State needs $10.2B for roads over 20 years
The state needs to spend $10.2 billion on its highways and roads in the next 20 years. And with inflation, those needs could reach $14.6 billion, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
But, unlike previous years, the state is doing better on its highway funding outlook.
The Build Nebraska Act (LB84), which passed in 2011 and became effective last year, set aside a quarter-cent of the state’s 5.5-cents sales tax for highway improvement. And it’s expected to raise about $70 million a year for 20 years. The state’s share of that would be about $61 million annually.
About 65 percent of the billions in needs is for restoring pavement, at a cost of $6.6 billion, and nearly a third — $3.1 billion — is for rural highway reconfiguration and bridges. Reconfiguration would add lanes, straighten roads or convert intersections into interchanges, for example.
Railroad crossings will need about $179.6 million in future years.
The 20-year plan includes widening of Interstate 80 to six lanes west of Lincoln to York and eventually to Grand Island, the department’s report said.
Urban needs include widening or reconstructing state highways that extend through corporate limits of cities with at least 5,000 residents.
The $10.2 billion doesn’t include overhead, routine maintenance or administration and support services.
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