Infra Insight Blog

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other environmental laws can create significant legal risks for the delivery of complex infrastructure projects using alternative procurement strategies. On October 10, 2024, I had the pleasure of collaborating with my Nossaman colleague Rob Thornton, along with guest speaker Tim Suydam from the East County Advanced Water Joint Powers Authority, to discuss … 

Last month, through the annual process known as the “May Revise,” California Governor Gavin Newsom released an update to the 2023-24 state budget proposal that he first introduced in January. The updated budget proposal sets forth a $306.5 billion spending plan that seeks to tackle the state’s growing budget deficit while maintaining key investments in education, healthcare, housing, climate and infrastructure.

Regarding infrastructure, the Governor noted that, due to unprecedented local, state, and federal investments, the state will spend more than $180 billion ...

On May 14, Gov. Newsom unveiled his record-breaking $267 billion budget proposal to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the state of California, kicking off what’s been described as the most ambitious era of government spending in the state since the mid-20th century. The new proposed budget comes exactly one year to the day after the governor announced spending cuts to schools, homeless services and health care in light of the state’s $54 billion budget shortfall and the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to a booming stock market and greater than expected tax ...

The Angels^® Flight Railway Foundation, represented by Nossaman LLP and Shumaker Mallory LLP, reached a historic agreement with a team led by ACS Group and including Sener Engineering and Systems, to put the iconic Angels Flight^® Railway in downtown Los Angeles back into service by this coming Labor Day.

The agreement utilizes a public-private partnership to restore the Railway to passenger service, through full-scale modernization and state-of-the-art safety improvements, and to operate and maintain it to industry standards for 30 years. Borrowing  a revenue risk concession ...

In response to a request from the California Department of Transportation, 5,000 California drivers signed up for the state’s nine month pilot program to replace the state’s gas tax with a charge based on vehicle miles traveled.  Starting July 1 of this year, the volunteers will make simulated payments based on how many miles they travel.  Participants include drivers from every part of the state and from every socioeconomic background, according to Malcolm Dougherty, Caltrans executive director.  The opportunity to provide valuable input and evaluate the viability of a ...

To help promote Infrastructure Week—which brings together thousands of stakeholders from around the country to highlight the critical importance of investing in and modernizing America’s infrastructure systems, and the essential role infrastructure plays in our economy—Nossaman is reposting this article on California’s infrastructure needs. To learn more about Infrastructure Week, which runs May 11-May 15, please visit www.infrastructureweek.org or follow Infrastructure Week on Twitter @RebuildRenew.

California is the most populous state in the Country; ...

The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the University of California, Merced, issued a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for the UC Merced 2020 Project on May 7, 2015.  The draft RFP was provided to the three proposers that were shortlisted in January 2015:

• E3 2020:  Balfour Beatty Investments, Inc.

• EP2 Developers:  Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate LLC, Plenary Group (Canada) Ltd., and Education Realty Trust, Inc.

• Merced Campus Collaborative:Lend Lease (US) Investments, Inc., Macquarie Capital Group Ltd., and ACC OP Development LLC

According to ...

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 ...

In a move that should make successor agencies to redevelopment agencies happy, a new law was passed and approved by the Governor on February 18, 2014 (AB 471) that, among other things, amends Section 53395.4 of the California Government Code to allow infrastructure financing districts to finance a project or portion of a project located within a redevelopment project area or former redevelopment project area.

Infrastructure financing district law now provides a mechanism to finance projects that would have otherwise been financed by redevelopment agencies but for their ...

California Senate Bill 593 (SB 593), introduced by Senator Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), shows the interest of some State legislators in implementing performance-based infrastructure (PBI) in social programs.

SB 593 would require the California Office of Planning and Research to administer a Social Impact Partnership Pilot Program (the Pilot Program) beginning in 2015.  The Pilot Program would authorize the Director of the Office of Planning and Research (Director) to identify and submit proposed social impact partnerships to the California Legislature for its consideration each ...

Over the past 10 years, California lawmakers have made tremendous strides in providing express design-build procurement authority to pubic agencies in the state. This authority, however, has not been applied evenly across all project types or agencies.

As matters stand in 2011, much broader design-build authority exists for public buildings or vertical projects than for transportation or horizontal projects.  Within the realm of horizontal projects, projects on the state highway system are subject to a number of constraints that do not apply to other types of projects.  And the ...

We all know that our infrastructure is aging.  Considering how hot the issue of transportation funding (or lack thereof) has become, it is almost impossible not to see or hear something on this topic daily.  That being said, Transportation for America has provided a new way for us to fixate on the state of disrepair of our nation’s bridges – an interactive map.

The map is color-coded and uses green to mark states that are more-or-less maintaining their bridges.  A special hats off to Florida and Nevada, which rank 50th and 51st respectively in the list of disrepair.  In contrast, the map ...

1423931641

Today U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an additional $2 billion in High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program funding, bringing the total awards for the program to $10.1 billion.

The $2 billion awarded today by the Department of Transportation was largely redistributed from initial awards to Florida, whose governor canceled the state’s high-speed rail project due to concerns about cost overruns and operating subsidies.  DOT distributed today’s funds to 22 projects in 15 states, but three big winners together received over $1.8 billion or ...

California will soon have a new authority that can authorize California transportation agencies to toll transportation facilities, eliminating the need for legislative approval for each tolling project. 

AB 798, a bill sponsored by state treasurer Bill Lockyer and recently signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, creates a new state level agency, the California Transportation Finance Authority, with the limited purpose of issuing revenue bonds for new capacity or improvements to the state transportation system at the request of a public sector project sponsor. Project sponsors ...

California is now ready to assess P3 candidate projects. At its October 14^th meeting, the California Transportation Commission approved policy guidance addressing the Commission’s role in selecting proposed P3 projects. The CTC developed the guidelines to assist Caltrans and regional transportation agencies (RTAs) as they move to develop P3 transportation projects, taking advantage of the new authority granted to them under Senate Bill X2 4, enacted in February of this year.

The enabling legislation requires the CTC to select projects nominated by Caltrans or an RTA ...

With the delay of the federal transportation re-authorization and federal transportation funding in limbo, state transportation agencies across the nation are trying to cope any way they can. In California this week, 19 self help local transportation financing agencies - that collectively generate more than $4 billion a year for transportation - drew a large crowd of transportation public agency officials, elected officials, contractors and consultants to the 20^th Annual Focus on the Future Conference in Los Angeles to explore their options. Conference speakers discussed current developments in transportation funding, environmental compliance and project delivery. The news on project delivery and innovation was positive, the environmental compliance news mixed, and the funding news pretty discouraging.

Interspersed with the grim chronicling of the current state and federal funding landscapes, the conference highlighted some bright spots, including federal ARRA funds, Measure R funding in Los Angeles, and innovative project delivery, PPPs and congestion pricing.

California is serious about using its new legislative authority to deliver some of the state’s much-needed transportation projects through public-private partnerships (P3s). On August 12, 2009, the California Transportation Commission issued draft guidelines addressing the Commission’s role in approving the P3 delivery method for specific projects.

The draft guidelines follow the California legislature’s momentous enactment of Senate Bill 4, referred to as SBX2 4.  That bill authorizes Caltrans and regional transportation agencies to enter into P3s for ...