Fix it first
If your house has a leaky roof, you fix that before remodeling your kitchen. The federal transportation program should do the same and prioritize existing maintenance needs ahead of building new things which require decades of additional repair costs.
These investments in expansion don’t just redirect funds away from much-needed investments in repair; they continually grow our annual spending needs, widening the gap. Every new lane-mile of road costs approximately $24,000 per year to preserve in a state of good repair. By expanding roads, we are borrowing against the future. – Beth Osborne, T4America
Roads are not assets, they're liabilities
Expanding the system while ignoring basic maintenance is a recipe for disaster. From 2009-17 we added enough miles to the public road network to build a new road back and forth across our enormous country 83 times. And every single new lane-mile or bridge requires decades of ongoing maintenance costs.
Dive into our repair data hub
The expensive failures of expansion
Despite endless promises that the next new lanes will “fix” congestion, the billions spent on this strategy has only made congestion worse, costing Americans more in time and transportation costs and creating billions in long-term maintenance liabilities.
Learn more about induced demand
The public believes we should prioritize repair
Doing so would be enormously popular across the political divide. In a 2020 T4America poll, 79 percent agreed the government should fix existing roads before building new ones and 73 percent said state governments should have to justify building any new roads. In this 2023 poll, “building new highways and freeways” was the least popular long-term solution for reducing traffic.
Our priorities are the problem
It's not a money problem. The last two decades have proven that pouring more money into the same flawed system is failing to make it any better. Congress has to stop asking taxpayers for more funding to fix crumbling roads and bridges when they do not prioritize taking care of what those taxpayers have already paid for. Federal funding needs to be primarily focused on achieving a state of good repair.
The need to prioritize repair
$830 billion
The estimated cost of repairing existing highways.
43,000
The total number of U.S. bridges in poor condition.
223,494
The total growth of the U.S. road network (in lane-miles) from 2009-17. It's enough to drive across the US 83 times.
79%
The share of voters who believe government should fix existing roads before building any new roads.
D
The score for U.S. road conditions in the American Society of Civli Engineers 2001 report card. After giving states billions to spend on whatever they choose, roads were a D+ in 2025.
Read recent coverage of this principle:
Our proposals for transportation reauthorization
How can policymakers turn this principle into concrete policies in the next five-year federal transportation law? Read our expanded set of policy proposals for Congress.
Our other two principles
Design for safety over speed
Any serious effort to reduce deaths on our streets and roads requires slower speeds. Federal funding should require approaches and street designs that put safety first.
Invest in the rest
For 60 years we’ve invested hundreds of billions of dollars in highways. Now it’s time to invest in the rest to create a complete transportation network so more Americans can safely travel by foot, bike, bus, or train.