Mission Accomplished
- The Interstate Was Finished. The Program Wasn’t.
The Interstate Highway mission ended in 1992. The Highway Trust Fund did not. We now face record spending, growing maintenance gaps, and projects that don’t match local realities.
Explore how we got here, and the Strong Towns approach to what comes next.
This Matters Now
The Highway Trust Fund Expires on September 30, 2026.
Congress will soon debate the next reauthorization. If better ideas aren’t part of that conversation, the system will likely renew itself again.
Mission Accomplished, the new white paper from Strong Towns, offers a disciplined path forward.
Get It
Download the "Mission Accomplished," the new white paper from Strong Towns, today.
Read It
Dive into how the Interstate mission drifted into permanent expansion, why more money isn’t fixing the problem, and a proposal to for a new federal role.
Share It
Use the ideas and language from "Mission Accomplished" to share what you learn and start new conversations with neighbors and representatives.
From unfocused spending and unnecessary expansion to stewardship.
Completing the Mission (and beyond)
The Interstate System was a historic success — and it was finished. Learn how a time-limited national project became a permanent expansion program with no clear stopping point.
The Cost of Misplaced Priorities
Historic spending hasn’t closed the gap — it’s helped widen it. Learn how federal incentives distort state and local decisions, growing maintenance backlogs while consuming the resources we need elsewhere.
A New Federal Approach
If we were designing federal transportation policy today, we wouldn’t build the one we have. Learn how Strong Towns would approach a focused reset, declaring "mission accomplished" on the Interstate era and revising the federal role.
- Systems change slowly. Conversations change first.
Download, read, and share "Mission Accomplished" to change the conversation around highway expansion.
