In a report from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, some states are experimenting with controversial new taxes to pay for highway construction. Special correspondent Lee Hochberg reports from Oregon, where officials are looking into charging drivers a tax based on the number of miles they drive in lieu of a highly-debated gas tax.

At midnight Wednesday, the federal transportation law funding national highway and transit programs expired. Amid a lack of consensus in Congress on what to do—as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been at odds with both the Senate and the Obama Administration—the current law was extended for one-month. However, it is a short-term fix.

Every six years the law authorizing national transportation policy and funding needs renewal. The current law expires Sept. 30 -- in nine days.

With Congress back after a summer recess, President Barack Obama, in an address before both the House and Senate on Wednesday, again made clear that the government’s business at this moment is health care reform. As a result, major climate legislation has been delayed twice in the Senate by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. At the same time, similar legislation in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- a $450 billion bill to overhaul transportation funding and policy nationally -- has not been put off, at least by Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D., Minn.).

What do you call a highway program that just keeps going long after its original goals were achieved? A zombie highway. Blueprint America -- with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -- goes to Birmingham, Alabama, to look into the Northern Beltline, a road that will cost more than $3 billion, most of which will be paid for by taxpayers nationwide.

An exchange with Phillip Wiedmeyer, a leading advocate for Birmingham's Northern Beltline, about the argument for more highway building in Alabama -- it's a how to on Zombie Higways.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr in a web report from Alabama on the environmental impact of building highways, and the growth they can create.

An update to the Blueprint Colorado project: A series of short videos produced by Rocky Mountain PBS on Denver's Living Streets initiative.

Then, Colorado State of Mind on Rocky Mountain PBS talks with Colorado's state planners to see how the state is managing its infrastructure.

Rep. Jim Oberstar (D., MN), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has been at odds with the Obama Administration on when to take up his recently introduced transportation bill: THE SURFACE TRANSPORTATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2009.