The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) will delay another $123 million worth of road projects because Congress has not yet passed a law to give long-term certainty to the federal highway program.
GDOT pulled 34 road projects eligible for federal funding, with the Highway Trust Fund’s (HTF) program authority set to expire Oct. 29.
The action came the same day the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted to advance a six-year highway/transit authorization bill. But that measure must still pass the full House, and then lawmakers must negotiate differences between it and a Senate-passed bill before Congress can pass a final version.
"It has been 10 years since Congress has been able to pass a transportation funding bill of more than a two-year duration,"said GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry.
"We can't do long-term transportation planning with short-term funding fixes," he said.
Earlier this year, Georgia delayed $715 million worth of projects as the HTF faced a springtime expiration, but GDOT was later able to move ahead with most of those.
Nationwide, various states have reported about $2 billion in projects they either had to delay launching as planned this year due to the federal program uncertainty, or even push off into next year.
