Highway bill reauthorization delay has slowed projects, perpetuating bad road conditions in U.S.

Looks like we’re already seeing the effects of Congress’ failure to pass legislation reauthorizing SAFETEA-LU.

States are reticient to put out jobs for bid because they don’t know when or whether they’ll have the funding. Oklahoma is one such state. On Monday, State Transportation Department Director Gary Ridley told the state’s Transportation Commission that fewer projects will be put out for bids because the state is unsure of how much federal money is available, The Oklahoman’s online site, NewsOK, reported.

Drainage improvements in Osage County and several interstate safety projects are some of the construction projects that will not be contracted in November, because of Congress’ failure to act on legislation last week, Ridley said in the report.

The surface transportation bill expired Sept. 30, and to date, we haven’t had any resolution. Although, the House passed a one-month extension, we have no official resolution to this problem.

But it’s not like we haven’t know about it, either. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t turn into another nightmare of 12 months throughout a 2-year period.

Continuing to drag out the reauthorization is just going to hurt our economy more and perpetuate the poor and worsening conditions of our nation’s highways, roads and bridges.