Infra Insight Blog

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has asked Federal Highway Administration Chief Counsel Karen J. Hedlund to serve as Chief Counsel of the Federal Railroad Administration, effective June 29.

Hedlund moves to FRA to help advance DOT's new high-speed and intercity rail development program, one of the Obama Administration's signature initiatives with more than $10 billion already appropriated.  During her tenure at FHWA starting in 2009, Hedlund helped implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including new investments in highway, intermodal ...

The powerful House Ways and Means Committee recently heard testimony from state and local officials on how to create and fund a new National Infrastructure Bank.  Witnesses highlighted efforts around the country to find new ways to finance transportation projects, from the Measure R dedicated sales tax in Los Angeles to Kentucky’s new Green Bank (a revolving fund dedicated to promote energy efficiency, capitalized with ARRA funds).

Witnesses emphasized the need for new transportation funding, noting that the United States has fallen far behind certain ...

On June 1, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) announced the shortlist of qualified proposers for the West by Northwest Project.  The three shortlisted teams are eligible to receive the Request for Proposals for the project, which is expected to be issued in the fall. The selected teams are as follows:

The West by Northwest Development Partners

• Equity: VINCI Concessions and OHL Concesiones.
• Lead Contractors: Archer Western Contractors, OHL USA and the Hubbard Construction Company.
• Lead Engineering Firm: Parsons Transportation Group.
• Lead Operations and ...

We are pleased to include here the comments of colleague, Allan Ickowitz, Co-Chair of Nossaman's Financial Services and Bankruptcy Practice Group.

Public agency project owners can breathe a sigh of relief over a recent bankruptcy court decision in the Las Vegas monorail case. They will not be held liable for the debts of non profit corporations established to build public infrastructure simply because the corporation was formed on behalf of a public agency.

When the Las Vegas Monorail Company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on January 13, 2010, the Ambac Assurance ...

California's first public-private partnership procurement has passed two major hurdles in the last week.  First, after a long anticipated and much-debated hearing, the California Transportation Commission approved the San Francisco Presidio Parkway Project last week on an 8-3 vote.

Second, on May 25, the California Department of Transportation released the draft request for proposals to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Presidio Parkway.  The project, sponsored by Caltrans and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, is being closely watched ...

A recent independent report on the Georgia Department of Transportation’s West by Northwest Project indicates that the project will result in significant economic benefits to the Atlanta region and statewide. Prepared by the Fiscal Research Center at Georgia State University, the report focused on the short-term effects of the project and found:

• The project will result in an estimated 9,705 private sector jobs in Georgia (including 9,169 jobs in the Atlanta metro region) that would not otherwise exist;
• The project will generate over $528 million in additional income in the ...

The National Journal Transportation Expert Blog this week asked whether states should be allowed to commercialize rest stops.  I thought this was a timely question, and responded with the following:

The upcoming reauthorization will present an excellent opportunity for Congress to rethink its outdated blanket prohibition on the commercialization of state-owned safety rest stops.

This is no longer simply a question of who gets to sell fast food to weary travelers. The question is: how will we maintain our interstates to truly serve motorists’ changing needs at a time when ...

Jeffrey Parker, President of Jeffrey A. Parker and Associates, has worked closely with Nossaman on several projects, including two recent projects in Florida.  We are pleased to include his comments here as a guest to Infra Insight.

The House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit invited me to participate in a hearing on April 14, 2010 on Using Innovative Financing to Deliver Highway and Transit Projects.  As a participant on the panel, I was pleased to share my firm’s experiences with availability payments and answer questions from the Subcommittee Members on the I-595 and Port of ...

USDOT has published interim guidance on its new TIGER II competitive grant program, a $600M successor to the popular $1.5B TIGER program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The guidance outlines application deadlines, eligibility and project selection criteria, and indicates a shift in the focus of the program from near-term job creation to long-term outcomes.

TIGER II is not constrained by ARRA’s focus on shovel ready projects and immediate job creation (funds must be awarded by 9/30/2012, but there is no deadline for expenditure or project completion).  Instead, TIGER II seeks long-term outcomes, though these outcomes fall in the same general areas as TIGER I: safety, economic competitiveness, livability, sustainability, and state of good repair (the extent to which a project improves the condition of existing infrastructure and minimize life-cycle costs).

Click below for additional details about the focus and requirements of TIGER II.

The IBTTA is discussing the future of tolling existing interstate capacity in light of the Federal Highway Administration’s decision to reject Pennsylvania’s application to toll Interstate 80.

My opinion?

The political barriers to tolling existing interstate capacity are just as real and monumental as raising the gas tax. In the short to mid term the more likely scenario is an acceleration of the trend to toll new capacity within existing interstate rights of way. The Ft. Lauderdale I-595, the Ft. Worth North Tarrant Express, and the Dallas I-635 are all recent examples of ...