In Kansas, aging county roads and bridges, along with rising construction and maintenance costs, pose significant challenges. Many counties lack the resources to effectively assess their infrastructure and plan for future needs. The Kansas Local Infrastructure Planning Tool or KLIP, developed by the Kansas Department of Transportation for $300,000, addresses this issue by utilizing existing road and bridge data to provide insights through an interactive viewer. KLIP allows counties to test various spending and funding scenarios, helping them prioritize and plan investments based on factors such as bridge count, roadway mileage, and per capita data. The tool supports projections for future funding needs by factoring in costs, mill levy changes, inflation rates, and potential system expansions, enabling more informed decision-making for sustainable infrastructure development. The KLIP tool also provides a glimpse into future budget needs that previously were not available to most counties in Kansas, as well as a way to test various plans for meeting those fiscal needs by adjusting both income and expense variables. The tool provides a mechanism to show the funding outlook based on how we do things today and shows that we can’t continue on the same path without implementing change.
America's Transportation Awards 