary explained to McDonald about the recent inflation of construction costs for materials necessary to maintain our roads and bridges and the shortfall in the revenue needed to fund their maintenance. There has been a 15 percent increase in costs in the past 12 months, as opposed to an average increase of 12.6 percent in the 4 previous years. Meanwhile, gas tax revenue has remained flat over the last 3 years, as compared to an average 2 percent growth in the prior 10 years ending in 2005. And while gas prices are going up, gas consumption is going down.
The story that WMUR ran emphasized the poor condition of New Hampshire’s transportation network. McDonald used road and bridge footage from the Safer Roads DVD and statistics from his interview with Gary, as well as interview snippets with Gary and with DOT Commissioner George Campbell. The Commissioner stated that “we’re spending $100,000 a day more than we’re taking in for income. Since May 1, our traffic volume is down 7.9 percent. . . which means the state will likely get $8 million less in revenue next fiscal year.”
The 4-minute story very clearly showed crumbling bridges and poorly maintained and congested roads. Those images were paired with statistics reflecting insufficient income and increasing outlays, and a grim prognosis for the state’s infrastructure if the levels of income and need continue to diverge.
If you would like to view the WMUR video, follow this link: http://www.wmur.com/video/17933966/index.html.
You may find the article that ran with the video at http://www.wmur.com/news/17933190/detail.html.
