Former Highway Official Calls for Transportation Funding Plan

A former senior state transportation official said Tuesday the Obama administration must include financing proposals in any federal transportation policy to make the goals credible.

“The policy needs to be stated, and it needs to be stated how it’s going to be funded,” said Pete K. Rahn, senior vice president of the Kansas City-based engineering firm HNTB. “They’ve annunciated a policy. You can state anything you want to do, but if you’re not going to talk about how you’re going to pay for it, it’s not a good plan.”

Transportation industry officials expect the Department of Transportation will soon issue its overall strategy, along with principles to guide Congress in drafting a comprehensive transportation bill.

By The Numbers: U.S. IMC Intermodal & Highway Yields.

The current law guiding transportation spending, the latest stop-gap measure for a longer-term highway bill that ran out two years ago, will expire on Dec. 31. Congress will have to extend the law before it adjourns, Rahn said, but he doubts if lawmakers will pass a new spending bill.

“Clearly this Congress is going to have to deal with the issue of either extension or passage. Unless Congress acts early, it’s going to create a lot of uncertainty in the states,” Rahn said. He was director of the Missouri Department of Transportation before joining HNTB in April. He was president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in 2007 and 2008.

Rahn said state transportation departments are in dire straits. Transportation funds are being raided to support other state services. They don’t have enough money to keep highways in adequate repair, and some can barely pull together the 20 percent in state matching funds to qualify for federal highway funds.

The lack of a transportation spending bill causes uncertainty among states, Rahn said. Extension of the law in December will throw off the normal contract-letting cycle in which contractors win bids in November and December to prepare for the start of construction in the spring.

Rahn said that the transportation system is not keeping up with the growth in population, and the growth of traffic is stifling the existing infrastructure. He said Interstate 70, which traverses the center of Missouri has become a continuous flow of truck traffic.