Posts from 2011

On Friday, Dec. 9, 2011, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed historic design-build legislation into law, giving five state entities - the New York State Department of Transportation, the New York State Thruway Authority, the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Bridge Authority - general authorization to enter into design-build contracts for capital projects for physical infrastructure.  Previously, only public universities had legislative authorization to use design-build. 

The ...

Posted in Financing

This morning, U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Ray LaHood announced the winners of the extremely competitive TIGER III grant application cycle.  Forty-six projects in 33 states will share $511 million in grant funds.  The announcement was made several months earlier than the originally scheduled date.

As has been the case with the previous two rounds of TIGER grants, this cycle was wildly oversubscribed.  According to the announcement, USDOT received 848 project applications from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, requesting a total of $14.29 ...

Posted in High-Speed Rail

Statements of Qualifications for the California High-Speed Rail Authority's Initial Construction Section, Construction Package 1 (north of the San Joaquin River through the City of Fresno) are due Dec. 19, 2011, with contract award currently scheduled for December 2012. 

This is the first of five design-build procurement packages planned for the California High-Speed Rail Project. The Authority's procurement schedule is available here.  Comments on the Draft 2012 Business Plan, issued by the Authority last month, are due by the end of the year.  The Draft Business Plan ...

Posted in Bridges

In advance of its deadline for statements of qualifications (SOQ),  the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority are holding a Pre-SOQ Informational Meeting for the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project.  The event will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY.  Interested participants are required to pre-register for the event by completing an online registration form, available here.   The agenda includes presentations by the DOT and Authority, a question period, and a "meet-and-greet" ...

Posted in P3s

On November 16, challenges to the legality of the Presidio Parkway public-private partnership (P3) contract ended with a one sentence order from the California Supreme Court: The petition for review is denied.  Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), the union representing Caltrans engineers, had asked the Supreme Court to review the Aug. 8, 2011, decision of the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco (First District), which unanimously held that Phase 2 of the Presidio Parkway project can move forward as a P3.  As a result, the California Department of ...

Posted in Design-Build

At its October 27 meeting, the Texas Transportation Commission approved the issuance of a request for qualifications for the Horseshoe Project in Dallas County.  The project will be the first under new design-build legislation passed by the Texas legislature during the 2011 session.  Subchapter F, Chapter 223, of the Transportation Code prescribes the process by which the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may enter into a design-build contract with a private entity that provides for the design, construction, expansion, extension, related capital maintenance ...

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the draft reauthorization bill unanimously voted out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, contains major improvements to the TIFIA program that many, including those of us at Nossaman, have been advocating.  These changes, if enacted, will greatly expand availability and eliminate much of the uncertainty over whether a project will be selected.

  • The bill eliminates virtually ALL of the selection criteria, converting availability from a discretionary competitive selection process to a simple objective ...

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood plans to name Karen J. Hedlund as Deputy Administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).  Hedlund moves to the Deputy Administrator position from her current role as Chief Counsel at FRA, replacing Karen Rae, who Gov. Cuomo recently appointed as New York State Deputy Transportation Secretary.  Before moving to FRA, Hedlund served as Federal Highway Administration Chief Counsel from June 2009-June 2010, where she helped implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including new investments in highway ...

Posted in Design-Build

On October 21, I participated on a panel regarding Successful Teaming at the 2011 DBIA Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla.  In the broad sense, teaming in the design-build context is collaboration among all project participants to help foster integration and achieve win-win solutions for delivering a project.  The panel addressed best practices for drafting teaming agreements and promoting communication and integration among team members.  My presentation focused on why the owner is interested in teaming and how the owner can influence teaming arrangements.  Key takeaways from the ...

Our October 21 blog on managed lanes projects in Southern California talked about how three county transportation agencies are expanding on the success of the SR91 Express Lanes in Orange County, Calif., by using managed lanes to further relieve congestion and improve mobility in the region.  Not to be outdone by its Southern California cousins, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the transportation planning and funding agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, just received the blessing of the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to develop and ...

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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