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State and federal dollars for transportation projects are dwindling, and contractors are noticing.

“It seems like we have not seen the level of highway projects that we’ve seen in other years,” said Dave Jensen, special projects manager in Portland for Bismarck, N.D.-based Knife River Corp. “Our competitor friends are feeling the same pinch.”

Knife River has adjusted by pursuing smaller projects and private ones, Jensen said.

“For our highway construction group, (the impact has) been huge,” he said. “We’ve had to downsize and cut back. A few years ago, we had multiple paving crews. Now we have a hard time keeping one crew busy.”

The situation may worsen. Fewer dollars are expected to come in from state and federal highway fund sources that essentially allow the Oregon Department of Transportation to cover debt service, highway maintenance and personnel.

David Lohman, acting chairman of the Oregon Transportation Commission, stated in a May 28 letter to Area Commissions on Transportation that the state will have to pay $200 million annually for the next 25 to 30 years in overall debt service on its two major investment projects of the past decade – the three-part Oregon Transportation Investment Act and the 2009 Jobs and Transportation Act.

Also, the state’s highway fund in 2013 took in about 11 percent less than originally forecast, according to Lohman.

Meanwhile, the Highway Trust Fund is expected to run out of money by July 17, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If Congress were to do nothing, Oregon would be left with an approximately $150 million annual shortfall.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is seeking a quick funding fix to sustain the federal Highway Trust Fund for six to eight months, said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

“That would get it past the (November) election,” he said.

In the U.S. House, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has introduced the Repeal and Rebuild Act, which would create up to a six-year funding fix. HR 4848 would repeal the gas tax and replace it with an indexed tax on oil (per barrel) that wholesale companies purchase and process into gasoline.

Another proposal, released Wednesday by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would raise the federal gas tax by 12 cents a gallon and index the tax with inflation. The federal gas tax, increased to 18.4 cents per gallon in 1993, has not kept up with inflation.

At the state level, a transportation bill likely would not be passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2015, Salsgiver said, because a supermajority would be required. Plus, heavy turnover is expected in the House, and newcomers would need to be brought up to speed on critical transportation issues, he said.

“People are starting to look at what a post-JTA effort would look like, but I’d be very surprised to see it happen in the 2015 session,” he said. “They’ve set the bar very high for a tax increase and it must originate in the Oregon House.”