Dive Brief:

• The American Road and Transportation Builders Association says it believes overall transportation investment next year will be $138.5 billion in 2014, a 5% rise from where this year is expected to finish.
• Within that, airport work should be up by double digits, bridge and tunnel by 6%, and water and rail by 5%.
• The soft spot in the forecast is highways, with no one knowing if Congress will save the Highway Trust Fund for Fiscal Year 2015, but ARTBA predicts paving work will be up from 2013 in 19 states, down in 20 states and flat in 11 states.

Dive Insight:

It seems that any discussion of highway work comes back around to the Highway Trust Fund, which currently is forecast to have zero dollars for new projects after next Sept. 30, and funding of states' accounts. There seems to be wide agreement that fixed-price fuel taxes fall far short of covering today's construction costs even if consumption were constant. And more efficient all-fuel cars and trucks and hybrid and all-electric vehicles have canceled that assumption, too.