Local Rural Roads and Bridges: Current and Future Problems and Alternatives

The existing county road and bridge system was basically designed and developed during the 1930s and 1940s to accommodate the small motor vehicles of that era. Today, the traffic moving on this system is substantially larger, wider, and heavier than the traffic for which the system was designed. The condition of the county road and bridge system is deteriorating rapidly in all sections of the United States with the possible exception of the Western states. The most serious problems are in Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, and West Virginia. This paper identifies several alternative policies to deal with the problem of inadequate funds to rebuild and maintain all the existing county roads and bridges to handle the levels and types of traffic moving on the system. (Author)