The US Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded $14.2m in grants to test new ways of funding the Highway Trust Fund.

Awarded under the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives (STSFA) programme, FHWA seeks to find alternative sources to generate revenue to help sustain the long-term solvency of the fund.

The STSFA grant programme will fund projects to test the design, implementation and acceptance of user-based alternative revenue mechanisms. STSFA was established under the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

"More investment in transportation in greatly needed, and we must find new solutions to prepare for the travel demands of the nation’s growing population."

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said: “Reliable funding is essential to ensuring we have a sound transportation system to support the economy.

“More investment in transportation in greatly needed, and we must find new solutions to prepare for the travel demands of the nation’s growing population.”

The new programme will help the government in addressing some concerns that are outlined beyond traffic issues. Last year’s USDOT report studied the challenges that could be faced by the American transportation infrastructure in next three decades.

The study mainly focused on issues such as a rapidly growing population and increasing traffic conditions in the country. It also hinted towards an increase in traffic jams across the nation unless changes are made soon.

Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau said: “We’re thinking ahead about ways to fund our highway system and be equipped for the nation’s economic future.

"It’s a system people rely upon for their jobs and essential services, for businesses to serve their customers and for freight shippers to deliver their goods.”

The eight projects will concentrate on various options to raise revenue, including on-board vehicle technologies to charge drivers based on miles travelled and multi-state or regional approaches to road user charges.

The projects will also deal with general challenges involved with implementing user-based fees such as public acceptance, privacy protection, equity and geographic diversity, and will also evaluate the reliability and security of the technologies available to implement mileage-based fees.