WASHINGTON - Highways in Greater Cincinnati and Ohio will get more bumpy, crowded and dangerous unless Congress changes how it allots highway money, the state's top transportation official warned Congress on Monday.

        “Severe congestion, outdated interchanges, poor geometrics, and tremendous volumes have turned nearly every urban interstate route in Ohio into a high-congestion, high-accident bottleneck,” Gordon Proctor, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation told a Senate subcommittee.

        Monday's hearing was a prelude to what will be one of Congress' most important and bitter fights next year: crafting a new transportation bill.

        About once every six years, Congress writes the legislation controlling how much money goes to highways, bridges, and transit - and, just as important, how that money is divided among states and cities. The most recent bill, known as the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, provided $218 billion, the most expensive public works bill in American history. It expires in October 2003.

        Ohio gets back 88 cents of every dollar it pays in gas taxes, something Ohio's government and congressional delegation are determined to change next year. The state's goal is to get at least 95 cents back from every dollar.

        Without an increase, the state would cease all new highway construction by 2006, Mr. Proctor warned earlier this year.

        But senators said the federal government doesn't have the money to pay for new or widened highways.

        “It's scary to have this bill face us. We know we don't have the money we need,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who chaired the hearing. “We have to try something new in the new highway bill.”

        One possible solution: Raise the 18-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax. A trade association representing civil engineers suggested a 6-cent-a-gallon increase; a lobbying group representing road builders suggested a 2-cent-a-gallon increase.

        “Gas taxes, if we're going to get the job done, are going to have to be raised,” said Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.

        Not just easier commutes are at stake, Mr. Proctor said. Lives are lost and the economy suffers because the state can't keep up with the rise in traffic.

        Last year, for example, from November to June, 10 people died in traffic accidents along a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 75 between Franklin and Monroe.

        The southernmost 17-mile stretch of Interstate 75 through Cincinnati now has an average of 80 accidents per year per mile - more than an accident a week.

        The 184,000 vehicles a day it carries are almost twice what it is designed for, according to Ohio Transportation spokesman Brian Cunningham.The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments is studying solutions for I-75, including a truck-only lane.

        And Hamilton County voters will decide Nov. 5 whether to approve a half-cent sales tax to pay for a light rail system and a major expansion of bus service. The $2.7 billion MetroMoves plan would include light rail along Interstates 71 and 75. Greater Cincinnati's light rail efforts did not come up at the hearing.

        Mr. Proctor said the most congested highway location in Ohio is the overlap of Interstate 70 and Interstate 71 in downtown Columbus.

        In that juncture the interstates are 114 percent over capacity and average 274 accidents per mile per year. That equals more than one accident for every business day of the year. Within a 2.5-mile radius of the junction, the routes experienced 2,037 accidents over a three-year period.

        Mr. Proctor also urged the Senate:

        Not to lard the next bill with local pork projects or “covered bridge programs,” he said, referring to a $150 million program to preserve covered bridges that was added to the most recent highway bill.

        Add provisions making sure historic preservationists can't block interstate highway projects. With the interstate system set to turn 50 in 2006, they will become eligible for some federal historic protections. Mr. Proctor said he was worried groups would defend outmoded highways as historic artifacts. That could force additional studies and hold up projects.

        But Ohio's main goal will be a change in the formula that would give it about $300 million more than the $950 million a year in federal highway money the state gets today.

        The state will spend the next 20 years concentrating on rebuilding its highways - two-thirds that have never even been repaved, Mr. Proctor said.

        While much of the country also is struggling with overloaded highways, the problem is especially acute in Ohio. The state ranks fourth in the amount of truck freight carried on its highways, and the state will see truck traffic grow 60 percent by 2020.

        “We are experiencing very troubling trends in Ohio,” Mr. Proctor said.

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