ODOT: Price of Road Projects on the Rise

FOX 25-OKC

With the price of everything rising across the board some road projects through out the country are being postponed while others are being scaled back.

According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation the cost of road projects is going up by 20% to 30% and it’s wiping out the value of the one trillion dollar infrastructure plan President Joe Biden signed into law just seven months ago.

States like Wyoming have already delayed some road projects due to rising costs.

“We are starting to see an impact on our project bids from contractors were seeing some pricing go up in several key indicators such as oil asphalt concrete,” said Lisa Shearer-Salim, Spokeswoman – Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

ODOT says although prices have gone up they’re still full steam ahead.

“At this point we are able to not delay any projects yet and we’re hoping to not delay any at all this year. Now that doesn’t mean there wont be impacts in future years of the plan depending on how long this goes and what prices continue to look like,” said Shearer-Salim.

And ODOT has big plans for the future from the very big to very small

Including projects on I-240 and I-35.

Adding shoulders, working on bridges and updating overpasses

“In our current 8 year plan there’s more than 1,600 projects scheduled through the next 8 years and that’s an 8 billion dollar plan that’s an 8 billion dollar investment in the state of Oklahoma’s largest physical asset,” said Shearer-Salim.

And if projects do get delayed they have a plan in place.

“If we do end up delaying projects in future years that means we will turn around and spend more dollars on our maintenance area because you still have to maintain a safe driving surface no matter when projects are taking place,” said Shearer-Salim.

The hikes are being driven by a variety of factors including worldwide supply-chain backlogs, strong consumer and business spending in the U.S. and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.