WASHINGTON — A former transportation commissioner in New York is in line to head the Federal Highway Administration.

The White House announced Tuesday that President Bush intends to nominate Thomas J. Madison Jr. as administrator of the FHA, the key federal agency for recommending and approving highway projects. The position requires Senate confirmation.

Mr. Madison, who served as state transportation commissioner from 2005 to 2007, has served on the New York State Bridge Authority since 2006 and is president of the Spectra Subsurface Imaging Group, an environmental and engineering consulting firm in Latham. He was also former Gov. George E. Pataki's deputy secretary for transportation, before being appointed transportation commissioner.

He was also Mr. Pataki's director of state and local government affairs, and he held other positions in the Pataki administration.

His appointment could well be short-lived, in the waning months of the Bush administration. But it comes as two large transportation projects loom in Northern New York: the Fort Drum Connector to Interstate 81 that has already undergone design and, much farther from reality, a "rooftop" Interstate that could one day connect Watertown to Plattsburgh and points east.

Mr. Madison headed the state DOT during its review of possible routes for the Fort Drum Connector.

One of Mr. Madison's highlights as transportation commissioner was passage of a $2.9 billion bond act in 2005 to fund transportation projects around the state. However, he also built a reputation advocating for more private funding of highway projects, speaking out for such efforts at a 2005 conference in Alexandria Bay regarding the highway corridor between Washington and Ottawa.

Mr. Madison, a native of the Binghamton area, is a graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo.

The acting FHA administrator, Jim Ray, has been in place since February.