ARTBA’s 2026 Blueprint Signals Major Shifts Ahead for Road Builders

As the industry turns its attention toward the sunset of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2026, a central question hangs over every contractor, producer, and DOT office in America: What comes next?

The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) released a policy blueprint for the next federal highway and public transit bill. Representing 27 leaders from across the transportation construction ecosystem. The document acts as a valuable roadmap, meant to offer important insight to legislators as they face the daunting task of following up and building upon the IIJA’s investments into America’s infrastructure. As good as it was for the industry, it wasn’t perfect, and there are things to learn and takeaway from it.

The report’s core argument is clear: historic levels of investment over the last few years are not enough on their own. 

“Funding alone is not enough,” ARTBA writes. The industry needs a smarter, more efficient, less tangled federal process if America is going to build and maintain the infrastructure required to support a modern economy.

From funding mechanisms to NEPA reform, digital construction technology, Buy America policies, and workforce safety, the blueprint hits every issue this industry has been wrestling with. Below is a full breakdown of the key takeaways, how they intersect with contractor realities, and what they signal about the next several years of federal transportation policy.

The Case for More Federal Investment (and the Reality of Inflation)

ARTBA wastes no time laying out the stakes. Despite “record levels of investment” since IIJA passed in 2021, the devastating effects of inflation have eroded the buying power of those dollars. The report calls for a substantial upward correction in the next reauthorization. Specifically, ARTBA states:

• The next bill should “offset the impact of historic inflation over the past four years by increasing highway investment to $84.6 billion and transit investment to $26.3 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.”
• These increases must “adjust upward in subsequent years over the life of the bill.”

This is a significant departure from the narrative Washington has relied on in the past, and one that emphasized historic spending commitments without acknowledging what inflation does to project budgets and schedules. Contractors are all too familiar with that reality, and it’s good to see that it’s being included as a major factor.

The report backs this position with concrete results from IIJA’s early years, but it also warns that progress will stall if Congress fails to act. To maintain the momentum, the next bill cannot simply extend IIJA levels. According to ARTBA it should look to increase them.

Fixing the Highway Trust Fund: A Non-Negotiable

This is a subject that I’ve written about several times over the last few years, as its continued solvency has risen to the highest levels of importance. From congressional hearings, committee meetings, and bandaid bills passed by congress, it’s clear to see that everyone understands there is a problem that must be solved. However, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) remains structurally unstable, and ARTBA makes it clear that Congress cannot afford to delay addressing it. The organization supports revenue mechanisms that demonstrate a reliable method of funding the federal share of investment, writing:

“ARTBA supports any revenue mechanism that delivers resources to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) at a pace that sustains the federal-share of investment necessary to maintain and improve the nation’s highway and public transportation systems.”

Potential tools on the table include:

• EV fees
• Federal motor fuels tax increases and inflation indexing
• Mileage-based user fees
• Freight fees
• National registration fees

Importantly, ARTBA insists that revenue solutions must be grounded in system use and dedicated entirely to transportation. This is a firm stance, especially at a time when some policymakers float environmental or social revenue structures that pull transportation dollars into unrelated policy agendas.

Reducing Inefficiencies: State Leadership and Regulatory Reform

One of the strongest themes throughout the document is ARTBA’s critique of regulatory redundancy.

The message is blunt: “The impact of federal highway and public transit investment depends not only on investment levels, but on eliminating the inefficiencies that delay projects and dilute outcomes.”

For contractors, this may be the most resonant argument in the entire report. Ask any road builder what slows projects down, and permitting, environmental reviews, and multi-agency approvals will be at the top of the list.

In line with this stance, ARTBA is adamant that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) must be modernized to reflect the fact that “most transportation projects occur in existing rights-of-way.”

Concrete proposals include:

• Making NEPA assignment permanent for participating states
• “Simplifying and standardizing the application process”
• Expanding categorical exclusions for all federal-aid highway and transit projects under $10 million
• Limiting lawsuits to a 120-day window after agency action

What stands out is the organization’s willingness to call out the structure itself as a problem, not just its execution. States that have implemented NEPA assignment are already demonstrating results. According to the report:

• Florida estimates $22 million in annual savings
• Ohio reports $32 million in avoided construction delays and inflation costs
• Utah saves between nine and 11 months by handling NEPA responsibilities

These are not abstract efficiency gains. They are months of saved labor time, avoided idle equipment, and real money kept in contractor pockets.

As a sort of companion argument from ARTBA, they express concerns about the role of discretionary grants. The group calls for a return to a, “90-10 ratio of formula funds to discretionary and allocated grant funds,” and warns that federal agencies must, “refrain from dictating project delivery decisions such as procurement methods and product and material choices.”

This is a direct critique of the way some federal programs overstep into state-level decision-making.

For contractors, this matters because states tend to build more predictably. When federal agencies dictate procurement structures or product types, contractors sometimes enter bidding processes with greater risk and uncertainty. Of course, this sentiment runs into one of the Biden era’s key policy pushes during their time in office: Buy American.

Buy America: Support for the Goal, Warnings About the Reality

This section is particularly relevant to material producers, asphalt plant operators, and contractors who have been navigating domestic sourcing rules since 2022. ARTBA articulated a balanced but unambiguous position: the industry supports the intent of Buy America, but rigid implementation is causing supply chain problems, or, at the very least, it’s bumping into those problems.

To harmonize the two goals, both domestic economic growth and project deliverability, the report makes several proposals:

• Make the waiver review process work
• Refocus the White House Made in America Office (MIAO)
• Preserve existing exclusions
• Establish meaningful ‘de minimis’ thresholds
• Allow contractors a 15 percent surcharge option when domestic products are unavailable

That last point is noteworthy. It gives contractors a pressure valve, a way to keep schedules moving instead of stopping a project over a missing bolt or component that has no domestic supplier. It’s a practical solution to a problem many contractors have dealt with since the IIJA rollout.

Digital Construction and Technology: A Push for Federal Support

ARTBA strongly supports expanded federal investment in digital delivery, writing, “Technology can help transform project delivery by enhancing productivity, collaboration, and cost-effectiveness.”

The report calls for:

• Increased funding for Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems (ADCMS)
• A parallel program focused on work zone safety
• Federal support for lifecycle digital workflows
• Digital integration within NEPA processes

Contractors who have already adopted 3D modeling, machine control, digital twins, or model-as-the-legal-document workflows know how dramatically these tools improve project outcomes. ARTBA is arguing for greater support to institutionalize those gains at scale.

One case study in the report highlights PennDOT’s Gardner Creek Bridge, which was, “finished ahead of schedule thanks to paperless, digital workflows and 3D modeling.”

Work Zone Safety: A Growing Crisis

The industry continues to lose more than 800 workers and motorists each year in work zone incidents, and ARTBA calls this exactly what it is: unacceptable.

In blunt terms: “Motorist and worker fatalities in road construction zones, which exceed 800 annually, are unacceptably high.”

ARTBA’s recommendations include:

• Updated FHWA research into “positive separation” strategies
• Speed camera enforcement and active law enforcement presence
• Expanding the Highway Safety Contingency Fund
• Faster roadside safety hardware testing and approval
• Treating workers as “vulnerable road users” within state safety plans

The group connects technology, funding access, and regulatory reform into a single narrative: better tools and clearer rules save lives.

Workforce: Training, AI, and Human Capital Planning

Workforce shortages were a top concern across nearly every stakeholder we surveyed for our 2026 State of the Industry report. This has been a pain point going back to even before things like COVID and major deportations became factors. ARTBA adds its voice to that chorus but goes further by connecting workforce development to federal policy execution.

The blueprint urges Congress to:

• Expand the Highway Construction Training Program
• Increase funding for University Transportation Centers
• Require U.S. DOT to report how states use workforce-related formula funds
• Integrate AI evaluation into state Human Capital Plans

Their closing statement on this topic sets the tone: “Developing the next generation of roadway construction workers is critical to ensuring the modernization of the nation’s transportation system.”

Where the Blueprint Leaves Us

As we move toward 2026, ARTBA’s reauthorization framework gives the industry a much more detailed, and some might say practical picture of what will shape the next decade of road building.

The federal program we have today is not built for the speed, complexity, or the technological sophistication of the modern transportation system. It’s not built for the labor realities, the inflationary landscape, or the sourcing constraints we are dealing with. And it’s certainly not built for the literal sliding-scale of investment required.

What I found interesting is that ARTBA’s blueprint doesn’t ask Congress to simply spend more money. That is, in some ways, the easier path. It asks Congress to spend smarter, build faster, and center policy around data driven outcomes: safety, mobility, reliability, and the physical condition of the system itself.

As the organization writes in its call to action: “The next highway and public transit law must be more than a funding bill—it must be a strategic reinvestment in America’s future.”

Whether Congress is ready to think that way remains to be seen. But for road builders, producers, and public agencies preparing for the next chapter, this blueprint is the clearest signal yet of where the policy conversation is headed, and why the stakes are so high.