The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently awarded eight projects in six states $18.7 million in Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives (STSFA) grants, which will be used to test new user-based funding methods for highways and bridges that could supplement the Highway Trust Fund.
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act directed the FHWA to establish the STSFA grant program.
It recognizes that a mileage-based, road-user charge system may potentially redistribute cost burdens, several factors of which have been outlined in STSFA grant program reports and evaluations. These include interoperability among multiple states, program administrative costs, public acceptance, and data security.
“The pilot projects under the STSFA program allow states to learn more about potential new user fee structures that can complement traditional funding sources that states rely on to build and improve the nation’s highway and bridge infrastructure,” Stephanie Pollack, acting federal highway administrator, said.
Grant awardees are the California Department of Transportation, the Delaware Department of Transportation, the Hawaii Department of Transportation, the Kansas/Minnesota Departments of Transportation, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of Transportation, and the Utah Department of Transportation.
The Delaware and Oregon projects are with a transportation coalition.