(The Center Square) – Maine’s roadways, bridges and dams received mediocre grades in a new report, which suggests the state has made some progress on infrastructure upgrades following a historic surge of federal funding.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2024 report card gave the state a “C” grade for the overall state of its infrastructure, which increased from the “C-” the state has received from the industry group for the past 16 years.
Maine was graded based on 16 infrastructure categories, ranging from the condition of its roads and schools to the quality of its drinking water. The state got “D+” grades for the condition of 672 dams and 2,521 bridges, according to the report. The state’s roadways received a “C-” grade in the report. The highest grade was a “B” for Maine’s airports, the report said.
The group gave Maine “C” grades for its drinking water and stormwater, energy, hazardous waste disposal, public parks and solid waste programs.
The report recommends that the state take steps to improve its rankings such as prioritizing public safety, focusing on building more climate change resilient infrastructure, increasing utility rates and user fees to cover the costs of projects, and move away from one-time funding to more “sustainable” sources of revenue to pay for upgrades.
“A continued reliance on federal grants, nonindexed user fees, and one-time increases in funding is not sustainable,” the report’s authors wrote. “Infrastructure projects require extensive time to plan, design and permit.”
The state is slated to get a windfall of federal funding from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 to help fix crumbling highways and bridges, improve public transit and expand broadband access.
Maine stands to get more than $2.3 billion from the spending bill over the next five years, including at least $1.3 billion for road upgrades and $225 million for bridge repairs, according to a breakdown provided by the White House.
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But the report’s authors suggested that the record levels of federal funding isn’t enough to fix the state’s myriad infrastructure needs, especially when it comes to upgrading roads, dams and bridges.
“Historic funding levels have been insufficient to replace bridges before they exceed their design life and nearly one out of every seven Maine bridges (15%) is in poor condition,” the report’s authors wrote. “The benefits of this additional investment won’t be fully realized for several years considering the time required to advance projects from funding implementation to construction completion.”