The U.S. Senate confirmed Sean McMaster as administrator of the Federal Highway Administration on September 18 in a 51 to 47 vote.
McMaster – a former executive with the Boeing aerospace company and also a former vice president with infrastructure consulting firm HNTB – stressed in his hearing in May that safety would be his top priority at FHWA as he seeks to guide the agency in its mission to build and restore roads, bridges, and tunnels across the nation.
“As the transportation industry is painfully aware, delays in project delivery can delay safety enhancements and drive up project costs,” he said. “Data from FHWA’s National Highway Construction Cost Index shows that transportation construction costs have increased from 1.91 in March 2021 to 3.19 in March 2024; a 67 percent increase.”
McMaster – who previously worked as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation, has been currently serving as senior advisor to USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy, focusing on the administration’s surface transportation funding reauthorization efforts. McMaster said FHWA must look forward as the current surface transportation funding authorization, contained within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA of 2021, is set to expire at the end of September 2026.
While working in the private sector he said witnessed “first-hand the impacts to cost, schedule, and delivery of essential infrastructure projects during my time at HNTB working directly with state and local leaders as they were challenged to identify and attain federal funding in time to support their critical transportation infrastructure needs.”
That is why he believes “it is essential that we build projects more quickly and efficiently.”