Beyond the immediate HTF challenge, is the immense gap between projected future HTF revenue and looming highway and mass transit investment needs that we should begin tackling in the next surface transportation authorization bill, ARTBA says.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) reports to Congress every other year on the condition and performance of the nation's surface transportation system. This "needs report" provides a widely accepted baseline of infrastructure cost estimates.

When you combine the U.S. DOT report estimates with real world information on highway construction costs and also assume the federal share of highway investment will be consistent with that of the past several decades, Buechner says, it becomes clear the federal highway program needs to be funded at a minimum of $62 to $69 billion per year in the next authorization just to maintain current conditions and performance.

He pointed to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finding that anticipates annual Highway Account revenues over the next authorization period to be between $32 and $35 billion. This means Congress will have to address a more than $31 billion annual revenue gap just to maintain current road and bridge conditions, he said. Absent additional revenues to the trust fund, CBO calculates that it could only support an average annual highway program investment over the next authorization of $31 billion. That compares to $40.7 billion during the current fiscal year.

A similar analysis based on the U.S. DOT report indicates a public transportation program need of $12 to $13 billion annually just to maintain transit conditions and performance, and a $16 to $18 billion investment to improve them. According to CBO, revenues into the trust fund's Mass Transit Account are anticipated to average only $5 billion per year.