Surface Transportation Program

The Surface Transportation Program (STP) is a program providing federal funding for a wide range of transportation projects, and is historically the largest and most flexible federal highway program. The Surface Transportation Program is one of the four core federal surface transportation programs funded by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which was signed into law in July 2012. After several years delay, MAP-21 succeeded the previous surface transportation funding bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which had expired in 2009.

Under MAP-21, most federal surface transportation funding is disbursed through four consolidated programs: the Highway Safety Improvement Program, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program, the National Highway [Page 1298]Performance Program, and the Surface Transportation Program. The STP distributes funds to a wide range of transportation projects. Projects that can apply for funding may be located on any highway receiving federal aid, which includes the entire National Highway System, any bridge on any public highway, and intracity or intercity bus terminals and facilities. Further, they must be developed consistently with the required Regional Transportation Plan, conform with the Clean Air Act and relevant amendments and other environmental requirements created by law, and abide by Title 23 and/or Title 49 of the U.S. Code.

Project types as defined in Title 23, Chapter 1, Section 133 of the U.S. Code include transit capital projects that provide intercity bus service; highway and bridge projects, including the construction of new projects and the rehabilitation, restoration, resurfacing, and reconstruction of existing projects; transportation safety infrastructure projects, hazard mitigation, railway-highway grade crossing elimination; research and development programs; transportation planning programs; transportation management systems; wetlands and natural habitat mitigation; environmental restoration and pollution abatement programs; and any environmental mitigation and right-of-way construction associated with the above.

Common preventive maintenance programs also funded include seal coats, corrective pavement grinding, drainage system repair, and rehabilitation of joint and shoulders, but not spot applications, which apply for separate normal maintenance funds.

The STP originally included carpool, bicycle, and pedestrian projects, which were expanded under SAFETEA-LU and have been reduced and grouped together as Transportation Alternatives under MAP-21. MAP-21 also added $5 billion in new responsibilities to the Surface Transportation Program, while increasing program funding by $1.2 billion, to $10 billion. MAP-21 folded into the STP the previously separate programs Equity Bonus, Appalachian Development Highway System, and Border Infrastructure Program. Equity Bonus had previously been known as Minimum Guarantee and was designed to return at least 92.5 percent of gas tax revenue to states, a political measure to make the federal gas tax (the rate of which has remained unchanged since 1993) more palatable.

Under MAP-21, the original Equity Bonus program is replaced by a formula to base state apportionments of highway formula funds on each state's share of 2012 apportionments. The Appalachian Development Highway System is a system of roadways and corridors throughout the 13 states of the Appalachian region. MAP-21 left funding for this program unchanged insofar as previously allocated funds remained available, but no new funding was added.

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