States Put Highway Projects on Hold

State transportation officials warned on Monday that if Congress can’t pass an extension of highway funding in the next few days, they will be forced to put new projects on hold, and delay or cancel construction that’s already under way.

“From the data that’s been given to us, we can manage this thing through Thursday,” said Larry L. “Butch” Brown Sr., executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and president of the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials.

Brown and his colleagues from other states were reacting to the expiration of the continuing resolution for funding of transportation programs and resulting shutdown of the Highway Trust Fund after an extension bill that Senate leaders expected to pass on a voice vote on Thursday evening was blocked by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

The Senate may vote on a cloture motion to override Bunning when they convene on Tuesday.

AASHTO members expressed their frustration with the short-term extensions of the spending plan known as SAFETEA-LU that Congress has voted since last September when the law expired. They pleaded for an extension that will give them the assurance of federal funding that they can use to embark on new construction projects.

“Without a certainty of funding, we’ve got to change the way we operate,” Brown said. That included delaying bids for new projects, then delay existing ones, then cancel them. “We’re not going to add any, we’re going to slow them down, and if we can’t get a resolution to the problem in a timely fashion, we’ll have to cancel.”

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.