Two serious transportation problems were not addressed by the IIJA legislation: rebuilding our aging Interstate highways and jump-starting the shift from per-gallon fuel taxes to per-mile charges. Both of these could be addressed via a single measure in the 2026 surface transportation reauthorization.
In 2019 the Transportation Research Board released a major study, requested by Congress, on the need to rebuild most of the aging Interstate highway system. The estimated cost, over several decades, was approximately $1 trillion. Congress has taken no steps to address this pressing need.
The TRB report mentioned toll finance as one possible way to pay for this multi-decade project. Back in 1998 Congress passed the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program. It allows three states to use toll finance to each rebuild one Interstate highway. When North Carolina DOT proposed doing this for aging I-95, those who lived near or used I-95 protested vigorously about being singled out to pay tolls, while those who used the state’s other Interstates would not be tolled. NCDOT dropped the plan, and no state has attempted to use ISRRPP since then.
With the new GOP-controlled Congress and White House, there is unlikely to be another massive infrastructure bill based solely on borrowed money, further increasing the national debt. But Congress could offer a self-help measure to states: expanding the scope of the ISRRPP to include all 50 states and all of a state’s Interstates.
