Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire So they want to raise the gas tax to fix our roads . . .

20 year roads built with 30 year bonds. Or 50 year toll roads. I bet there is a lot of under the table money passing around.

The toll roads here are prohibitively expensive to use, registrations are way high. Except for the having to be tracked, a ton mile tax would work, as much as I hate myself for saying it.

JMR40 and JGray, hit it on the nose for the most part. Projecting needed highway infrastructure 20 years down the road (n0 pun intended) isn't allways a 20/20 foresight either. Areas get unexpected developement and need corresponding transportation expansion from that. A lot of road and bridge projects simply result from mandated federal regulations. We target a 20 year lifespan on all the asphalt projects in South Dakota. If you have a good structural subgrade and basecourse materials compacted to design requirements that are supported by proper drainage, road beds last well until other factors like overloaded trucks on hot days and simply higher traffic counts than it was designed for come into play. Every year better methods and materials are developed to give superior performance and longevity, at SDDOT we use them in our roads construction and maintenace programs. Low bid deal is a state law, but the desired materials and methods are allready written into the project bid and when the contractors fail to perform or meet specs they get bit in the pocket book. No system is perfect. I am posting this on a motel computer in Ft Pierre, SD instead of home, I'm here to attend a re -certification class for "Asphalt roadway inspection training". Most of the construction workers on the jobs I work on get paid better than the state inspectors on the job get, To make sure the public gets what they pay for. The Dept of Labor in SD makes damn sure our construction workers are not cheated out of their wages. The public tells us what they want out of the DOT and smooth roads with fast snow removal are right on top with high spd limits real close behind that. Not only that but they want it yesterday or years ago. Our FHWA efficiency rate for how we manage our goals for our roads are very high for the dollars spent. no rant here but it's obvious to me some here don't understand how their DOT's work. Magnum Man

guess I need to get out more,

but when I'm driving outside, from the midwest to the west coast we always marvel at how the roads are like a billiard table compared to what we have up here.


is it more an east coast thing, the bad roads?

The king is already on this, no worries boys.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/247227101.html

Federal Highways after Obama and the democrats get done with their new expenditures... based on their usual results under his administration...



The Obama Turnpike... $2.50 a mile toll..

Raise taxes=more to waste

I think every elected officials should have their books available online for everyone to see 24 hours a day. Every last check. Their expense reports. ALL comps and benefits afforded them. It would make it much easier on the voters come time....

W

This is a political lie, no matter who makes it.
Oz brought in a 3+3 (3 cents per litre for 3 years) to fix the roads.

After 30 years, the tax is still there, the roads were never fixed and the catchy marketing name has been dropped.

Every time. When they catch people in government involved in this crap they need to try them for treason.



No law that is written to raise or add new taxes should ever be put into law without a sunset clause.

Something non-industry folks usually don't know -- oil company profits are usually (at a minimum) matched 1:1 with taxes paid to host governments. Exxon's 3-year running global average is 3:1 tax:profit.

.GOV wants more?

Sheesh

Gas tax is paid at the pump per gallon of gasoline.

FED is raising CAFE standards for all vehicles. Higher MPG means less gas consumed, but same number of vehicles are on the roads every day. Less gas purchased means less $$ available to fix or build roads.

And no, the contractors aren't building the roads with cheaper materials. All State DOT's have to follow Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regs and issue standard specifications for all state work on state highways and federal interstates.

Local municipalities typically use DOT standards for their road construction also.

Problem is, we don't build our roads to last 50 years. We build them to last 20 years and then don't have money to rebuild them for 40 years...