Online Meetings Recap
Online Meeting 1:
December 2024 - January 2025
Key Topics:
- Introduction to long range transportation planning
- Transportation trends and drivers
- Plan goals
Online Meeting 2:
July - August 2025
Key Topics:
- WYDOT funding
- WYDOT budget
- Cost of investing in transportation improvements
- Funding challenges and how to address the funding gap
Online Meeting 3:
September - October 2026
Key Topics:
- Benefits of transportation funding
- Scenario planning
- Economic impact of transportation
Transportation Funding
The transportation system requires consistent upkeep, maintenance, and improvements in order to remain in an acceptable operating condition. When the system has unfunded transportation needs, it leads to impacts that are felt by everyone on the road. A well-funded transportation system brings benefits to residents, businesses, and visitors using Wyoming’s roads.
Click each comic to reveal how each situation could change with transportation investment.
Click to enlarge.
Adding shoulders improves the traveling experience for all users.
Increasing funding results in lower user costs for individuals.
Funding supports tourism, the mineral industry, agriculture, and Wyoming’s overall economy.
When we invest in Wyoming’s transportation system, drivers realize cost savings along with additional user benefits, including:
Safety projects, which result in fewer crashes.
Improved road and bridge conditions, reducing maintenance, repair, and fuel costs for vehicles.
More transportation assets kept in good condition, which means they will be more reliable and minimize delays.
Scenario Planning
What is Scenario Planning?
Scenario planning is a tool to identify and explore potential futures. It enables transportation decision-makers to consider policies and strategies by:
- Defining future objectives.
- Considering the impacts and responses of those options.
The LRTP uses scenario planning to investigate different funding scenarios that are possible for WYDOT. The scenario planning exercise informs how different levels of funding could impact the transportation system’s performance in years to come. The results are described in terms of user benefits/disbenefits and broad impacts to the statewide economy.
Three Analysis Scenarios
Deterioration
A scenario with no changes to the funding, and due to diminishing buying power, the transportation system deteriorates. To meet federal standards for pavement and bridge performance, the highest priority is assigned to National Highway System (NHS) routes that typically carry higher traffic volumes.
Maintenance
A scenario where projects are prioritized based on need. Funding levels are increased to also maintain pavement and bridges on state non-NHS routes that typically carry lower traffic volumes.
Improvement
A scenario with increased funding levels that allows for full (or near-full) implementation of state NHS and non-NHS surface transportation projects. In addition to pavement reconstruction and bridge replacements, this scenario includes safety projects and additional passing lanes.
These three scenarios represent different funding levels and their impacts on Wyoming's transportation system.
Cost Benefit to Users
Cost benefits to users are actual savings realized through benefits due to improvements to the transportation system. Some of these savings are due to:
- Reduced maintenance, repair, and fuel costs for vehicles.
- Minimized detour and construction delays.
- Fewer crashes.
Investing in the transportation system grows the state’s economy by supporting workforce development, which circulates money throughout Wyoming.
Economic Benefits
A vibrant transportation system supports economic benefits for Wyoming’s Big 3 industries:
Mineral
Tourism
Agriculture
Transportation System Condition
In recent years, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) has maintained its pavement and bridges through an aggressive preservation-first strategy. However, this has come at a cost, namely deferred replacement costs. Bridges designed for 75 years are now scheduled to remain in service for more than 300 years, and pavement funding remains substantially below the investment required to sustain current conditions. Without additional funding, deterioration will accelerate, replacement backlogs will increase, and future rehabilitation costs will grow.
To forecast future pavement and bridge conditions, WYDOT uses asset management systems, historical condition data, deterioration models, life-cycle cost analysis, and assumed future funding levels. The objective is to determine if asset performance targets can be maintained.
Over the last decade, WYDOT has juggled its resources to generally maintain the condition of its bridges and highways. But in the near future, the portion of its assets in good condition will decline, and the portion of bridges and pavement in fair and poor condition will increase.
Bridge Condition (Total System)
Pavement Condition (Total System)
Funding the Transportation Vision
Closing the funding gap doesn’t have a one-size-fits all solution, nor will it happen overnight. Increasing the fuel tax rate and registration fees are options that come up often. The table below shows how those options pencil out:
Increase Fuel Tax Rate by 1-cent per gallon
OR
Increase Annual Vehicle Registration Fees by $4.91 per vehicle
$ Added to WYDOT Budget
$4.8 million
Revenues from fuel taxes and registration fees are dependent on consumer behavior (e.g. fuel consumption, gas mileage, vehicle purchases and registrations) and will vary from year to year. The numbers shown are estimated based on historical revenues and consumer behavior and rounded to the nearest cent (tax/fee) or hundred thousand dollar (revenue).
GRANT FUNDING: The additional $4.8 million could potentially be leveraged with outside grant funding to perform up to $28.8 million worth of projects.
Implementation of the Plan
We have spent the last 28 months developing a comprehensive, informed, and reflective plan for the state of Wyoming. The final plan will include goals and strategies that will guide transportation investment decisions over the next 20 years.
This plan is the first step to implement future projects that will improve the transportation system in our state.
- The plan will support national, state and regional performance goals and make progress toward achieving targets
- The Wyoming Coordinated Transit Plan, The Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan, the Statewide Freight Assessment, the Statewide Rail Plan, the Transportation Asset Management Plan and the Strategic Highway Safety Plan all inform and guide investment decisions for the Wyoming Long Range Transportation Plan and the Metropolitan Planning Organization Plans.
- The Project evaluation and selection process allocate funds for construction to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, the Highway Safety Improvement Program and the Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Improvement Programs
Improvement Project Types
With additional funding comes the ability to complete more projects.
Pavement
Reconstruct pavement that is past its useful life.
Bridges
Replace bridges that are past their life expectancy.
Wildlife Crossings
Construct more wildlife crossings to reduce the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions.
Traffic
Add passing lanes on hills so cars can pass slower vehicles and maintain travel speeds.
Safety
Increase shoulder width on two-lane roads to create emergency pull-off areas.
