Stung by delays in long term reauthorization of the federal
Highway Trust Fund, Ohio transportation officials are considering privatizing
certain road maintenance tasks as a way of saving precious construction dollars
in state transportation budgets, and also looking to sell naming rights for
roads and bridges, and commercial developments at rest stops, as revenue
raising measures. Ohio DOT Director Jerry Wray said in a speech to a gathering
of ODOT employees, contractors, legislators and local officials: “We cannot
wait for Washington to send more money. We have to focus on what we control and
what we can change now in Ohio.”
Deputy Director Jim Riley, hired to spearhead a new division that
will manage privatization efforts, proposes handing “fence to fence”
responsibility for snow plowing, pothole
repair, dead animal removal, lane marker painting, salting, and resurfacing to
private contractors on I-270 and a 100 mile stretch of I-71 between Columbus
and Cincinnati. ODOT currently spends $8.3 million annually on these tasks.
Payroll reductions through attrition should avoid layoffs of ODOT workers when
a private contractor takes over this responsibility, Riley said.
Though there is no specific predicted cost savings to the
state from the proposed privatization, ODOT annually spends $5,253.00 per lane
mile of paved state, federal and Interstate highways within its borders.
Officials hope maintenance privatization, combined with new revenue raisers
from private naming rights and rest area concessions, can offset current
reductions and delays in federal funding, and permit the state to pursue its
$1.6 billion in planned new construction projects.
