Many municipal leaders across New York State agree that local infrastructure is crumbling in terms of road paving, bridges and drainage repair, and some groups in the state are looking for a way to fund infrastructure projects to repair the roads citizens use on a daily basis.
On March 3, Robert Cushing, highway superintendent for the town of Manlius, joined about 600 other highway superintendents and officials from around the state to take part in a “march on Albany” to bring the attention of infrastructure funding needs in municipalities to lawmakers.
The New York State County Highway Superintendent Association (NYSCHSA) and New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highway (CNYSAOTSOH) are asking for the establishment of a multi-year $500 million state aid program to be taken from a $5.4 billion windfall that came from a lawsuit settlement from foreign banks and was paid to the New York State attorney general.
The NYSCHSA states on their website, “local roads and bridges account for 87 percent of the roads, 52 percent of the bridges and 48 percent of the vehicle mileage logged in New York State … Local roads matter to every New Yorker — they generate jobs and support employment, they enable us to travel to work, school, doctor offices, airports, dinner and ballgames; for truckers to deliver goods and tourists to visit our cities. Local roads are crucial to New York’s mobility and matter to all of us.”
On March 4, Manlius Town Supervisor Ed Theobald took the opportunity to address his concerns of town infrastructure needs at the Senate Finance Committee in Albany. Theobald was asked by the New York State Association of Towns Executive Director Gerry Giest to speak at the event, where he addressed problems the town of Manlius sees in financing their infrastructure projects.
According to Theobald, the town of Manlius has 109 miles of road to maintain. The state recommends towns stay on a 12-year rebuild schedule. The current budget the town of Manlius has set aside for road paving projects in the summer is nearly $1 million, and the average cost per mile of paving roads is roughly $220,000. At this rate, it would take the town of Manlius about 24 years to completely rebuild their 107 miles of road, said Theobald.
“It’s not just roads and bridge infrastructure that we deal with,” Theobald said in his speech. “Our highway department estimates that more than two-thirds of calls to them are concerns pertaining to water and drainage. Our budget for drainage problems has been around $40,000 per year … but is nowhere near enough to rebuild these sections with deteriorating pipes.”
Often, when roads become cracked or have large potholes, they are temporarily repaired with oil, stone and seals, but these will only last a few years until full repair can be done, said Cushing.
“It’s much more cost-effective to repair many of these roads with paving in the first place, but that’s not always an option,” Cushing said.
Although finding funding for infrastructure projects is something many municipalities across the state are pursuing, Theobald believes the town of Manlius is able to keep their roads in decent condition.
“I think our highway department and the villages’ [Manlius, Fayetteville and Minoa] Departments of Public Works work very well together to keep our roads in good shape,” Theobald said. “But we can’t just keep patching up all of our potholes and cracks, we need to repair the road properly.”
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
