About $200 billion of TEA-21’s total authorizations are guaranteed spending. Here is how the guarantee is accomplished. TEA-21:

• Establishes new budget categories, or firewalls, that assure a federal investment baseline of at least $162 billion for highways and $36.3 billion for mass transit through 2003.

• Prevents these funds from being used on any other federal programs.

• Protects TEA-21 spending from dropping below the guaranteed baseline by allowing a procedural point of order to be raised against any future, contrary, legislation.

• Adjusts the guaranteed spending levels annually to reflect any changes in gas tax receipts. This means if federal gas tax receipts increase above the baseline levels authorized in TEA-21, so will the guaranteed level of federal investment.

TEA-21 streamlines the federal highway program. A combined Interstate Maintenance/National Highway System Program is funded at $52.4 billion through 2003. The Surface Transportation Program is funded at $33.3 billion over the period. The Bridge Program is set at a total of $20.4 billion. The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program is authorized at $8.1 billion.

TEA-21 means the transportation sector will continue to be the most stable part of the U.S. construction market well into the next century. The new law will create approximately 500,000 new jobs and sustain the 1.5 million existing jobs in highway construction and related industries.

TEA-21 will support reconstructing 20,500 lane mi., adding 2,800 lane mi. of new capacity and 720 lane mi. of new roads on the National Highway System. This will go a long way towards improving safety on America’s highways. Recent data has shown that every $1 billion invested by the public in government-financed road improvements over the past 40 years has helped prevent 1,400 premature deaths and nearly 50,000 injuries. If that trend continues, two million lives will be saved and 18 million injuries will be prevented over the next 40 years.

Under TEA-21, between fiscal years 1998 and 2003, federal highway investment is projected to average about $28 billion annually — reaching an increase over 1997 funding levels of $8.0 billion to $8.5 billion by 2003.

There is also a state matching requirement for most highway programs. The state match is generally 25% of the federal contribution. That could generate an additional $2 billion in highway investment. Combining the federal and state spending brings a total increase in highway investment of $10 billion to $10.5 billion per year by fiscal year 2003.

Despite the unique budgetary protections built into TEA-21, there may be efforts to breach the trust fund firewalls to reduce transportation outlays or to divert funding to other programs. What Congress giveth, Congress can taketh away, meaning that transportation supporters must remain alert and ready to respond to threats over the next six years!

TEA-21 in its final form is more than 900 pages of tightly written legal language. In addition to financing, it contains a wide variety of changes in how federal transportation programs operate. States will have increased authority to shift funds to meet their most urgent needs. All federal highway funds will be subject to uniform flexibility. States will be able to transfer up to 50% of the funds in any category to any other category, with special transferability requirements for the CMAQ, transportation enhancement, and safety set-aside programs.

A TEA-21 provision allows states to choose when and if to implement the metric system with respect to designing, advertising, or preparing plans, specifications, timetables, or other documents for highway projects.

State transportation departments are now permitted to use the design-build approach to construction of certain federal highway projects. They can use any design-build procedure that is determined appropriate by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Design-build projects, however, must cost at least $50 million, except for Intelligent Transportation System projects, which must be over $5 million.

The existing structure and process of metropolitan planning organizations are retained, but the previous 16 planning factors are reduced to seven in the planning process. They are economic vitality of the area, safety and security, accessibility and mobility, environmental protection, integration of the transportation system, efficient management, and preservation of the existing transportation system. In addition, representatives of users of public transit and freight shippers and providers of freight services are now allowed to comment on plans and programs.

On the statewide level, the basic planning structure is again retained with factors being cut to the same ones that apply to metropolitan areas.

In addition to a substantial increase in trust fund financing, TEA-21 provides opportunities to utilize private funds through innovative financing methods to build transportation facilities. It permits a state infrastructure bank pilot program in four states, the use of secured loans, lines of credit and loan guarantees for highway and transit projects, and intercity bus and passenger rail projects costing $100 million or more. The new law also makes available approximately $500 million in Highway Trust Fund revenue over six years for credit assistance that is expected to leverage $10 billion worth of projects.

These innovative financing tools are intended to encourage public-private ventures in large highway and bridge projects by reducing costs and sharing risk between the public and private sectors.