While highway funding and formula-distributed funds in the Infrastructure Act have gotten good reviews, Republicans find fault with how FHWA is carrying out discretionary programs.
The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act contains highway-related provisions that aim to give a boost to infrastructure projects in disadvantaged communities and for the use of low-carbon construction materials on federal highway projects.
President Joe Biden has announced he will nominate Shailen Bhatt, former head of the Colorado and Delaware DOTs and now a senior executive with AECOM, to lead the Federal Highway Administration.
The congressionally requested report showed that half of the state DOTs spent at least 60% of their total engineering and design-related costs for such highway projects on outside engineering consultants.