Infra Insight Blog

Last month, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) formally unveiled its Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC). BATIC’s mission is to:

• Expand the use of federal transportation credit programs;

• Innovate new approaches to project development processes and funding challenges and institutionalize technology and best practice across credit programs and modal teams; and

• Deliver streamlined technical and financial assistance to accelerate project delivery

BATIC is intended to serve as a single point of contact for project sponsors to obtain ...

AASHTO is now accepting applications for the position of Director, AASHTO Project Finance Institute. The application deadline is Friday, January 2, 2015, and the full position description can be found in this AASHTO Journal entry.

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 February 26, President Obama announced a proposal to fund a four year surface transportation bill that would increase spending by 22% for highways and 70% for transit over current levels.  The White House provided a Fact Sheet that outlines to proposal.   The current law, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) expires at the end of September.  That means that a new bill or an extension must be agreed to by both Houses of Congress by that time.  The President's envisions a $302 billion four year bill that builds on the substantive provisions of MAP-21.  More ...

As we have previously reported,  the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently adopted policies requiring Buy America compliance for utility relocations for federally funded transportation projects in cases where the utility performs relocation work.  On June 28, 2013, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), American Public Transportation Association (APTA), streetcar project sponsors, and associations representing electric, gas and broadband utilities sent a joint letter to the ...

Susan Martinovich, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), together with representatives of several state departments of transportation, held a news conference yesterday to urge Congress to take action before September 30 to extend the gas tax and to reauthorize federal highway and transit programs at current funding levels.  The press conference was held at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

A press release reporting the news conference quoted Martinovich ...

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the Center for Excellence in Project Finance at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently released the report entitled "Transportation Governance and Finance: a 50-State Review of State Legislatures and Departments of Transportation," and will be hosting a free webinar on June 21 at 2pm ET to present the findings of the study (previewed during a committee meeting in January).

Listening to the webinar and reading the study is a must for anyone who wants to understand how ...

AASHTO recently sponsored a Congressional Forum on funding and financing surface transportation in the coming decade.  Academic co-sponsors were America 2050 at the Regional Plan Association; Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania; Georgia Institute of Technology; Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota; Keston Institute of Infrastructure and Public; Finance at the University of Southern California.

Over 25 staff members of Senate and House committees participated.  John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO, made one of the ...