Highway Needs

An Evaluation of DOT's Process for Assessing the Nation's Highway Needs Gao ID: RCED-87-136 August 7, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Department of Transportation's Highway Performance and Monitoring System (HPMS) to determine the reasonableness of its highway needs assessment.

GAO found that: (1) the data collection procedures that the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) and states used in preparing HPMS were statistically sound; (2) FHwA did not test the model's sensitivity to changes in key input data; (3) although FHwA scheduled a calibration test to determine how closely past and future needs paralleled actual capital investments, it did not develop a test methodology or establish a test completion date; (4) FHwA did not include sufficient information for model users in its technical manuals; and (5) the report presented total highway needs amounting to $315 billion through the year 2000, but it did not indicate that about one-half of that amount represented existing backlogged needs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.