As the federal fiscal year winds down, all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, have received welcome federal funding boosts for their highway construction programs, thanks to a Federal Highway Administration redistribution of nearly $4 billion in unused fiscal 2019 funds.
FHWA separately also宣布that it has selected 20 projects in rural states to share $225 million in grants under a new bridge funding program
在更大的资金新闻中，FHWA管理员妮可·纳森（Nicole R. Nason）在8月30日表示，在今年的无资金重新分配中，总计39.7亿美元的高速公路义务机构已被包裹在各州。[查看公告通知和逐州分配here。]
The "August redistribution" has been an annual occurrence, though it occasionally has happened in September.
The 2019 dollars were in great demand—states asked for a total of $7.6 billion, far more than the amount available.
States typically spend all of their annual shares of core highway obligation authority, which is distributed by formula. The redistribution's $4-billion pot stems from FHWA’s not obligating as much this year as estimated earlier for some national programs.
Joung Lee, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials policy director, says the uncommitted funds come primarily from two programs whose spending has been slower than originally expected: Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loans and Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grants, which go for important highway and freight-related projects.
蒂菲亚（Tifia）是在1998年的《 21世纪运输公平法》中创建的，以前称为Fastlane，在2015年《固定美国地面运输法》中成立了。
Lee说：“ Tifia和Infra在过去几年中仍然是重新分配的绝大多数资金来源。”他补充说，结果是“我们见过的重新分配的最高水平”。
The recent record redistribution was2018年的42亿美元。今年的总数仅比该分数低约5％。
李说。“蒂菲亚余额本质上每年都在滚动。”FHWA的TIFIA web pageshows three new loans, totaling $2.5 billion, have been approved as of Sept. 5. Three TIFIA loans also were approved in 2018, but 12 were approved in 2017.
State departments of transportation must put the new redistributed money to work rapidly—they have to obligate the funding by Sept. 26. That shouldn’t be a problem. Lee says, “They will definitely put it to good use by the end of this fiscal year.”
德克萨斯州获得了今年重新分配中最大的份额，4.98亿美元；加利福尼亚排名第二，为3.31亿美元。
纽约排名第三，有2.23亿美元；佛罗里达排名第四，1.78亿美元；和宾夕法尼亚州第五，拥有1.77亿美元。
8月29日，美国DOT宣布已选择20个项目，以新的为农村桥梁的新酌情计划共享2.25亿美元，紧跟着重新分配。新利18备用网址
Requests exceeded funds available. An FHWA official said via email that the agency received 56 applications, seeking a total of $712 million. Twenty-five states met the population-density criterion to qualify for the rural bridge grants.
Grant applicants also were required to “bundle” more than one bridge project into a single contract. Congress established the Competitive Highway Bridge Program in 2018 appropriations legislation. [View program backgroundhere。]
Funding comes from the general fund, not the Highway Trust Fund, and states must put up some matching funds and obligate the federal funding by Sept. 30, 2021.
The largest of the new bridge grants, $33.4 million, went to Iowa to upgrade as many as 77 bridges judged to be in poor or fair condition or have posted weight restrictions. DOT said Iowa will use accelerated bridge construction technology for the plan, which aims to improve some farm-to-market routes.
