Agenda Packets - 2023/03/03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Oregon has been a leader in cost -based road taxation since it adopted the gasoline tax as a primary source of road funding in 1919, and the current system of road finance is based squarely on the principle that those responsible should pay for costs incurred. • The costs of road construction and maintenance depend to some extent on different factors. Road construction at even the most basic level requires land for right-of-way, design and engineering, and construction to some minimal standard. Construction beyond the minimum standard will be determined by the type of traffic which the road is expected to bear. If a road will carry only small, light -weight vehicles, it can be built to lower standards than one which must carry large and/or heavy vehicles. The incremental cost [of road construction and maintenance] of accommodating larger and heavier vehicles is correctly attributed to these vehicles while the basic cost is associated with all vehicles. • While roads will deteriorate if simply left unused, most deterioration is associated with use; and the damage caused by vehicles goes up much more than proportionately with size and weight. Hence, costs associated with maintenance are greater for trips made by heavy vehicles. A single large truck can cause as much damage as thousands of automobiles, and the configuration of the truck can affect the amount of damage as well. If the load is spread over more axles, so there is less weight on each wheel, then the damage is reduced. • The Oregon system attempts to allocate both the cost of new construction and the cost of maintenance to those who generate the cost requirement. Thus, relatively more of the cost of new capacity is assigned to automobiles, while trucks pay a larger share of the cost of road maintenance. It is important that the weight -mile tax rates give appropriate price signals to truckers. The taxes are set based on the weight of the truck, and for larger trucks, the number of axles is also taken into account. Municipal Waste Collection Since the topic of the effect of heavy vehicles on local roadways is gaining importance and interest with respect to the loading imparted by numerous waste removal trucks on the pavement, several studies have been conducted for various municipalities in the Minneapolis -St. Paul metro area as well as others across the nation. In addition, this application is somewhat unique within the analysis methods, and so additional literature review and commentary is included in this section, which describes the findings of several of these studies and provides commentary where applicable. City of Falcon Heights, 2004 (11) • Quoted a Roseville study as saying "limiting the number of garbage trucks... to only one hauler could extend the usefulness of the street 5 to 10 years" • Quoted Carver County Environmental Dispatch, 1994, saying "There are many benefits to organized garbage hauling including... Lower street repair costs to the city." • Quoted UMTRI study that "starting and stopping" will increase damage "depending on the speed of the truck and the axle weight of the load". Trucks with longer distances between stops will be going faster when they stop.