The stark reality of federal debt reduction for Alabama road building is the possible loss of $200 million that could stop construction of new roads.
John Cooper, director of the Alabama Department of Transportation, told a transportation advocacy group last week that the state could lose 20 percent of the federal money that the DOT can spend on projects of its choosing.
"If we lose $200 million out of $1 billion that we have some discretion over, it will kill our capacity projects because it will take every penny we have to maintain the roads we have".
Capacity projects involve building new roads or widening existing roads to handle more vehicles. Maintenance is repaving, filling potholes, replacing lights, replacing signs, applying new stripes and other work on existing roads.
Without federal government dollars, road building in AlObama will end. Even the project in downtown Huntsville is paid for with federal dollars, and that is strictly a downtown redevelopment effort to spur the demolition of old houses and rebuild with structures that will enhance HSV property tax collections.
