TTV Highlights State DOTs, CEO Calls for Congress to Maintain Strong Federal Role

AASHTO Journal, 03 July 2015

AASHTO’s Transportation TV has been running news and feature videos in which the CEOs of state departments of transportation describe what their states are doing to invest in roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and what they hope Congress will do to strengthen the federal programs in the Highway Trust Fund.

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A recent example was TTV’s “Two-Minute Update” report June 19 with Shailen Bhatt, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. Bhatt said he hopes lawmakers in Congress will reach “the point of saying: ‘Okay, let’s cut out all the gimmicks and everything else and let’s just get six years of certainty, or whatever we can get,’ so that we can put this behind us at least for hopefully another few years.”

On June 5, TTV reported comments from agency chiefs of Tennessee, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, expressing their concerns for the lost economic potential from making timely investments in transportation facilities.

Tennessee and Arkansas have each pulled hundreds of millions of dollars in road and bridges projects from their 2015 bid schedules for lack of being able to count on the federal share arriving when projects bill would come due. Pennsylvania has not pulled any planned projects but recently showcased various long-idled projects that need funding for the DOT to repair crumbling structures.

In coming days, TTV will show more examples of state officials making the case for Congress to strengthen the federal partnership with states by providing certainty about the Highway Trust Fund’s revenue and authorization period. Be watching for those and more at the TTV website.

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