T5. Maintenance of road infrastructure will be increasingly difficult because of loss of revenue and reliance on asphalt.

Gas tax revenues will decline as fuel conservation increases, reducing current funding sources for maintenance and construction of infrastructure. Alternatives such as tolls or weight-mile taxes will also be sensitive to reduced travel. Roads and bridges may handle less traffic and experience less wear-and-tear, but the present maintenance backlog is large and growing.

In addition to revenue constraints, road maintenance and repair will be made more difficult and costly because asphalt is a petroleum-based product. In 2005 road maintenance was hampered in some U.S. localities because of the high cost of asphalt. Concrete, which is currently more expensive than asphalt, is also energy-intensive and will increase in cost as fuel prices climb.