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Feds Fund Billions in Road Projects but Don't Track States' Use of Funds

  • The federal government spends $40 billion a year on highway construction but does not track how many projects are over budget, how much goes toward overruns or whether the record is getting better or worse. The result is a patchwork of planning lapses and design errors that sends some states back for more money again and again, an investigation by 22 Gannett newspapers shows. The government increased scrutiny of "major projects" over $500 million after Boston's Big Dig highway-tunnel project. Completed in 2007 after two decades, it ran $12 billion over budget. Most projects aren't subject to the tighter rules. Of 136,000 federally funded projects in the pipeline, 87 were defined as major and accounted for $1.6 billion in fiscal 2011, according to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) documents.
  • Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez says his agency monitors highway programs through offices in each state. State transportation departments are responsible for managing highway and interstate projects, which are usually at least 80% federally funded. "The buck stops with the state DOT," Mendez said. Kenneth Mead, former Transportation Department inspector general, wants states' performance tracked and posted online. "Ultimately, if the feds are writing these checks, what comes with that is the responsibility to report on what use that money is being put to," Mead said. Gannett obtained construction costs for 21 federally funded highway projects through Freedom of Information Act requests. About half finished within 5 percent of the original contract, but the others had significant overruns:
  • In Louisiana, 8 miles of an Interstate 49 extension north from Shreveport have cost $96 million, 9% over budget. Projects to redo 18 miles of I-295 in South Jersey are $22 million over budget -- 15 percent. From 2001 to 2010, more than half of state contracts ran over budget and 45 percent finished late, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which advocates improved transportation. Mendez said the report is "misleading" because it examined processes, not costs.

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