Page 32 - ATR 1 2014 web

Crumbling roads and

empty pockets

Highway Trust Fund to reach critical mass in 2014

Account by late summer or fall. help, at least in part, create money to
by scott travis “It does beg the question as to how care for their highway infrastructures —
Contributing Writer the country will continue to maintain but the Highway Trust Fund has histori-
the federal highway system it currently cally provided the bulk of the cash.
There is one material more impor- has,” said Lane Kidd, former president In July, Arkansas Highway and
tant to highways than any amount of of the Arkansas Trucking Association. Transportation Department Director
asphalt or rebar: paper. More specifi- The fund was established with Scott Bennett told a legislative panel
cally, money. And it’s possible that soon the 1956 Highway Revenue Act that that, even with recent, voter-approved
the nation’s highway departments won’t helped pay for construction of the measure like the half-cent sales tax that
have enough of it. U.S. Interstate Highway System. Before passed in 2012, the state will still need
The United States Department that roads were financed with money an additional $200 million a year over
of Transportation is forecasting the taken directly from the U.S. Treasury’s the next decade just to maintain its
Highway Trust Fund, which has helped General Fund. roads.
fund highway construction, expansion, It is not the only source of money “Highways aren’t like fine wine.
repair and maintenance since 1956, will for highways — states like Arkansas They don’t get better with age,” Kidd
see a shortfall in the fund’s Highway have come up with other legislation to said. “The current level of funding is

32 arKansas trucKing report | issue 1 2014