Because of the protracted series of stopgap bills, state DOT chiefs have had to manage for more than two years without knowing how much long-term federal aid they will have to work with. Federal funds are critically important for states, typically accounting for 80% of highway and bridge projects’ costs as well as smaller shares of transit projects.
The stop-and-start funding has had an impact on most states, though it varies from place to place. Michigan DOT Director Kirk T. Steudle says his agency normally aims to have 80% of its highway and bridge projects out for bid by the end of March. But now, he says, “We have less than 50% [out for bids] because that’s all the money that we have.”
Steudle, AASHTO’s current president, adds, “We aren’t sticking our heads forward, saying, ‘Let’s bid these on the hopes that they’ll pass something.’ We don’t know if they will or they won’t. So we have deliberately slowed down our bidding process.”
Alabama DOT's chief engineer, Don Vaughn, says, “The problem with the short-term extensions is the money comes to us in a lot of little buckets,” each for a funding category, such as bridge replacement or congestion mitigation/air-quality projects.
Vaughn says, “Those buckets don’t fill up when you have a short-term extension.” As a result, a state DOT has to wait to launch a project until its gets enough money in the appropriate categorical “bucket.” He adds, “It’s very difficult to maintain and manage a program.”
The Arizona DOT hasn’t seen many projects removed from its transportation program or delayed, says Scott Omer, director of the multimodal planning division. However, he says, “I think the biggest impact [of the delayed legislation] is just the uncertainty. … It’s really just the uncertainty about how we’re going to program and the amount of funding that we think we have available for programming.”
In Oklahoma, DOT Director and Secretary Gary Ridley says his department maintains a “conservative program.” He says, “We make sure that we have projects that are designed and ready to go—on the shelf, if you will—well into the future. So if money is available, we would certainly be able to react.”
Ridley adds, “We don’t take a knee-jerk reaction to … what goes on in D.C. We understand that they will work out their difficulties, they will work out the problem, and that funding for transportation is a priority of the country … and we fully expect that the federal funds will continue at or about the same level as what we have.”
State DOTs' actions have had a ripple effect on design and construction firms that pursue transportation work, says John L. Carr, an associate with CDM Smith and former deputy state highway engineer in Kentucky. “What we’re seeing is that states just are reluctant to lock in, to commit to a long-term program until they understand what’s going to happen with reauthorization.”
State DOT officials say they see elements they like in both the House and Senate bills.
