Infra Insight Blog

The President unveiled details of his historic infrastructure plan this morning, proposing the largest infrastructure investment in U.S. history.

The President’s proposal, titled the American Jobs Plan, requests roughly $2 trillion in total federal funding and financing tools over the next eight years:

• $621 billion for transportation infrastructure and resilience, including:
  • $115 billion for bridges, highways, roads and main streets
  • $20 billion for road safety
  • $85 billion for transit
  • $80 billion for Amtrak
  • $174 billion for electrifying vehicles
  • $25 billion for airports

The U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) has announced it is making $889 million available through its latest round of Infrastructure For Rebuilding America (INFRA) grants. In its February 17 announcement, the DOT noted that the INFRA grants “will fund transportation projects of national and regional significance that are in line with the Biden Administration’s priorities, including creating good-paying jobs, improving safety, and applying transformative technology, and explicitly addressing climate change and racial equity.”

For the selection ...

State departments of transportation across the country currently find themselves at a cross-roads where traditional sources of infrastructure funding may not generate sufficient revenues for addressing aging transportation infrastructure. States generally rely on “user fee” revenues generated from fuel taxes, vehicle sales taxes and registration fees to support transportation infrastructure spending. The user fee funding model has come under scrutiny in light of recent trends, such as urbanization, electric vehicles, micro mobility and ride-sharing services. In ...

Los Angeles County aims to integrate infrastructure planning with social and environmental needs in its recently released draft of the updated L.A. River Master Plan.

The plan is the first to cover the entire L.A. River and proposes a 51-mile connected open space to manage floodwaters while improving natural ecosystems and public wellbeing. Calculations based on information from the US Census Bureau indicate that 25% of Californians live within a 30-minute drive of the LA River and over one million people live within one mile.

The plan represents a combined effort by L.A. County ...

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns and economic disruptions have severely affected the usual revenue sources that local governments have used to fund public improvements and transportation services – e.g., distributions of state and federal gas tax revenue, local sales taxes and property taxes. Local governments might consider creating parking benefit districts (“PBDs”), which can provide modest amounts of revenue. PBDs, along with other creative ways to raise revenue, can help fill in funding gaps for local improvements and services.

A PBD is a geographic ...