Included in New Jersey’s Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 are provisions to allow the use of PPPs to design, build, finance, operate and maintain higher education facilities. Is this the start of a trend for developing social infrastructure in the US?
Social infrastructure includes housing, educational, recreational and law and order facilities that support the community's need for social interaction. As reflected by several projects in Canada, this is not a new concept for North America. Along with the recent use of a PPP for development of the Long Beach Courthouse, New Jersey’s ...
Infrastructure Investor, a trade publication, examined how the proposed extensions to the transportation authorization could pull money from states through rescission. Monday’s article, US states face $9bn in transportation funding cuts, discusses the looming rescission of budget authority required by SAFETEA-LU, as well as the proposed extensions of program authority moving forward in the Senate. The article extensively quotes Ed Kussy, former Federal Highway Administration Deputy Chief Counsel, and current Nossaman partner. Excerpts from the article ...
Two potential public-private partnership transit projects appear closer to leaving the station, after several delays. Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) recently held a public hearing on the Eagle P3 project and is poised to issue a request for proposals to three prequalified/shortlisted teams on September 30th with proposals anticipated in March 2010. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is on an accelerated schedule for its stimulus-revamped Oakland Airport Connector project, with proposals due in late September and contract award slated for December.
The Federal ...
USDOT is weighing 1400 TIGER grant applications (11 of which requested TIFIA funding) totaling $57 billion in funding requests. The TIGER (Grants for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program provides for $1.5 billion in discretionary grants to high impact transportation projects, and could fund up to $200 million in TIFIA assistance.
Applications were due on September 15. Secretary LaHood has assembled a team to expedite application review, and plans to announce grants in January 2010 – a month ahead of the statutory deadline.
The program gives ...
The Florida Department of Transportation’s I-595 project and its public and private partners won several awards at this year’s American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) P3 conference. It’s pretty much a Florida sweep, declared Pamela Bailey-Campbell, ARTBA Public Private Ventures Division president, as she announced the recipients of the Project, Public Sector Entrepreneur, and Private Sector Entrepreneur of 2009.
Bailey-Campbell announced three awards at the September 25 award luncheon in Washington D.C. The I-595 project in Fort Lauderdale ...
The House has passed a new bill (H.R. 3617) which extends federal highway and transit programs set to lapse at the end of September, when SAFETEA-LU expires, through the end of the calendar year.
Yesterday, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar introduced the bill under an expedited process which waives committee approval and prevents amendment. The bill does not address the $8.7 billion rescission required under SAFETEA-LU, which will force FHWA to cancel program funding apportioned under SAFETEA-LU (as amended by the EISA) on September 30.
The ...
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) division has weighed in on road user fees based on vehicle miles traveled or VMT. Their latest report Implementable Strategies for Shifting to Direct Usage-Based Charges for Transportation Funding responds to VMT’s critics who say the transportation funding method would be too challenging and require a lengthy implementation period. The report outlines strategies for shifting to direct user-based charges for transportation funding, focusing on incremental VMT mechanisms which can be fully implemented in the ...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has endorsed USDOT’s policy of allocating Highway Trust Fund (HTF) apportionments based on total lane miles in each state – including miles of highway built, operated or maintained through public private partnerships (PPPs).
Each state’s share of the nation’s highway system (quantified as lane miles) has factored in federal aid allocations since 1976, though initially this measure excluded tolled facilities. In 1998, Congress greatly expanded the use of the lane mile funding formula with TEA-21, and eliminated the ...
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials executed a comprehensive development agreement (CDA) with the LBJ Infrastructure Group to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the 13-mile LBJ-635 corridor in Dallas County. Following the North Tarrant Express (June 2009), the LBJ-635 is TxDOT’s second toll concession to reach commercial close this year.
Construction is expected to begin by mid-2011 and open to traffic in late 2016. Motorists will have a choice of either using the managed toll lanes or remaining on the improved and rebuilt free main ...
In addition to the recent passage of comprehensive P3 legislation in Arizona and California, the newly created Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has also been authorized to utilize public private partnerships for transportation projects. Provisions for design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) and design-build-finance-operate-maintain (DBFOM) procurements are included in Senate Bill 2087, commonly known as the "Transportation Reform Act," under which MassDOT was formed. Under the Act, P3’s may be used for a new or existing highway, road ...
The Mississippi Transportation Commission has suspended the procurement for the Airport Parkway P3 project, citing the ongoing credit crisis and resulting pressures on revenue projections and senior debt credit ratings.
The Airport Parkway project, the first public-private partnership and first toll road project advanced in Mississippi, includes the development of a new 12-mile toll road and several bridges in the Jackson metropolitan area. In August 2008, Mississippi DOT shortlisted three teams vying for the 50-year concession: ACS/Dragados, Cintra/Ferrovial, and ...
It isn’t often that infrastructure makes the Arts pages of the Los Angeles Times. So the recent publication of glamorous renderings of transit projects that transcend typical configurations of concrete and steel may herald a new golden age for rail and transit.
HOK's award-winning design for Orange County Transportation Authority’s Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center radically transforms the traditional concept of art in transit into transit as art; the designers employ a train station and transit hub as the medium to create an iconic visual ...
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