Is “First revision” at the heart of the transportation sector’s strategy? In the beginning of a series of blog posts entitled “Rethinking Certification,” U.S. Transportation argues that the federal government must direct transport funds in a way that prioritizes maintenance and repair of new roads and projects expanding capacity.
A new approach is urgently needed. This makes it a prerequisite before modifying existing infrastructure and building new ones. How are you going to do that?
The T4A proposal “focuses on the changes needed to prioritize existing maintenance needs before building something new. By setting goals to improve road and bridge conditions, we require federal funding grantors to maintain their infrastructure and hold them accountable for doing so.” They also ask for helping states that are unable to achieve their goals by directing funds to only repair projects.
The T4A suggests that all states need to set progressive targets to improve roads and bridges, including those currently not under federal oversight. To do this, T4A recommends changing federal matching rates to 80% in repair and maintenance projects and only 50% in projects that increase capacity. “If you can’t improve the state of your existing infrastructure, you should not build it any further.”
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