Barack Obama

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced President Barack Obama’s $94.7bn Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Budget for the US Department of Transportation.

Secretary Foxx said: "Our budget proposal lays the foundation for a future where our transportation infrastructure meets the demands of a growing population and an economy that depends on the free flow of freight.

"This administration is looking towards the horizon – the future – but to do this, we need Congress’ partnership to pass a long-term reauthorisation to put Americans to work rebuilding America."

The president’s latest budget said to provide additional certainty with a six-year $478bn surface transportation reauthorisation proposal that would improve highways, ports and transit networks in the US.

"We need Congress’ partnership to pass a long-term reauthorisation to put Americans to work rebuilding America."

Under the new proposal, all levels of government, including federal, state and local, will need to spend at a minimum $124bn a year, while the existing spending stands at $100bn in order to keep the roads and bridges in good condition.

The six-year budget also includes $317bn to rebuild America’s roads and bridges in order to tackle the country’s infrastructure deficit and support job creation.

The budget proposal is said to increase funding for the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by an average of 20%, providing $6bn to address safety defects on the highways.

Through the Critical Immediate Safety Investments programme, the budget provides $29bn for targeted infrastructure investments for deficient roads and bridges.

Building on the department’s commitment to safety on US roads, the budget invests $935m over six years in the future of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), including $158m in FY 2016 to accelerate research on vehicle automation and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology.

The budget includes $41.7m in FY 2016 to establish data collections sites and expand the agencies’ analytical capacity and modernise and improve NHTSA’s data collection tools.

Image: US President Barack Obama. Photo: courtesy of Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.