Is the US route system a federal program?
No. The designation of US route numbers is handled by AASHTO ( Question 4.2 ), not FHWA ( Question 4.1 ) – see http://www.trafficsign.us/uspolicy.html . State participation in the US route system is voluntary, not mandated by federal law. The system did begin as a federal program (see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.htm ). Jun 27, 2005 7.1.1 Q: Do federal funds support the US system? A: Generally no. Although the US system was primarily built with federal funds (see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.htm ), currently US highways are generally state-maintained (except for states which give maintenance to respective municipalities within those municipalities, and for the part of US-206 in northern NJ which is county-maintained as part of Sussex CR-521 from Culvers Inlet to Montague) and therefore only receive state funds except in special cases, such as when they are part of the National Highway System (see Question 7.7 ). Ironically, where US routes do become
