Posts from May 2014

As rail shipments of crude oil moving out of North Dakota’s Bakken formation have risen in recent years, so have derailments of trains carrying crude oil throughout the United States and Canada.  One facet of the debate over how to improve the safety of crude by rail shipments concerns the volatility of Bakken crude compared to other crude oil moved by rail.   In January the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) sent a letter to the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) requesting information on the tests and methods used to analyze and classify ...

Posted in Financing

Following the 412-4 vote in the U.S. House on Tuesday and the 91-7 vote in the U.S. Senate yesterday, the president is expected to quickly sign into the law the Water Resources and Reform Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA).  In addition to $12.3 billion earmarked for 8 current and 34 new water projects, a key provision of the WRRDA is the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) which establishes a 5 year pilot program administered by the EPA and Corp of Engineers to provide low cost loans for water, waster\water and flood control infrastructure projects.

Modeled after the ...

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Tags: TIFIA, WIFIA

On May 14, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) posted a reminder that Buy America, a domestic preference law, applies to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program.  FRA posted the reminder because many potential RRIF loan and loan guarantee applicants are short line and regional freight railroads and may not be familiar with Buy America requirements.

The RRIF program was established in 1998 under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century of 1998 (TEA-21), with subsequent changes to the program coming in the Safe, Accountable ...

While federal officials continue their efforts to address railroad transportation of petroleum crude oil (crude-by-rail), Virginia intends to make a parallel but somewhat broader effort with respect to hazardous material rail transportation. 

On May 7th the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued an Emergency Order (EO) requiring all rail carriers to notify State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) regarding the expected routing of their unit trains of Bakken crude oil. The EO is effective in 30 days. The DOT issued the EO in response to the "startling" number of crude ...

Posted in Policy

Posted by guest blogger William Moore.

William Moore of Vianovo works with the Transportation Transformation Group, a consortia of public and private entities that looks at ways of improving the funding and financing of the nation's transportation infrastructure, which is co-chaired by Nossaman Partner Geoffrey Yarema.

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unveiled a six-year surface transportation bill last night that would maintain current funding under MAP-21 legislation expiring in September, plus inflation. Every state would ...

Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman is warning that one or both of the Hudson River rail tunnels will need to be shut down within the next 20 years.  Boardman also noted that it would take seven to nine years to build and deliver new rail tunnels and that Amtrak’s plan for new tunnels is still unfunded. CEO Boardman made these remarks at the Regional Plan Association’s conference on April 25th in New York City.  

Readers will recall that Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) was a passenger rail infrastructure project that would have significantly expand transportation access between Midtown ...

Nossaman’s 30-plus infrastructure attorneys offer clients, colleagues, strategic partners and industry media a wealth of practical experience, insider insight and thoughtful analysis here on Infra Insight. We blog about what we know best, from industry-leading procurements to local and national policy developments that affect the market and our clients.

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