US road agency faces insolvency

The US Federal Highway Administration is facing insolvency unless an additional US$ 5 to US$ 7 billion is injected for the remainder of this year.

According to the Department of Transport and other officials from President Obama's administration, the Highway Trust Fund will have insufficient cash by August this year to complete existing commitments.

The Federal Highway Administration is the US Department of Transportation agency responsible for the Federal-aid Highway programme and the Federal Lands Highway programme with a combined budget of US$ 40 billion each year.

An official from the Administration said, "We estimate that an additional US$ 8 billion to US$ 10 billion is needed to pay the immediate cash needs of the agency if the overall programme is to be maintained at current funding levels through to the end of the financial year."

"We need to make significant investments in the short term just to maintain our infrastructure at safe functioning levels," said the spokesperson. "This needs to be followed by even larger investments over the next 20 to 30 years to completely replace ageing infrastructure and accommodate the expected growth in population."