Flexible match allows a wide variety of public and private contributions to be counted toward the non-Federal match of Federal-aid projects. Flexible match allows States the opportunity to recognize the many tangible contributions made to the construction and maintenance of the highway system. States do not have to appropriate extra cash simply to use Federal-aid highway funds apportioned to them by law. The NHS Act and TEA-21 introduced new flexibility to the matching requirements for the Federal-aid program by allowing certain private donations of cash, land, materials, and services to satisfy the non-Federal matching requirement.
Flexible match provisions increase a State's ability to fund its transportation programs by:
∙ Accelerating certain projects that receive donated resources;
∙ Allowing States to reallocate funds to other transportation projects that otherwise would have been used to meet Federal-aid matching requirements; and
∙ Promoting public-private partnerships by providing incentives to seek private donations.
In Maine, flexible match was used to advance the construction of an Auburn intermodal truck/rail transfer facility. The State of Maine partnered with local rail lines to build the truck-to-rail transfer facility in Auburn, about 40 miles north of Portland. The facility, now known as the Maine Intermodal Terminal, is a successful public-private partnership that was funded in large part-approximately $3 million-by the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. The value of the private railroad's contribution of materials, equipment, and labor was credited toward the match.