AASHTO Journal - States Continue Receiving FHWA Redistribution Funds

The Federal Highway Administration began redistributing more than $4.76 billion in obligated federal highway funds on August 28. This “redistribution” occurs when federal programs funded through the Highway Trust Fund or HTF do not fully use their allocated dollars in a given year; money that is subsequently redistributed to state transportation agencies across the country.

[Above photo by Caltrans.]

As a result, the FHWA’s redistribution of FY 2020 obligated funding is proving to be a boon to several state departments of transportation across the country.

California and New Mexico, for example, are receiving more than $493 million and $59 million, respectively, as part of the FHWA’s annual redistribution in obligated HTF monies.

The California Department of Transportation received roughly $312 million of the $493 million FHWA redistributed to the state, with local transportation agencies receiving the remaining $181 million.

“These federal funds will help Caltrans and local agencies invest in improving the transportation system throughout California,” explained Toks Omishakin, director of Caltrans, in a statement.

“California has a reputation for maximizing its federal funding and successfully launching infrastructure projects on time, and these additional funds represent our reward for that proven track record,” he said.

The agency added that most of the projects receiving August redistribution monies are already funded via state dollars allocated by the California Transportation Commission until federal money became available.

Thus, the additional funding will allow Caltrans and local communities to continue tackling California’s infrastructure maintenance needs along with state funding from Senate Bill 1, known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.

Meanwhile, the New Mexico Department of Transportation aims to put its more than $59 million in redistributed funding to use quickly.

“We are excited to put these funds to good use throughout the state,” noted Mike Sandoval, New Mexico’s transportation secretary, in a statement.

“We have a handful of projects we are either adding to or taking off the shelf and starting as soon as possible. That means we not only keep our employees working, we get to add to the workforce as well,” he said.