FOREWORD

State and local governments often struggle to mobilize the necessary funds to maintain, rebuild, and expand their local transportation networks. Planned projects often face funding or financing hurdles that may result in projects being delayed for years, if not indefinitely, leaving important safety and mobility objectives unmet.

Value capture refers to a set of techniques that generally takes a share of increases in property tax revenues, economic activity, and growth linked to infrastructure investments to help fund current or future improvements. Under the right circumstances, this may allow practitioners to help close funding gaps and accelerate project delivery, as well as provide key to economic development/redevelopment to provide livable communities, create jobs, and environmental stewardship benefits. It is possible to share a portion of this increased value and benefits to fund the improvements to the infrastructure through what are known as "value capture techniques," which include transportation utility fees (TUFs) (the subject of this primer).

This primer was developed by the FHWA EDC-5 Value Capture Implementation Team and is based on interviews, case studies, and lessons learned from practicing agencies. It introduces the concept of TUFs and how they can provide a gap funding source to help maintain and improve road networks. It also provides several cases to illustrate how cities have approached instituting and managing TUFs.