Infra Insight Blog

At its first regular meeting since the retirement of Amadeo Saenz, Jr. at the end of August, the Texas Transportation Commission named its choice for his replacement.  Effective October 17, 2011, former Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson began his new job as TxDOT’s 19th Executive Director.  Mr. Wilson comes to TxDOT from Luminant, a Dallas-based electric generation company, where he was the senior vice president of public affairs.

In addition to his position as Texas’ Secretary of State, Mr. Wilson’s history of public service includes time working for both former U.S ...

On October 24, 2011, the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI), an organization of more than 40 toll road operators founded in 2007 for the purpose of promoting and implementing interstate interoperability, will commence pilot operations for four license plate interoperability hubs.  Pursuant to the Interoperability Network Pilot Program (INPP), separate hubs established by four vendors (ACS [a subsidiary of Xerox ], Federal Signal, Cofiroute USA, and Secure Interagency Flow [a CS/Egis joint venture]) will receive license plate data from six tolling agencies (E470 in ...

Nossaman's Geoff Yarema, chair of the Firm's Infrastructure Practice Group and a Commissioner on the Congressionally mandated National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, provided testimony this week to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, "Hearing on National Infrastructure Bank: More Bureaucracy & More Red Tape."

As discussed in a previous blog post, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently set new level-entry boarding requirements for disabled passengers on intercity and commuter railroads through amended regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (76 Fed. Reg. 57924).

In the proposed rule, USDOT stated its intent to require passenger railroads to provide level-entry boarding at all new or altered station platforms, unless the passenger railroad could show that level boarding was infeasible.  In the final rule, USDOT retained the level-boarding ...

In a recent move that will have wide-ranging impact on the rail industry, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) set new level-entry boarding requirements for the access of passengers with disabilities to passenger railroads, applicable to new and altered station platforms where construction or alteration begins on or after March 2, 2012.  Through a final rule promulgated on September 19, 2011, USDOT amended its Americans with Disabilities Act regulations to require intercity and commuter passenger railroads to provide that disabled passengers can access any passenger ...

Yesterday the clock struck 4 p.m. in Anchorage, Alaska, the deadline for the P3 industry to submit statements of qualifications for the Knik Arm Crossing project. The public sponsor, Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA), found on its desk statements from six experienced teams. This level of interest in a U.S. P3 project has few parallels.  

Here are the six teams:

Knik Bridge Partners

CSEC Holding Company, Inc.

China State Construction International Holdings, Ltd

Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation

CCA Civil, Inc.

Finley Civil ...

On Sept. 19, 2011, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) sent a press release announcing that GDOT issued the final Request for Proposal (RFP) for the West by Northwest Project.  The RFP was provided to three short-listed proposers, comprised of several national and international developers and contractors.  Brandon Beach, P3 Committee Chair of the State Transportation Board, viewed the issuance of the RFP as further evidence that GDOT’s P3 program is vibrant and continuing to make huge strides in coordinating these mega-projects with our partner agencies.

Responses ...

USDOT’s TIFIA Office is hiring a new lead negotiator/financial policy advisor and a financial analyst.  Both positions are based in Washington, DC, and applications are due September 21st. 

The ideal candidate for the lead negotiator position will be a senior finance expert who has negotiated transportation finance and/or infrastructure project finance credit agreements as practiced in domestic and international capital markets.

For the financial analysts role, the ideal candidate is a mid-level professional with experience in the financial operations and practices of ...

We are pleased to report that AB 294--the bill that was the subject of our blog yesterday--is no longer in play.

A last-minute amendment to California Assembly Bill 294, if passed, would wreak havoc on Caltrans and local agency plans to use design-build for state highway projects (Public Contract Code section 6800 et seq.) and to enter into public-private partnerships (P3s) for highway projects (Streets and Highways Code section 143).

The language added to the bill would preclude local agencies from hiring consultants to work on the projects, stating that all work must be done through Caltrans employees or consultants under contract with Caltrans.  Project consultants are often hired well ...