Infra Insight Blog

On Friday, September 5, 2014, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published its final rule for Value Engineering (VE) for road and bridge projects.  The new rule implements changes made to VE requirements under Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the last surface transportation authorization law that was signed into law in July 2012.

The FHWA’s final rule for VE increases the project thresholds that trigger a VE analysis, eliminates the VE analysis requirement for design-build projects, and defines the requirements for a state Department of ...

Earlier this week, on August 25, 2014, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published Circular 7050.1, providing much anticipated guidance for grantees interested in pursuing joint development projects within FTA’s legal and regulatory framework.  The circular incorporates joint-development related provisions from MAP-21, and is intended to clarify FTA’s policy and serve as its single guidance document on the subject.

Specifically, the circular: (1) defines the term joint development; (2) explains how a joint development project can qualify for FTA assistance; ...

On August 22, 2014, the Texas Department of Transportation and Abrams-Kiewit Joint Venture (Developer) reached commercial close on the Loop 375 Border Highway West Extension Project (Project).  The contract, which includes design-build and comprehensive maintenance agreements (collectively the CDA), was conditionally awarded to the Developer in April of this year.  Developer is a joint venture consisting of J.D. Abrams and Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.

The Project is located west of downtown El Paso, south of Interstate Highway 10 (I-10) and extends approximately nine ...

In an historic move, Standard & Poor’s upgraded the Orange County Transportation Agency SR91 Express Lanes Toll Revenue Bonds to AA-, making it one the highest rated managed lanes projects in the world.  The bonds were issued last year to refund bonds that were issued in 2003 when OCTA acquired the SR91 Express Lanes project from the private consortium that developed the project under California’s prior P3 law.

The 91 Express Lanes is a four-lane, 10-mile toll road built in the median of California’s Riverside Freeway, State Route 91, between the Orange/Riverside County line and ...

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx chaired a virtual town hall meeting, entitled Moving from Uncertainty to Long-Term Transportation Investment, on August 6, 2014.  The town hall was open to the general public, as well as business leaders, transportation advocates, and state and local government officials.  Secretary Foxx discussed the United States Department of Transportation’s (US DOT) vision for the future of transportation, as well as answered questions from attendees about transportation policy.

In his opening remarks, and throughout the question and answer ...

On August 3, 2014, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the Port of Miami achieved an important milestone when the est. $1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel opened for traffic.  The project consists of twin tunnels under Biscayne Bay linking Port facilities on Dodge Island with a widened MacArthur Causeway and I-395.  One of the first public-private partnerships in the United States to use an availability payment contracting structure, the tunnel improves access for freight trucks and cruise passengers, reducing traffic congestion in downtown Miami and improving air ...

Congress passed a bill (HR 5021) to provide a short-term funding patch for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), just one day before the United States Department of Transportation was scheduled to begin slowing reimbursements to states for eligible highway, bridge, and mass transit projects.  A failure to act by Congress had the potential to slow-down or stop any number of transportation construction projects across the country in the midst of the construction season.

After volleying the bill back and forth between the chambers over the course of this week, Congress passed a final bill that ...

The Regents of the University of California (the Regents), on behalf of the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), announced on August 1, 2014 that it received Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) from six teams in response to a Request for Qualifications for the UC Merced 2020 P3 Project.

The respondents and their equity members are (in alphabetical order):

• Edgemoor Plenary EdR Partners (EP2):  Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate LLC, Plenary Group USA Ltd., and Education Realty Trust, Inc.
• E3 2020:  Balfour Beatty Investments, Inc.
• Gateway2Learn:  HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions ...

During the Use of WIFIA breakout session at the NCPPP P3 Connect conference this week in Denver, Elizabeth Corr, Associate Division Director for the EPA, confirmed that the agency will not need to complete the formal federal rulemaking process to implement the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.  The Act, or WIFIA, was recently enacted by Congress to make low cost loans and loan guarantees available to public and private sponsors of water projects and is based on the highly successful TIFIA program for transportation projects.  Ms. Corr mentioned that EPA conducted its ...

After a re-boot, the National Conference for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP) concluded a three day summit July 30 in Denver, Colorado on all things P3.

NCPPP’s P3 Connect annual meeting held programs addressing P3 project delivery in the water/waste water, federal and state disaster recovery, U.S. Department of Defense/U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) and emerging social infrastructure spaces, in addition to the more traditional transportation/transit spaces that has seen recent sustained growth in the United States.

Nossaman’s Barney Allison ...