Citation

Nystrom C. Am. City Cty. 1999; 114(11): 7 p..

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Penton Media)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The money provided by the 1998 passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) is helping to jump-start road-building projects from bridge rehabilitation to the construction of bike trails. In fact, TEA-21 has spawned what some people are calling the biggest public works project in American history. The highway program portion of the funding will be broken down into various areas and cover the costs of rehabilitating more than 163,000 mi (262,267 km) of the National Highway System (NHS), including rural and urban roads serving major populations, international crossing borders, intermodal transportation, and connections to terminals. It also covers work on the interstate system and other urban and rural principal arterials, along with highways that provide motor vehicle access between the NHS and major intermodal transport facilities, the defense strategic highway network, and strategic network connectors. Funds for transportation spending will be distributed based on a formula that includes each state's lane miles of principal arterials (excluding interstate miles), vehicle miles traveled on those arterials, per capita principal arterial lane miles, and diesel fuel used on the state's highways. Early indications are the only a little of the TEA-21 money will trickle down to cities and counties. For cities and counties to tap into these funds, they must educate themselves about the appropriate federal legislation, monitor the funding process, and be organized and aggressive. Nationally, state transportation agencies are working on individual 5-year plans to spend TEA-21 money. A sidebar highlights a transportation technicians training program that helps state departments of transportation prepare people to perform quality assurance testing for the influx of new transportation construction.