A congressionally mandated study is recommending a dramatic increase in current highway spending to launch an ambitious new program to upgrade and modernize the aging, sometimes congested, Interstate Highway System. The report also calls for a hike in the federal gas tax to help pay for the plan.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine study, released on Dec. 6, says that its program to improve the 60-year-old Interstate system would average $45 billion to $70 million per year in combined state and federal spending over 20 years—or $20 billion to $45 billion more than the current $25-billion annual capital spending level. [View report here.]