All issues · Agriculture & Infrastructure · No. 10
Infrastructure and Transportation
How should a country pay for roads, transit, and ports — and why does building take so long?
In short
Find your officials →Highways, transit, rail, ports, aviation, and water systems are funded through a mix of federal trust funds, state revenue, and local taxes. Two problems dominate: the revenue model is eroding, and projects take far longer and cost more than in comparable countries.
The Highway Trust Fund is financed by a federal fuel tax that has not been raised since 1993 and is not indexed to inflation. Rising fuel efficiency and electric vehicles further erode receipts, and the fund has required repeated general-revenue transfers to stay solvent.
Construction costs per mile in the United States, particularly for transit and tunneling, are substantially higher than in peer countries. Explanations offered include procurement rules, litigation exposure, utility relocation, consultant-heavy design, and station scope, with no consensus on which dominate.
Permitting review applies to all project types, including transmission lines and clean energy. Reform proposals cut across the usual coalitions, with environmental groups split between wanting faster clean-energy buildout and preserving review requirements.
Maintenance competes with new construction for the same dollars, and new ribbon-cuttings are more politically rewarding than deferred repairs — a bias that compounds over decades.