A new interactive guide from the Local Road Research Board (LRRB) will help local agencies evaluate their transportation network preservation needs, communicate these needs to elected officials and the public, and select and implement strategies to address funding gaps.
To alleviate shortfalls in maintenance funding, some local governments have considered unpaving roads. This strategy, however, is likely to be unpopular except as a last resort. The LRRB wanted to provide tools that would help local governments evaluate the full range of strategies available.
The guide and tools developed in this project are based in part on the experiences of five Minnesota counties: Anoka, Dakota, Freeborn, Otter Tail, and Stearns. The interactive guide provides links to supporting documentation, including tools for collecting revenue and expenditure data, resources for assessing a county’s current maintenance practices, sample reports, case studies, and sample communications campaigns.
After using the process presented in the guide, all five pilot counties successfully built consensus among the public and their elected officials to implement either a sales tax or wheelage tax to increase transportation funding. Each county also selected other strategies to address funding shortfalls based on specific needs and situations.
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