Moving On: Increasing Congestion, Extensive Maintenance Requirements, and Limited Funding Will Test the Resiliency of the Interstate Highway System and the Transportation Professionals Responsible for It

This final article in a series on the Interstate Highway System at 50 looks at the system's next half-century. Problems such as increasing congestion, maintenance requirements, and limited funding abound, and the outlook for the federal Highway Trust Fund is far from good. Project costs are heading skyward due to increased requirements in other countries for basic building materials. Political opposition has stymied attempts to raise the gas tax. The author suggests that the future may include more public-private partnerships to raise needed capital. In addition, transferring ownership of certain roads for periods of time could shift costly risks from taxpayers to investors and contractors. In Oregon the Innovative Partnerships Program involves private entities early in the development process--as early as selecting and developing a project. Tolls will undoubtedly become far more common along many interstates, especially in urban and heavily traveled areas. New technologies such as open-road tolling and pricing strategies will allow toll roads to offer better service than roads without tolls.