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On December 4, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, a five year (FY 2016 – FY 2020) $305 billion highway, transit, highway safety, and rail bill. 

The FAST Act has significant value to State and local governments in providing certainty of Federal funding for transportation, as it is the first long-term transportation bill passed by Congress in 10 years after 36 short-term extensions. States and local governments can now move forward with critical transportation projects, like new highways and transit lines, knowing there will be federal support. The FAST Act also takes the important step of increasing funding. Under the Act, funding will go up by roughly 11 percent over 5 years.

Below are the highway investment funding levels over the life of the bill:

(Pre-FAST Act) Fiscal Year (FY) 2015:  $40.3 billion

(Post-FAST Act) FY16:  $42.4 billion

FY17:  $43.3 billion

FY18:  $44.2 billion

FY19:  $45.3 billion

FY20:  $46.4 billion

The FAST Act at a Glance:

Highways and Freight

• Creates a new National Highway Freight program (approximately $1.2 billion a year) that is distributed to the States by formula.
• Creates a new discretionary program for Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (approximately $900 million a year). 
• Creates a Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects competitive grant program funded at $4.5 billion over five years and a National Highway Freight program providing $6.3 billion in formula funding to states for projects including intelligent transportation systems and other technology to improve the flow of freight, including intelligent freight transportation systems. 

  Transit

• Provides approximately $61 billion over five years for Federal transit programs including $48.9 billion in Highway Trust Fund contract authority and roughly $12 billion in funding from the General Fund. 
• Provides $10 billion over five years for the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak, and includes funding to enable commuter railroads to install  safety technology known as Positive Train Control.

  Safety

• Provides $4.7 billion for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
• Provides $3.2 billion for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

  Bicycling and Pedestrians

• Allots $835 million annually for biking and pedestrian infrastructure over the next 2 years, increasing to $850 million annually for the following 3 years.
• Directs that federal transportation research planning be multimodal whenever possible and coordinated by the Secretary’s office to prevent duplication of effort and identify opportunities to apply research across modes.

  ITS

• Provides $100 million per year for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) research, with an expanded role to enhance the national freight system and assist in developing cybersecurity standards.
• Provides funding eligibility for installation of V2I communication equipment within all major highway formula programs.
• Includes a Smart Cities Transportation Planning Study to examine how digital and information technologies are being adopted by cities and used to influence transportation planning and investment.
• Establishes a Government Accountability Office assessment of autonomous transportation technology policy developed by public entities in the U.S., an assessment of the organizational readiness of U.S. DOT to address autonomous vehicle technology challenges including consumer privacy protections, and recommended implementation paths for autonomous technology, applications, and policies.

  Design Standards

• Requires design standards to consider “cost savings by utilizing flexibility that exists in current design guidance and regulations.”
• Adds the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual and the Urban Street Design Guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials  (NACTO) to the list of resources to be utilized for design criteria development.
• Allows direct recipients of federal dollars to use a design publication that is different than one used by the state DOT.

  Research & Development

• Provides $67.5 million per year for a Technology and Innovation Deployment Program designed to accelerate the deployment of new technology and innovations and analyze Federal, State, and local cost savings, project delivery time improvements, reduced fatalities, and congestion impacts.
• Provides $72.5–$77.5 million per year for the University Transportation Centers program.

  Programs and Advisory Groups

• Creates a new $60 million per year Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Program to provide competitive grants to develop model deployment sites for large scale installation and operation of advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment.
• Continues FHWA’s Every Day Counts initiative to work with States, local agencies, and industry stakeholders to identify and deploy proven innovative practices and products that accelerate innovation deployment, shorten the project delivery process, improve environmental sustainability, enhance roadway safety, and reduce congestion.
• Establishes a Performance Management Data Support program to develop, use, and maintain data sets and data analysis tools to assist states and metropolitan planning organizations in carrying out performance management analyses.

• Establishes a Motorcyclist Advisory Council to coordinate with and advise the Federal Highway Administrator on infrastructure issues including barrier and road design, construction, and maintenance practices, and the architecture and implementation of ITS technologies.

FAST Act Resources:

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee summary materials for the bill that can be found at: http://transportation.house.gov/fast-act/

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) provides a summary of FAST Act provisions at www.transportation.gov/fastact#sthash.4R8Ovp17.dpuf. More detailed descriptions of how the FAST Act will affect each mode of transportation will be released by USDOT in the coming weeks and disseminated through ITE communication channels.

AASHTO has created a FAST Act website portal to provide “one-stop shopping” for federal surface transportation authorization materials.  The following FAST Act materials can be found on the website:

·         Text of the FAST Act Conference Report

·         Highway Authorization Tables

·         State by State Highway Apportionment Tables

·         Transit Authorization Tables and State by State Transit Apportionment Tables

·         Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of the Conference

ITS America highlights 20 FAST Act Provisions that encourage innovation and accelerate the research and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) on its website at http://itsa.org/component/content/article/1-general/1756-its-america-statement-on-the-house-and-senate-passing-the-fixing-americas-surface-transportation-fast-act-five-year-reauthorization.

The American Society of Civil Engineers is providing summaries and analysis of the FAST Act through the following links:

Summary Part One

www.infrastructurereportcard.org/asce-news/fast-act-summary-part-one-the-funding/

Summary Part Two

http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/asce-news/fast-act-summary-part-two-highways/