‘Highway Trust Fund 101’ explains program

Much is written these days about the federal Highway Trust Fund, which is meant to be a primary source of money for keeping the country’s bridges and highways repaired.

The Highway Trust Fund helps pay for highway construction and maintenance in the U.S.

But just what is the fund, how does it operate and what are the financial problems it faces?

The Eno Center for Transportation, which calls itself a “non-partisan think tank,” has created an explanation it calls Highway Trust Fund 101.

While it may never be made into a major motion picture, the document does offer some good insights into this much-discussed and often-debated funding program. Here’s part of the document’s summary to give you a taste of what it’s all about:

“This document updates the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Highway Trust Fund Primer that was released in 1998. This updated document provides basic information about the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), including how the fund works, its sources of revenue and balances, and other budgetary and regulatory influences. This primer uses a “question and answer” format to explore the key facets of the operation of the HTF, and aims to provide a basis for exploring approaches to solving the current funding challenges for surface transportation and Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) reauthorization.”

Read the entire document.