State transportation agencies are sharing a $3.1-billion “bonus” through the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) latest annual summer redistribution of unused highway funding.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (U.S. DOT), which oversees FHWA, also has announced it is taking applications for a new round of its much-sought Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.
The 2017 highway funding redistribution, which FHWA announced on Aug. 31, is the largest in at least the past five years, and is up 12% from the 2016 amount. All 50 states, plus D.C., received shares of the funding. Texas received the largest allotment, $280 million, followed by California with $274.5 million; Florida, $158.6 million; Pennsylvania, $154 million; and New York, $145.3 million. Demand for the funds far exceeded the amount available, with states requesting nearly $5.4 billion.
State departments of transportation must move quickly to put the reallocated money to use. FHWA says the redistributed funds must be obligated to projects by Sept. 26.
The redistributed money is converted from funds that had been earmarked for specific uses, such as Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation (TIFIA) loans, to nearly all-purpose funds—available for states to use on any type of project eligible for federal highway aid.
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Source: Engineering News-Record
