Building together: A state and local transportation summit

Thursday, December 3, 2026, 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20036

America's surface transportation networks—its roads, bridges, rails, and trails—are struggling to meet America's needs, especially within cities, towns, and larger metro regions. Decades spent primarily building highways have created a network that quickly moves people and goods outside regions but struggles to keep people safe, lower travel costs, or reduce environmental hazards within them.

The country needs a new approach to designing and delivering surface transportation projects—common models that will improve safety, boost affordable access, and protect against natural risks. Such systemic reforms will require that states, regional governments, and municipalities find new ways to work together to deliver shared goals.

Join fellow practitioners for a one-day invitation-only event to brainstorm a renewed approach to intergovernmental surface transportation. This summit will bring together a unique combination of public, civic, and private leaders to start building a more partnership-focused surface transportation agenda. Your invitation to Building Together means you are an expert, and we are thrilled to have you in the room. From government officials and business leaders to researchers and philanthropists, you’ll have the unique chance to tackle these shared transportation challenges with your peers from across a variety of institutions.

This is an invite-only, private summit. Invitations are not transferable.
The event will be held under Chatham House rules.
Please do not share any items of the agenda, any speaker names, or any participant names publicly. 

A pre-summit reception will be held on December 2 at 4:00 p.m. 
The summit will include three rounds of discussion topics. When registering below, let us know the three themes you're most interested in. (You're not committing to specific workshops, but helping us design programming around what matters to you.)

• Revenue collection
• Long-range planning
• Project selection
• Scoping, permitting, and design
• Construction and project management
• Performance management
• Coordinating offices
• Fund allocations