Transportation planners are facing a grim road.
Over the past six years, Marion County Road Commissioner John Graham has watched his costs for materials such as rock and asphalt balloon by 149 percent, while his revenues shrank 5 percent.
The constraints have tied his hands when it comes to regular road maintenance, let alone improvements, Graham said.
“We’re at a crisis here,” he said during a panel discussion held Friday at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. But it’s the same for other governments, too, he said.
“We’re at the tip of the spear, but the spear is going to impale everybody,” he said. “By the time the general public realizes what’s been going on with their roads system, by the time those roads have come apart … it’s going to be too late.”
FAST FACTS* TDOT budget: $1.7 million* Allocation for public transportation: About $50 millionSource: Tom Dugan, CARTACost to pave one mile of asphalt road in Marion County, not including labor:* In 2004: $25,000* In 2010: $66,000Source: John Graham, Marion County Road SuperintendentPOPULATION DENSITIESIn ranking 455 U.S. urbanized areas from most dense to least dense, Chattanooga ranked 435.People per square mile:* Chattanooga: 1,184* Memphis: 2,431* Portland, Ore.: 3,340* Los Angeles: 7,000* London: 11,000** Hong Kong: 77,900** Not included in U.S. ranking
Three panel discussions Friday, all moderated by state Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, gave voice to local transportation planners, land conservationists, public transit advocates, the road builders association and others working to develop the future of transportation in Tennessee.
Economic development and job growth are tied to transportation, panelists agreed.
But facing less revenue and ever-increasing demands, transportation planners are trying to bring together sometimes contentious players, including those who want more and wider roads to relieve traffic and congestion and those advocating public transit options to lessen dependence on automobiles.
In 2008, 82.7 percent of Tennesseans in a census survey reported driving to work alone. That contributes to traffic and pollution, Ochs Center Executive Director David Eichenthal said.
Only Alabama had a higher number of solo commuters, he said.
“The current approach is unsustainable environmentally,” he said.
But Kent Starwalt, executive vice president of the Tennessee Road Builders Association, chafed at the idea of limiting driver choice.
“The reason most people drive alone is because they want to,” he said.
He later pointed out that interstate access to the Enterprise South industrial park was critical in Volkswagen’s decision to build an auto assembly plant in Chattanooga.
Eichenthal countered roads and automobile use get a disproportionate share of funding, which discourages efficient public transit alternatives and minimizes choice.
Although the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota in 2007 spotlighted the nation’s aging infrastructure, adequate funding hasn’t followed, said state Rep. Bill Harmon, D-Dunlap.
“This state and this country [are] digging themselves into a hole on infrastructure,” he said.
Relatively low population densities in Tennessee cities and meager transit funding make public transit a challenge, said CARTA Executive Director Tom Dugan.
“Americans like their space, and space and low density is an absolute killer for public transportation services,” Dugan said.
In Chattanooga, per capita investment for public transportation is the lowest in the U.S. for cities its size, he said.
But despite thousands of new workers moving into the Volkswagen plant, “neither local government nor Volkswagen could care less about putting public transportation in that area. That’s where it could have an impact,” Dugan said.
A high-speed rail system has been proposed between Atlanta and Chattanooga and eventually could connect Chicago to Savannah, Ga., said Joe Ferguson, director of special projects at the Enterprise Center.
Contact Emily Bregel at ebregel@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6467.