EDMORE, N.D. – Rail deregulation has become a multi-million dollar headache for North Dakota’s rural governments.
Just ask Bryan Hoime, secretary of the North Dakota Township Association and a resident of this community in the northeast corner of the state, near the Manitoba border.
He is on a rail line that was out of commission through the summer because of flooding.
He lives in a part of the state that has seen a marked increase in grain truck traffic in recent years.
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He hears reports from across the state about the pounding rural roads have taken in the past 15 years of closing elevators, abandoned rail branch lines, increased truck hauls and limited budgets.
“It is a combination of things now but the bottom line is that a lot of roads are getting hurt,” he said. “We are facing huge bills to keep them up.”
Across the state, it is estimated that maintenance costs for the more than 70,000 kilometres of road under township control will soar into the tens of millions of dollars in the years ahead.
“It is usually the biggest item in the township budget,” he said. “Everyone is concerned about it. Most of what townships raise in new taxes is plowed right back into the roads.”
It also is a concern in Bismarck, the state capital.
Norlyn Schmit, a transportation planner for the state, said heavier grain truck traffic has taken its toll.
Roads are deteriorating across the state, maintenance budgets are increasing and the prospect looms that some roads will have to be abandoned.
“We are having problems with our rural roads,” he said. “A lot of that has to do with changes in the agricultural industry. Trucks are bigger, hauls are longer and in many cases, these roads were not built for that.”
The state has a system of 13,300 km of state-run two-lane equivalent roads, close to 32,000 km of gravel county roads and more than 80,000 km of roads in townships.
He said that to maintain at current standards just the state-operated system, which carries much of the heavy truck traffic to larger grain elevators, it will cost close to $497 million annually during the next 20 years.
Maintenance costs for country and township roads would add hundreds of millions of dollars to that total.
“Maybe we have a system too large for our population to support,” said Schmit.
“There is no doubt that the state road system is in need of major attention and refinancing,” said John Mielke, executive secretary of the North Dakota Public Service Commission in Bismarck.
Study examines impact
A study prepared this year for the U.S. government by the Fargo-based Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute on the impact of rail restructuring on rural America makes the same point.
“Because rail abandonment often diverts a great amount of traffic from rail to truck, the impacts on rural roads and highways can be significant,” says the as-yet-unpublished report.
“The impact is intensified by the fact that much of this traffic is likely to occur on highways that weren’t designed for heavy use.”
This talk of road deterioration and abandonment makes people like Gary Urlacher uneasy.
He is manager of the Farmers’ Union Elevator in Flasher, 70 km southwest of Bismarck.
It has lost its rail service and depends on trucks to get the grain to elevators at Mandan, Bismarck’s twin city.
The Flasher elevator already has experienced spring road closures or severe weight restrictions which limit the ability of the elevator to attract customers.
“As the roads get worse, the restrictions will be worse,” Urlacher said.
“At an elevator like this, you can’t afford to sit on grain. What does that mean for smaller elevators like this?”
