Dive Brief:

• Not all states spent all the money sent to them for highway projects as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
• The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation says that states have a total of about $1.6 billion from an original  allocation of $27.5 billion.
• The law puts limits on how money can be moved around in states, but the IG says there are ways the Federal Highway Administration can help states get more money into use before it all disappears on Sept. 30, 2015.

Dive Insight:

Both the recovery act and FHWA regulations get in the way of some ideas for either spending uncommitted money or reallocation money that was committed to a project but not spent on it. There are still ways, however, that FHWA can help states commit the money that has a "use it or lose it" provision.