UA Research Aims to Take Pork Out of Road Work

Research now being done at The University of Alabama will go a long way toward taking the politics out of budgeting monies to roadwork projects.

Dr. Jay Sterling, senior research scholar in the Center for Business & Economic Research, is teaming with Dr. David Hale, who heads the UA management information systems program, to develop computerized operating systems that will enable the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to modify its accounting techniques, as well as determine the actual net cost and current value of the state’s transportation infrastructure.

“Until last October,” Sterling said, “no one knew the cumulative amount that had been spent on any given road or bridge. But now, under GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) Regulation 34, each state is required to maintain a history of its investments in bridges, highways and right-of-ways, including maintenance and capital improvement expenditures. We went back to 1914 (the first year that states were required to report annual expenditures on highways to the Federal Government), factored in inflation to obtain current market values, then depreciated cumulative expenditures for each state-managed highway, bridge and rights of way to derive current book values.”

Sterling also noted that the new GASB 34 requirements, and the management information systems being developed by the University, will transform the method ALDOT currently uses to forecast maintenance expenditures and new construction planning needs each year. The new systems will allow ALDOT to objectively set priorities when assigning funds to infrastructure investments, modifications and maintenance, based on random samples of highway sections and bridges using a comprehensive evaluation scoring system.

The research is being completed in two phases: Phase One involving highways for $250,500 was completed in March 2002; and, Phase Two involving bridges for $362,000 will be completed in the fall of 2002.