In its latest report, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) said funding constraints are hindering the department’s ability to keep up with maintenance issues.
Issued quarterly, the Gray Notebook looks at the work of the WSDOT in the previous quarter and gives an accounting of pavement conditions, transit services, electric vehicle usage, and highway maintenance.
According to the Gray Notebook, the WSDOT’s quarterly performance report, the agency has only been able to meet 77 percent of its maintenance asset condition targets for 2019, the same as in 2018.
“Maintenance funding is not keeping pace with the increased needs associated with system additions from new construction projects, or the inflation-adjusted costs of construction materials and supplies like salt used for snow and ice control,” the department said in a press release.
The lack of funding is forcing the department to abandon some strategies. In 2021, the department will end its asphalt chip seal conversion program, which saved the state more than $160 million since 2010.
The report noted that electric vehicle use is above where Gov. Jay Inslee had hoped they’d be. The department said there were 53,307 plug-in electric vehicles in the state at the end of 2019, well above Gov. Inslee’s goal of 50,000 by 2020. The number represents a 24 percent increase over 2018 and a 222 percent increase over 2015.