Sixty years ago—on June 29, 1956—President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act, launching the Interstate Highway System and the federal motor-fuels tax that funded the lion’s share of its construction.

Since then, according to a June 27 report from The Road Information Program (TRIP), traffic and congestion on the Interstates has worsened and funding is falling short of what’s needed to maintain and upgrade the network of highways and bridges.

Last December’s $305-billion, five-year Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, or FAST, Act, helped a bit. Construction and transportation industry officials like its long span, saying gives them more certainty to plan multi-year projects. But they also say that the law’s annual increases are far short of the sums needed.

Barring a major breakthrough in the next administration and next Congress, however the FAST Act’s numbers will be the ones state DOTs and construction firms will see until 2020.

同时，联邦政府，州和地区可以做些什么来缩小差距？美国运输部长安东尼·福克斯（Anthony Foxx）说：“是的，我们对传统运输系统的保养面临挑战。但是从根本上讲，我们对提高流动能力，未来需要做的事情有很多未经审查的假设。”

Foxx于6月29日在DOT总部与记者会面时说：“每次出现运输法案时，人们唯一想谈论的是，多少是，多少？我认为我们花钱的问题与其他任何事情一样是一个基本问题。”

He recalls that the Obama administration’s proposed six-year, $478-billion GROW AMERICA bill, sent to Congress in March 2015, was longer and had more funding than the FAST Act.

It retained the long-standing 80-20 highway-transit split in Highway Trust Fund dollars. But for its funding above the trust fund’s capacity, the administration sought to provide a larger share for transit and other non-highway transportation.

Foxx continued, “Why? Because if you look at how the country is organizing itself larger numbers of our population are coalescing around cities.”

他补充说：“这些城市在地理上受到越来越多的约束，随着人口的增加，增加车道英里的可能性正在减少。因此，将变得重要的是在那些地方拥有更大的运输选择。”

Foxx said, “We’ve tried to push on that conversation and there was precious little policy discussion in the last highway bill.” He said, “And I think if I have a wish for the next time, this coming round, it’s that there will be at least equal attention paid to the policy as there is to the funding and the length of time that funding exists.”