This year’s federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides approximately $158 million in stimulus funding for highway and bridge improvements and $9 million for public transit improvements in Wyoming.

This funding has served as an important down payment on needed road, highway, bridge and transit improvements but is not sufficient to allow the state to proceed with numerous projects needed to modernize its surface transportation system.

With the current federal transportation program set to expire this month, Congress has an opportunity to approve a new federal surface transportation program that could include a significant boost in funding for highway and transit improvements in Wyoming.

“This report demonstrates that the critical needs for a safe and efficient transportation system are still ongoing and not going away regardless of the tight economic times in which we find ourselves,” said Jonathan Downing, Wyoming Contractors Association Executive Vice President, also in a written statement.

The full TRIP report is available on the organization’s Website at www.tripnet.org.