The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service conducts the annual Road, Street, and Highway Finance Survey under contract to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The survey information is utilized to meet both state and federal data reporting requirements.

The Road, Street, and Highway Finance Survey is utilized by localities to report expenditures of maintenance and construction payments by category in accordance with Section 33.2-319 and Section 33.2-366 of the Code of Virginia. The Code requires that localities report audited numbers. As noted below, the survey replaces the old U3 form that urban localities were required to submit to VDOT on an annual basis, in addition to completion of the survey for federal reporting.

Annual Schedule:

The online survey provides data to VDOT that fulfills both the new state reporting requirements and the annual Federal Highway Administration form FHWA-536 requirements. In the past, the data were collected by two instruments, the U3 form and the Cooper Center's survey. Because the data required were so similar, VDOT decided to combine the two sources into one survey. Now with the one new online survey instrument, VDOT receives the data it needs for both the U3 and the FHWA-536 forms.

If for some reason a locality cannot use the online survey, writable PDFs are available. The PDF to be used depends on whether the locality is mandated to track VDOT-eligible funds or not. Localities mandated to track VDOT-eligible funding include cities, towns, and the counties of Arlington, Henrico, and Warren. Arlington and Henrico need their own version of the mandated survey because, unlike other mandated localities, they are required to include capital outlay spending on eligible roads. The remaining localities, usually counties that are not responsible for tracking and spending VDOT funds, still need to complete a survey to indicate what their locality has spent on local roads so that a FHWA-536 form can be completed for VDOT.

Download PDF versions of the survey below:

Survey for mandated cities and towns, including Warren County Survey for Arlington and Henrico counties Survey for nonmandated counties Survey Instructions

For questions regarding the survey instrument, please contact Stephen Kulp at 434.982.5638 (email: sck7x@virginia.edu) at the Cooper Center.

For questions regarding VDOT reporting requirements, please contact Sharon McGhee in VDOT’s Local Assistance Division at (804) 225-4466 or visit the Local Assistance Division webpage at http://www.virginiadot.org/business/local-assistance.asp