Infra Insight Blog

Federal transportation officials are contemplating new contract rules that would make it easier for states and cities to hire local residents to work on transportation projects.  Federal rules currently prohibit the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from allowing contract provisions that do not directly relate to the bidder's performance of work.  Thus, local hiring provisions have not been allowed in procurements for federally funded projects.  This month, however, U.S. Transportation Secretary, Anthony Foxx, announced a ...

"Best value" procurements are sometimes criticized as involving a "black box" decision-making process.  A recent report issued by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) discusses practices to increase transparency in such procurements.  The report is NCHRP’s latest installment of its Synthesis of Highway Practice, issued on March 5, 2015.  A resource for public agencies, this synthesis addresses best practices for developing transparent best value selection procedures in public procurements.  These concepts are of particular interest to public and ...

The Second Annual Conference of the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance (MBUFA) was held in Washington, DC on February 24, 2015.  The MBUFA is a non-profit organization that promotes awareness and education about mileage-based user fees as an alternative for the future funding of improvements to the U.S. transportation system.  Attendees included policy makers, public sector representatives and private sector stakeholders weighing in on the topic Sustainable Transportation Funding, Road User Fees: Is There Another Option for Achieving Financial Sustainability?   The concept of a ...

Earlier today, President Barack Obama released his approximately $4 trillion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2016, which begins on October 1 of this year.  While the President’s proposed budget covers everything from defense to diseases, he has included a particularly ambitious proposal for transportation.

The President’s proposed budget provides $94.7 billion in funding for the Department of Transportation (US DOT), covering infrastructure development and safety enhancement in highways and bridges, transit, railroads, and aviation.  The President is proposing a ...

This Friday, January 23, 2015, California will take the first step in investigating a road user charge pilot program as an alternative to the gas tax when the CTC convenes the Road User Charge Advisory Committee meeting.  The committee was created last year by SB 1077 which authorizes a pilot study.  California joins a handful of other states that are exploring road user charge pilot programs, including Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota.

The 15 member committee is made up of representatives of local and regional agencies, privacy advocates, auto groups and state officials.  According ...

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) has announced that it will hold its annual Public-Private Partnerships in Transportation Conference on July 15-17, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Washington in Washington, DC.  This year’s conference, entitled P3s in Transition: The Next Chapter, will again feature a P3 owners-only meeting and interactive sessions, including the continuation of the Great Debate series exploring whether unsolicited proposals add value to P3s.

ARTBA’s annual conference is the nation’s premier and longest-standing event for ...

Javier Rodriguez, P.E., Executive Director of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), is ready to begin his role as president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) for 2015.  Rodriguez was elected during IBTTA’s 82nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Austin, which brought together nearly 1,000 transportation leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss innovative practices, policies, technologies, funding options and business models transforming mobility for drivers worldwide.

As the executive director of MDX, Rodriguez led the ...

On January 6, 2015, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (the Authority) achieved a significant milestone — the groundbreaking of the only high-speed rail system in the United States. Gathering at the site of the future train station in downtown Fresno, federal, state and local government officials, as well as hundreds of student, community, transportation, business and labor leaders celebrated the start of construction for the largest infrastructure project in the United States.

California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. commented on the importance of the high-speed ...

Guest post by Mark Romoff, President and CEO, The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships

On December 9, 2014, Ontario’s Auditor General released her 2014 Annual Report, sharply criticizing Ontario’s Alternative Financing and Procurement (AFP or P3) program and suggesting a return to using the traditional method of delivering public infrastructure to achieve savings in taxpayer money.  The report expresses skepticism about the cost-saving benefits of the P3 delivery model, directly contradicting what is widely viewed by P3 players and the Canadian public ...

On December 9, the DC Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) held its annual holiday party and awards ceremony at the Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC.  Attending the event was U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx who received the Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award for his advocacy of the White House’s Ladders of Opportunity initiative.  In accepting the award, Secretary Foxx emphasized the importance of infrastructure to connect communities together and improve the quality of life for all Americans.

Receiving the first Man of the Year Award ...

On November 17, 2014, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest U.S. public pension fund with approximately $300 billion in assets, conducted its annual real assets program review. CalPERS’ real assets program includes real estate, infrastructure and forestland. According to the presentation by its investment staff, real assets’ 13.4% return outperformed the policy benchmark by 160 bps in 2013-2014 fiscal year. CalPERS’ infrastructure program has focused on both public and private infrastructure primarily in transportation ...

As part of its continuing effort to help inform and contribute to the design-build and P3 industry in the U.S., Nossaman is launching an on-going series of blog posts on Emerging Trends in Project Delivery.

Our blog posts for the industry generally are geared toward keeping our readers up to date on current developments regarding projects, programs, laws and regulations.  The Emerging Trends series will add another dimension – a look just over the horizon at what we and our guest bloggers predict may be coming, informed by prior patterns, opinions and results.  If by doing this we can ...

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently released an updated version of its popular roadmap of US transportation funding options, Matrix of Illustrative Surface Transportation Revenue Options, which may be accessed here.

The tool examines the five surface transportation revenue sources currently in place and considers 33 other potential sources of revenue. Updates to the tool include a bubble display and bar chart that allow users to see how much revenue the funding sources considered might generate. The tool is intended to ...

On October 10 through 12, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) held their 24th Annual Public-Private Partnerships in Transportation Conference in Washington, DC.  Each year during this conference, the ARTBA P3 Division honors two individuals, one public sector and one private sector, for their exemplary contributions to the transportation industry. 

This year we are proud to announce that Nossaman's Geoff Yarema was named "P3 Private Sector Entrepreneur of the Year."  Geoff is the first two-time recipient of this award, having received the award in ...