Restoration of some slashed highway funds considered

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

The Bush administration is backing a congressional plan that would restore $4.4 billion nationally -- about $25 million statewide -- in federal highway funding, the head of the Federal Highway Administration said Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Administrator Mary Peters said her agency and the White House recognize the importance of highway funding, but Congress will make the final decision on how much money highway work gets in the next fiscal year.

A downturn in the national economy and a quirk in the spending formula set by law led to a $9 billion cut in federal highway funding for next year.

"This literally takes an act of Congress to make this happen," Peters said.

Funding the program in the next year is particularly important because it sets the base rate for the next six years of highway spending by the federal government.

Nevada's congressional delegation has supported replacing about half of the funds, the plan Peters said the administration also supports. Peters met Tuesday with regional policymakers and transportation officials, road builders and transportation consultants.

Nevada Department of Transportation Director Tom Stephens said the replacement funds, if ultimately passed, would help alleviate a feared money crunch.

"It would give us back half of the $50 million we would have lost," Stephens said, bringing total federal highway spending to about $175 million for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

"We would still like to see more money," he quickly added.

Replacing the funds could aid in local highway projects, from maintenance to high-profile work such as the continued construction of Interstate 215 -- the Las Vegas Beltway.

Clark County Public Works Director Martin Manning, head of the lead agency behind the beltway construction, said the local government will continue to be the main backer of the work. But the federal government could be an important partner in continued construction, he said.

Peters said the Bush administration recognizes the importance of the surface transportation system, particularly in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In the days after the attacks the national air transport system was crippled. Peters said the "resiliency and redundancy" of American highways kept people moving.

"The surface transportation system did exactly what it was supposed to do," she said. "The great American road trip came back."

Peters said her agency has focused on three key road and highway objectives since the attacks:

All three of those goals can be met through adding lanes to highways and applying new traffic-control technologies in test projects nationwide, Peters said.

"Existing capacity simply will not meet your needs," she said.

Jacob Snow, general manager of the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission, said the Las Vegas region could serve as a good testing ground for new traffic-control systems.

"We would ... like to volunteer to be one of the guinea pigs for congestion mitigation," he said.

The NDOT's Stephens also asked for help for the state. Nevada has spent more than $20 million to improve Interstate 15 in California.

The federal government could do more to help with the financing of such projects as the I-15 improvements in California, Stephens said.

State officials will have another opportunity to bring up the issue. Gov. Kenny Guinn and California Gov. Gray Davis will meet Thursday in California to ceremoniously cut the ribbon to begin construction on I-15 widening.