Transportation Infrastructure: Managing the Costs of Large-Dollar Highway Projects.

摘要

Each year, the federal government distributes nearly $20 billion to the states for the construction and repair of the nation's highways. To meet the nation's transportation needs, states are planning or building large-dollar projects to both replace aging infrastructure and build new capacity. These large-dollar projects represent a substantial investment of federal and state funds. Moreover, because the Department of Transportation projects a $16 billion annual shortfall in funding from what is needed just to maintain the condition and performance of the nation's highways at the 1993 level, it is essential that highway projects be well managed to ensure that costs are accurately estimated and controlled and that federal and state funds are efficiently used. Concerned about reports of increases in the costs of ongoing large-dollar highway projects, the former Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, asked GAO to assess the effectiveness of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) oversight of the costs of large-dollar highway and bridge projects. The Subcommittee defined large-dollar projects as those projects with a total estimated cost of over $100 million. In particular, the Subcommittee asked GAO to (1) determine if large-dollar highway projects experience cost growth, (2) identify how FHWA approves large-dollar highway projects and agrees to their costs, and (3) identify how FHWA ensures that project costs are controlled and that federal funds are efficiently used. GAO also presents information on practices to manage the costs of projects that are being used in some of the six states that GAO visited and, because of the upcoming reauthorization of highway programs in 1997, observations on the federal role for managing the costs of large-dollar projects.