Who pays when roads and pipes need renewal?

Can development revenue cover road and pipe renewal years later?

The introduction to Not Just Bikes’ Strong Towns series describes an observation attributed to Charles Marohn. Some places were building roads and other infrastructure while accumulating debt. The fourth episode separates the bills over time. Tax revenue from new development can pay for renewing an earlier round of infrastructure, and the new roads and pipes will have renewal cycles of their own. On the episodes’ account, evaluating whether borrowing is sustainable requires knowing who is responsible for the assets, when they will need renewal, and what recurring revenue will be available when the bills come due. Those questions can then be checked against a particular place’s budget.