---
kind: "section"
citation: "23 U.S.C. § 302"
title: "23"
title_heading: "Highways"
number: "302"
heading: "State transportation department"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/23/302"
units:
  - "Chapter 3 — General Provisions"
---

# §302. State transportation department

- (a) Any [State](/usc/23/101.md?p=a-28) desiring to avail itself of the provisions of this title shall have a [State transportation department](/usc/23/101.md?p=a-31) which shall have adequate powers, and be suitably equipped and organized to discharge to the satisfaction of the [Secretary](/usc/23/101.md?p=a-27) the duties required by this title. In meeting the provisions of this subsection, a [State](/usc/23/101.md?p=a-28) may engage, to the extent necessary or desirable, the services of private engineering firms.
- (b) **Effect of Compliance.—** Compliance with [subsection (a)](#a) shall have no effect on the eligibility of costs.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 85–767, Aug. 27, 1958, 72 Stat. 912; Pub. L. 89–574, § 11, Sept. 13, 1966, 80 Stat. 770; Pub. L. 105–178, title I, § 1212(a)(1), (2)(A)(i), (B)(ii), June 9, 1998, 112 Stat. 193.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1998—Pub. L. 105–178, § 1212(a)(2)(B)(ii), substituted “State transportation department” for “State highway department” in section catchline.

Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–178, § 1212(a)(1)(A), (2)(A)(i), substituted “State transportation department” for “State highway department” and struck out after first sentence “Among other things, the organization shall include a secondary road unit.”

Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 105–178, § 1212(a)(1)(B), added subsec. (b) and struck out former subsec. (b) which read as follows: “The State highway department may arrange with a county or group of counties for competent highway engineering personnel suitably organized and equipped to the satisfaction of the State highway department, to supervise construction and maintenance on a county-unit or group-unit basis, for the construction of proj­ects on the Federal-aid secondary system, financed with secondary funds, and for the maintenance thereof.”