The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will provide $15.5m to six states across the nation, which are engaged in exploring new ways to fund highway and bridge projects.

The surface transportation system funding alternatives (STSFA) grants are awarded for the projects to test design, implementation, and acceptance of user-based alternative revenue tools.

As part of this initiative, the FHWA officials selected seven proposals from six states, including California, Colorado, Delaware, Missouri, Washington, and Oregon.

FHWA acting Administrator Brandye Hendrickson said: “To ensure the US road system is the best in the world, we can no longer rely solely on the federal gas tax and the Highway Trust Fund.

“New sources of funding for the design, construction, and repair of our nation’s roadways have never been more necessary, and these grants will help open the door to new financial innovations.”

“New sources of funding for the design, construction, and repair of our nation’s roadways have never been more necessary, and these grants will help open the door to new financial innovations.”

The seven projects will focus on the development of various user-based approaches to raising 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 be designed and developed to address challenges involved in implementing user-based fees such as public acceptance, privacy protection, equity and geographic diversity.

They will also assess the dependability and security of the technologies to implement mileage-based fees.