The District’s road construction fund is projected to run deep in the red within two years, possibly forcing the city to delay or postpone projects unless new sources of revenue are found, a new report finds.
The Highway Trust Fund, a pot used exclusively to match federal road construction grants, faces estimated deficits of $7.8 million in 2011, $14 million in 2012 and $15.5 million in 2013, the D.C. inspector general concluded in an annual review.
Roughly 400 of the District’s 1,100 lane miles, plus its 200 bridges, traffic signals, lighting and safety initiatives, are eligible for federal aid dollars at an 80/20 split, meaning the District must match the federal government’s 80 percent contribution with 20 percent from the Highway Trust Fund. The fund is composed of gas tax, parking, public space rental and right-of-way fee revenue.
Unless the city pinpoints new revenue for the fund, the inspector general reported, the D.C. Department of Transportation will have to modify its construction plans.
“Projects can be eliminated. They can be deferred,” said William DiVello, assistant inspector general for audits. “With the budget tightening up, there will probably be more and more unfunded projects.”
DDOT’s five-year transportation plan comprises 170 projects. Those slated to begin in 2011 or later include rehabilitation of the Key Bridge, repairs to U Street between Ninth and 18th streets, and upgrades to 14th Street Southwest at Maine Avenue.
Projecting the Highway Trust Fund balance has proved difficult.
The inspector general’s 2008 review projected a $3 million deficit for 2010, for example, but now the pot is expected to end slightly positive thanks to a prior-year surplus. The 2008 analysis, however, foresaw a $17 million surplus for the fund in 2012 — $31 million more than what auditors are now contemplating.
Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of DDOT, said he wasn’t worried.
“In the scheme of a $10 billion budget,” he said, “this is not monumental but it needs to be attended to, and we have attended to it.”
The deficits “have a way of working themselves out,” said John Lisle, DDOT spokesman.
“If you got to a point where you had to make choices, then anything new could be pushed back,” Lisle said. “We’re continuing to look at ways to boost revenue, but we’re not concerned about it.”
