Highway Construction Effected By High Oil Prices

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Story Published: Apr 21, 2008 at 5:31 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 6:44 PM MST

By Anthony Congi

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It's just about the time when we'll all have to leave for work a little earlier when the road construction through town takes place. But due to a lack of funding in our highways systems, we should be thankful that any of them are getting done at all.
Starting in just a couple weeks, close to thirty different road construction projects will be taking place in eastern Idaho. here in Idaho Falls, the projects range from replacing the railroad ties at the Broadway street crossing, to seal coating more than a mile and a half of road from Sunnyside to Yellowstone highway.
There will also be major highway construction jobs such as replacing the southbound deck of the Idaho canal bridge on highway twenty and repaving seven miles of road from Rigby to Bear World.
But there are still several roadways and highways which need repair that the I.T.D. won't be able to get to due to a lack of funding. Mix that in with the soaring costs of construction and products such as steel and concrete, and you have a major problem.

Bruce King, ID Transportation Dept.: "It's making it difficult to do all the projects that are necessary to maintain the state highway system. We do all we can, we wish we could do more, but we're doing what we can".
To make matters worse, oil is now at one hundred-seventeen dollars a barrel. And since asphalt is a petroleum byproduct, the cost of asphalt has also soared.

King: "Given that it's an oil derivative, asphalt has gone out of this world in cost and it makes it very difficult to have enough funding to buy all the asphalt necessary to pave all the roads that need to be paved."
The state of Idaho has fallen more than two hundred million dollars a year in the amount needed to maintain the highway systems. And right now, it looks like the problem will only get worse until oil and construction prices steady. For more information about road and highway construction, go to the news link section of our website.

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