ITS America applauds passing of FAST Act

“This long-term bipartisan bill makes needed investments to fix and expand North Dakota’s roads and bridges so families can get their kids to school safely and workers can securely travel to and do their jobs”, she said in a statement.

“By providing state and local officials with some additional funding and five-years of certainty, we expect to see some long-delayed larger and more complex highway and transit projects get started”, Brian Turmail, senior executive director of Public Affairs for AGC, recently told TI News Daily. “I appreciate the work of all my colleagues on the Transportation Committee and the Conference Committee, on both sides of the aisle, in working to move this legislation forward for our country”. He also praised Shuster and the lawmakers he worked with in the conference committee.

Among the FAST Act provisions are: US$100 million per year for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) research; Creation of a new US$60 million per year Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Program created to accelerate the deployment of new technology and innovations; US$15-US$20 million per year to establish a Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program to provide grants to states to demonstrate user-based alternative revenue mechanisms to maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx echoed DeFazio’s comments. It is funded equally with federal and state funds.

“We have a six-year highway improvement plan that we’ve put together”.

Following House action on a separate highway bill this fall, Hatch was appointed to serve on the Highway Conference Committee, to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House bills. Congress has passed three-dozen short-term extensions of federal transportation funding since the last four-year bill expired in 2009.

The FAST Act includes several key NRF priorities.