Infra Insight Blog

Despite perceived uncertainty as to the future of two, prominent transportation P3 projects, it appears that jurisdictions within Maryland are looking to P3 structures to solve a wider array of infrastructure issues in the state.

Prince George’s County, one of Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs, recently entered into a first-of-its-kind stormwater P3 with a subsidiary to Corvias, a private company with P3 experience in housing social infrastructure.  The partnership entity, called the Clean Water Partnership will tackle regulatory requirements for stormwater ...

On November 12, during a keynote address at the annual convention of the American Association of Port Authorities in Houston, Vice President Biden issued a call to action for greater investment in U.S. port facilities.

We are investing less than one percent of our GDP in transportation infrastructure . . . ranking 28^th in the world among advanced nations.  That is simply unacceptable.

The Vice President stated that after years of underinvestment, more than $90 billion in port improvements are needed by 2020.  In part, these improvements are needed to prepare for a significant increase ...

The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency today successfully refinanced $1.4 billion of its $2.2 billion in outstanding debt issued to fund construction of the 73 Toll Road. "This is great news for drivers and the communities that surround the 73 Toll Road," said Scott Schoeffel, Chairman of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, the joint powers authority responsible for financing the 73 Toll Road. "Refinancing improves the agency's long-term financial health by lowering the annual debt service payments and improving financial flexibility."

The ...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently holding a roadshow of listening sessions across the US to provide information on the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and its proposed five-year pilot program to provide an alternative funding source for a variety of water infrastructure projects.

The EPA presented in Los Angeles on October 17, 2014 where attendees included representatives from public and private finance, contractors, water operators, state and local government entities and legal and financial advisers from across southern ...

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently released an updated version of its popular roadmap of US transportation funding options, Matrix of Illustrative Surface Transportation Revenue Options, which may be accessed here.

The tool examines the five surface transportation revenue sources currently in place and considers 33 other potential sources of revenue. Updates to the tool include a bubble display and bar chart that allow users to see how much revenue the funding sources considered might generate. The tool is intended to ...

On July 31, 2014, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) soliciting qualifications from teams interested in entering into a design-build contract and a comprehensive maintenance agreement for the Grand Parkway Segments H, I-1 and I-2 Project.  Following a two-month process, which included questions and answers from interested industry participants and an industry workshop, TxDOT received Qualification Statements on September 30, 2014. Over the next month, the Qualification Statements were evaluated by TxDOT.  On October ...

The Regents of the University of California (the Regents), on behalf of the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), announced on October 30, 2014 that it received Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) from six teams in response to the reissued Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the UC Merced 2020 P3 Project (the Project).

The reissued RFQ was released on September 25, 2014. The six teams that submitted SOQs in response to the reissued RFQ were substantially the same six teams that responded to the initial RFQ released in April 2014.

The respondents and their equity members are ...

On October 27, 2014, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) soliciting statements of qualifications (SOQs) from qualified firms interested in submitting proposals for the design and construction of the $900 million I-405 Improvement Project (the Project) through a design-build contract. OCTA is seeking a private firm that is experienced in managing, designing and constructing general use roadways.

The Project will consist of designing and constructing an improvement that generally adds one general-purpose lane in each ...

A Federal Court has ordered the Department of Transportation (DOT) to respond to a lawsuit filed by three environmental organizations—Earthjustice, Sierra Club and ForestEthics—in which the parties asked the court to order DOT to respond to the organizations’ request for an emergency order banning the use of DOT-111 tanks cars for the shipment of crude oil by rail.

DOT has 60 days to provide the Court with a response to Sierra Club’s lawsuit, which alleges that DOT is in violation of the law for failing to respond to its Unsafe Tank Car Petition.  The petition, filed with DOT on ...

California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., has signed California Senate Bill (SB) 785. As my colleague Nancy Smith has observed, enactment of SB 785 is a major step forward for the State of California, because now many more state and local agencies can use design-build.

One of the immediate benefits of this change is that the much-anticipated Caltrain electrification project will be able to proceed as a design-build procurement. The authority of the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (JPB) to issue design-build contracts was slated to expire at the end of this year, but SB 785 ...