Other challenges include the remote location of many of the sites, the impact of severe weather, and a lack of available contractors to perform the work. Image: christianthiel.net/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal agencies involved with managing public lands still face challenges in addressing backlogs of maintenance on structures such as dams, roads and buildings, despite getting additional funding for those purposes under a 2020 law, the GAO has said.
That law, the Great American Outdoors Act, created the Legacy Restoration Fund to provide up to $1.9 billion annually over 2021-2025, using revenues from energy development on public lands. That was in response to years of reports from the agencies, GAO and others about deferred maintenance that the latest report said “can have negative consequences, including limiting the agencies’ ability to carry out their missions and prematurely worsening the condition of assets.”
GAO said that agency plans for using money from the fund generally followed leading practices for addressing deferred maintenance, such as establishing clear goals, aligning them with the agency’s mission and taking into consideration safety and other risks of continuing to defer the work.
However, it said the agencies also face “challenges to reducing deferred maintenance such as construction supply chain issues and inflation, which raised costs and delayed projects.” Other challenges include the remote location of many of the sites, the impact of severe weather, and a lack of available contractors to perform the work, it said.
Agencies added, though, that the long-term nature of the dedicated fund “allows them to know in advance that they will have steady funding, compared with having less predictable surges of annual funding. As a result, agencies can plan better for the coming years.”
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