Federal funds rolling in to speed highway construction and reduce gridlock

The states of Maryland, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Utah and Virginia will get the funding.

“These funds are critical to improving America's infrastructure while minimizing traffic delays,” FHWA Administrator Richard Capka said. “Reducing traffic congestion is key not only to our nation's quality of life but also to keeping our economy healthy and internationally competitive.”

The source of the funding is FHWA’s Highways for LIFE program, which provides grant money to help states build roads faster while making them last longer and less costly to maintain. In addition to providing direct funding, the program can ease the burden on states to come up with matching dollars, thus saving states millions in transportation funds.

Bridge replacements on several states' agendas

According to FHWA, the funding will be used to expedite several bridge replacement projects. The agency provided this breakdown of how the funds will be used:

• Maryland will receive $800,000 to help replace a bridge on MD 28 in Frederick County and another on MD 725 in Prince George's County. The projects, relying on prefabricated concrete superstructures, will shorten project completion from more than a year to 60 days.
• Montana will receive $320,000 to retrofit cross-culvert liners on U.S. 12 in Powell. By lining the existing culverts with plastic or polymer compound liners rather than excavating and replacing them, the work will lengthen the useful life of the culverts while requiring one day's closure of a single lane of the four-lane highway. Traditional culvert replacement requires the closure of half of the highway for four days. According to FHWA, the plan reduces construction time by 70 percent.
• New York will receive $1 million for bridge-approach slabs on 15 bridges on I-88 in Delaware and Schoharie counties. Using prefabricated concrete slabs, rather than cast-in-place concrete, crews will be able to work at night and limit interruptions to daytime traffic flow, FHWA said.
• North Dakota will receive $1 million to help rehabilitate a section of U.S. 2 from Berwick to Rugby. The project will use “white-topping,” a process in which existing asphalt road surface is covered with a concrete overlay, which is expected to reduce construction time by 40 percent over traditional methods.
• Utah will receive $1 million to help replace a bridge on state Route 266 over I-215. The new superstructure will be built off site, while new substructure will be built under the existing bridge while it remains in service. By relying on prefabrication, impact on traffic flow will be reduced by an estimated 80 percent while resulting in a smoother, quieter and longer-lasting bridge, FHWA said.
• Virginia will receive $600,000 to help replace a bridge on Route 15/29 in Prince William County. The project will rely on a prefabricated bridge superstructure, and limit traffic to one lane at night during the work, reducing the impact on daytime drivers by an estimated 80 percent.

Funds will be distributed after transportation bill enacted

According to FHWA, the Highways for LIFE funds will be distributed after enactment of the fiscal year 2008 transportation spending bill.

For the previous fiscal year, a number of projects benefited from Highways for LIFE funding, including reconstruction of a section of state Route 179 in Sedona, Ariz., and replacement of five bridges on Oregon 38 between Drain and Elkton, Ore.

Traffic congestion getting worse

Traffic congestion is getting worse around the United States. Traffic gridlock drains $78 billion each year from the U.S. economy, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's 2007 Urban Mobility Report. This cost to the economy is in the form of 4.2 billion lost work hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel.

According to the report, the lost hours are the equivalent of 105 million weeks of vacation, while the gallons of fuel could fill 58 fully-loaded supertankers.