Highway construction is getting short shrift from the Biden Administration. While the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) increased formula highway funding, the Federal Highway Administration has tried to discourage state DOTs from using their increased funding to add capacity, even where this would mean replacing a four-lane bottleneck bridge on a six-lane highway with a six-lane bridge. FHWA’s 2021 “guidance” memo on this was protested by many state DOTs, as well as governors and members of Congress. And IIJA also created a new discretionary program to help metro areas tear down urban freeways.
