The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded the MAASTO Regional Truck Parking Information Management System (TPIMS) team an additional $6.2 million in funding over its original $25 million grant. TPIMS project manager, Davonna Moore, stressed that this extra funding is an acknowledgement by the federal government that truck parking is an important issue that needs addressing. “Receiving the additional $6.25 Million dollars to the TPIMS project demonstrates the recognition by our Federal partners that this project is not only a needed resource, but also acknowledges the hard work by the TPIMS Partnership to get this project done on time and on budget” says Moore, who is the Assistant Bureau Chief of Transportation Planning for the Kansas Dept. of Transportation, one of the participating TPIMS project partners.

The project team was informed of the potential funding in August, and final approval of the additional funding came from FHWA in September. The extra funding will be allocated later this year after all states have completed their fee negotiations with contractors and construction has begun. At such time, funding will first be allocated to cover overages from bids that exceeded individual state’s estimates for constructing their portion of the system. After covering state overages, the remaining funds will go towards strategically adding sites on TPIMS corridors. Additional sites will be ones that were considered in preliminary design, but excluded in final design due to previous funding constraints. “The additional funding will enable us to provide much-needed truck parking information to more truckers and move us closer to a national system for doing so.”