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Introduction

Summary

Highway and Bridge Spending Versus Investment Requirements

Transit Capital Spending Versus Investment Requirements

This section starts by comparing the average annual investment requirements identified in Chapter 7 with the 1997 highway and bridge capital spending outlined in Chapter 6. A second analysis compares average annual investment requirements with projected spending for 1998_2003, since highway capital investment is expected to rise sharply during this period, as a result of the higher funding levels under TEA-21.

Previous C&P reports utilized a technique called "ramping" to turn the average annual investment requirement projections into estimates for individual years. The investment requirements required for system preservation were assumed to be approximately the same for each year, while the amount for capacity improvement was assumed to grow at the same rate as average annual growth in highway travel. This technique has been criticized, because the values for individual years that it produces are not consistent with the results of the HERS and BNIP analyses. Investments at the annual levels developed using the ramping technique might not have the effect on conditions and performance that would be expected, since the timing of the investments would be different than those specified by the models. In this report, the "ramping" technique has not been utilized.

One significant change in this report is that the concept of "Reported-Related Capital Outlay" has been eliminated. As discussed in Chapter 7, the investment requirements have been expanded in this report to include all types of highway capital improvements. Therefore, there is no need to make adjustments to the 1997 capital expenditure data when making comparisons, as was done in previous C&P reports.