FAST Act: What you need to know

The FAST Act authorized $305 billion in spending for the improvement of federal highways, highway safety, and transit and rail programs, which is being allocated between states each year from 2016 through 2020. It also provides $225.2 billion in Highway Trust Fund (PDF, 1.31 MB) (HTF) contract authority for the Federal-aid Highway Program, 92 percent of which is for contract distribution to state departments of transportation (DOTs) through formula programs. That includes $10.7 billion for two highway freight initiatives: the National Highway Freight Program and the new Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program, also known as FASTLANE grants. In addition, $11.6 billion is allocated to grow and focus the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

Overwhelming passage of the FAST Act signals a renewed emphasis on improving safety on our nation’s highways, and it gives state and local governments' assurance that they have federal funding for long-term critical surface and rail transportation-safety projects.

The National Highway Freight Program (PDF, 318.79 KB) (NHFP) provisions of the previous transportation bill, “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21),” were revised, creating new program funding for freight-related highway improvements over five years, apportioned among qualifying states. States qualify by establishing a freight advisory committee and developing a state freight investment plan.

The goal is for states, working with the Secretary of Transportation, to improve mobility on America’s highways by designating a national freight network – including interstate highways and urban and rural roads critical to safe and efficient freight shipment – to be updated every five years.

In its effort to establish a national freight network, NHFP-approved projects may include:
 

• construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and acquisition of real property,
• technology to improve the flow of freight,
• environmental- and community-impact mitigation efforts,
• railway-highway grade separation,
• truck-only, climbing and runaway-truck lanes,
• traffic signal optimization, and
• work-zone management and information systems.

The Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (NSFHP) was created to help make moving people and freight safer, more efficient and more reliable by reducing highway congestion and bottlenecks, improving connectivity between transportation modes, making critical highway infrastructure more resilient and addressing ways in which population growth affects the movement of people and freight. By improving roadways, including those vital to national energy security, the project also aims to improve national or regional economies and increase U.S. global economic competitiveness.

NSFHP awards an average of $900 million in Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-Term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) grants annually. Of that, a variety of applicants can compete for at least $25 million each year for highway, bridge, rail-grade crossing, intermodal and freight rail projects costing more than $100 million. The Secretary of Transportation awards projects based on large and small NSFHP criteria.

Eligible NSFHP applicants include states or groups of states, metropolitan planning organizations, special purpose districts and multistate or multijurisdictional groups of entities, among others.

Projects designed to improve freight-movement safety, efficiency and reliability may include:
 

• National Highway Freight Network projects,
• highway or bridge projects on the National Highway System to improve mobility or within a national scenic area,
• freight intermodal, freight rail or surface transportation infrastructure projects within the boundaries of a public or private freight rail, water (including ports) or intermodal facility that are necessary to ease intermodal interchange, transfer or access to or from the facility, and
• railway-highway grade crossings or grade separation projects.

The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) places a priority on reducing traffic fatalities and injuries on our nation’s roads, awarding funds to “correct or improve a hazardous road location or feature or address a highway safety problem.” Workforce development, training, and education activities also qualify.

To be eligible for HSIP funding, states must develop a strategic highway safety plan (SHSP), identify projects and strategies to improve safety, implement the plan and evaluate/update the plan regularly. States also must have a safety data system in place to identify problems and analyze countermeasures on all public roads and adopt strategic, performance-based goals for correction of those problems. HSIP funds may not be used on projects unless data is collected.

States may opt out of collecting fundamental data elements for the model inventory of roadway elements for gravel or other unpaved roads (serious injury and fatality data must still be collected).

In prioritizing traffic safety, HSIP awards funding for physical infrastructure projects such as:
 

• vehicle-to-infrastructure communication equipment installation,
• pedestrian hybrid beacons, and
• roadway improvements that provide separation between pedestrians and motor vehicles, including medians and pedestrian crossing islands.