Tennessee now has about $58 billion in road construction projects waiting to be funded, and no longterm strategy to fund them, state transportation officials say.
Tennessee is one of the few states that uses a pay-as-you-go system for funding road projects, taking on no debt. But Transportation Commissioner Will Reid says that the state’s zero-debt system has not been able to keep up with a deluge of road needs as Tennessee sees rapid growth.
“It’s kind of like the boy at the dike that’s got cracks in it. We used to be sticking fingers and toes wherever we could stop the leaking,” Reid said. “Well, the reality is, unless you fix the dam, you’re eventually going to run out of fingers and toes.”…