Nevada is in line to get millions of dollars from the federal government.
Along with the badly needed cash comes a federal designation to help the state with its planned interstate route linking Las Vegas with Reno and Phoenix.
The new transportation dollars are part of a five-year, $305-billion transportation bill signed by President Barack Obama.
"We haven't had a long-term transportation bill for 16 years," Tony Illia, public information officer with the Nevada Department of Transportation, told KNPR's State of Nevada.
Illia said the state would have to deal with federal funding bills that would be law for one or two years at the most.
"When you're operating every 12 months ... it's really hard to do any long-term planning. As a result the bigger, more ambitious projects ten to get shelved in favor of maintenance minded work."
The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which President Obama sign on Dec. 4, allocates $1.9 billion to Nevada for five eyars, or about $385 million annually.
Tony Illia, public information officer, Nevada Department of Transportation