Infra Insight Blog

Commonly when we think about state government owned railways, the image of commuter or light rail operations come to mind.  But many states own freight railroads as well.  In a few instances a state may have started its own line, while in other situations a state may have stepped in to preserve a rail line from abandonment.

Oklahoma is one of these states that have purchased rail corridors facing abandonment.  One such example is the Cowboy Sub, a 22-mile rail line originally purchased from the BNSF Railway Company in 1998 to save the rail line from abandonment.  Now, the Oklahoma DOT seeks to ...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes to amend (81 Fed. Reg. at 26611) (May 3, 2016) a 2004 rule, restricting expenditure of proceeds from passenger facility charges (PFC) funds to airport access infrastructure used only by airport patrons and workers, in order to allow more flexibility on the use of PFCs on airport rail projects. The proposed PFC policy change could provide additional funding and finance options for airports and transit systems working to improve intermodal connections and give the public better access to the nation's airports.

PFCs are airline ...

On May 13th, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the Metropolitan Council’s Southwest LRT Project, a major step forward for the $1.79 billion project. The Met Council is the regional policy-making body, planning agency, and a provider of essential services for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region.

The FEIS

The FEIS outlines the Met Council’s commitments to deal with those impacts throughout construction and operation of the Southwest LRT Project.

Input from the public directly shaped the ...

Lower gas prices and decreased revenue from California’s Price Based Excise Tax (PBET) on gasoline are taking their toll on the state’s transportation funding.  California Transportation Commission (CTC) staff recently recommended enormous decreases in the upcoming five-year State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).  The CTC Commission will consider the staff’s recommendations and is expected to make a final decision at its meeting on May 18 and 19.

The staff’s recommendations include no new transportation projects in the next five years, as well as ...

Voting and registration are officially open for the P3 Awards Gala hosted by InfraAmericas and The Performance Based Building Coalition (PBBC) which takes place on Monday, June 13 in New York City prior to the annual US P3 Forum held on June 15-16. The US P3 Forum is the P3 industry’s premier gathering of infrastructure professionals including infrastructure developers, investors, financiers, state and federal public officials and regional transportation authorities.

Voting

This industry awards dinner recognizes individual achievement in advancing P3 projects. The ...

On April 18, 2016, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) reached an initial milestone in its Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) by issuing instructions for how automated people mover operating system suppliers can request a determination of their eligibility to participate in an upcoming procurement.

As part of an overall modernization program at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), LAWA is undertaking LAMP to alleviate congestion and provide better landside passenger movement around LAX.  The major elements of LAMP include a consolidated rental car center ...

Governor Pete Rickets followed through on a promise to rethink infrastructure delivery in Nebraska.  Signing LB 960, the Transportation Innovation Act, into law, Nebraska is poised to clear its backlog of highway development in the state.  The new law passed unanimously in mid-April.

The Transportation Innovation Act reserved $50 million of Nebraska’s cash reserve and allocated approximately $400 million of gas tax revenue to the end of completing a 132-mile portion of an envisioned 600 mile expressway system within the State by 2033.  New tools available to the Nebraska ...

For years, policymakers and economists around the country have been well aware that the federal gas tax is dying.

In its report to Congress, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, on which I was honored to serve, made clear that we must replace the 18.4 cent federal gas tax with other means of funding transportation in order to maintain and improve our highways, bridges and transit systems in the United States.

The commission recommended a road user charge as the most effective approach to solving this problem.

[If] we fail to address the immediate ...

On April 6, 2016, the Maryland Board of Public Works unanimously approved the public-private partnership (P3) agreement for the Maryland Purple Line light-rail transit project, concluding the 30-day review period described in our previous blog.  The contract documents previously signed by the concessionaire have now been signed by the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Secretary Pete Rahn and the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) Administrator, Paul Comfort.

At the Board of Public Works hearing, Comptroller Peter Franchot praised both the Governor ...

On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, Florida’s Governor Rick Scott signed two bills that further advance the state’s existing public-private partnership (P3) framework and provide additional guidance for implementing P3s. The two new laws will go into effect on July 1, 2016.

SB 124 amends the 2013 law that authorizes counties, municipalities, school boards, and other political subdivisions to use P3s for a wide range of facilities, including education facilities, transportation facilities, water/wastewater facilities, roads, highways and bridges, healthcare facilities ...