Laborers Local Union 860

Work on Inner Belt Bridge, other transportation projects could halt if Congress doesn’t act
Published: Monday, August 22, 2011, 10:00 PM
By Tom Breckenridge, The Plain Dealer

The Plain DealerWork on the new Inner Belt Bridge — meant to replace the aging structure, above — faces a potential shutdown if Congress doesn’t act soon on a highway-funding bill.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Construction of the Inner Belt Bridge and other road-and-bridge projects in Ohio could grind to a halt unless Congress extends a highway-funding bill next month, the nation’s former transportation czar says.

Mary Peters, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation under President George W. Bush, issued the unsettling warning to several hundred public and private sector leaders at Monday’s annual meeting of Build Up Greater Cleveland.

The group focuses on infrastructure — bridges, roads, utilities and waterways — as a key to the region’s growth.

Peters said the billions of dollars being invested locally, from the $284 million Inner Belt Bridge to the new medical mart and convention center, are “truly impressive” given how the Great Recession has hobbled development elsewhere.
But projects to upgrade highways here and nationwide could face a money crunch, unless the U.S. House and Senate agree to extend the bill that authorizes an 18.4 cents-a-gallon gas tax, Peters said.

The tax generates billions of dollars yearly to help fund projects like the Inner Belt Bridge, Peters said.
The highway-funding bill expires at the end of September. While most observers believe the bill’s authority will be extended, Peters pointed to the legislative battles that produced a funding impasse at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA was in partial shutdown for two weeks before Congress agreed to extend funding. The shutdown idled thousands of federal workers and tens of thousands of laborers at airport construction projects.

Peters said she worries because Congress has only 11 working days in September.
“Congress has to reauthorize and re-institute the taxing features (of the bill) and I just hope that doesn’t cause the program to be held hostage,” she said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, recently proposed a four-month extension of the bill.
Not surprisingly, Democrats and Republicans disagree on longer-term answers to funding transportation.

President Barack Obama is pitching a two-year, $109 billion bill that would need $12 billion from sources other than federal gas taxes.

House Republicans have proposed a six-year, $230 billion bill that would cut current funding levels by about one-third. It would rely only on money generated by federal gas taxes.
Officials at ODOT, which manages the Inner Belt Bridge project and many others, acknowledged they are watching Washington closely.

“We are obviously aware of … the various proposals being debated,” spokeswoman Melissa Ayers said in an email Monday. “It’s still too early to tell what the final outcome will be. ODOT will prepare program contingencies for all possible funding scenarios.”
U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, a Republican from Bainbridge Township, said transportation funding is an economic driver.

“We can’t allow a repeat of the FAA, where workers were furloughed and projects were halted while we waited for the Senate to pass an extension,’ ” LaTourette said in an email.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon, is “extremely concerned about any interruption of highway projects in Northeast Ohio, if an extension isn’t passed next month,” said spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak.

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