Infra Insight Blog

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual report on federal bid protests includes useful insights into federal procurement trends that can help state and local government agencies mitigate bid protest risks. Among other findings, the GAO’s 2025 fiscal year report identified unreasonable technical evaluation, unreasonable cost or price evaluation, and unreasonable rejection of proposal as the three most prevalent reasons for sustained protests. Examining the cases identified by the GAO as exemplars for each of those reasons can help public owners understand procurement practice pitfalls that could expose them to protest ... 

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) fiscal year 2024 report on federal bid protests includes useful insights into federal procurement trends that can help state and local government agencies mitigate bid protest risks. Among other findings, the GAO identified unreasonable technical evaluation, flawed selection decision, and unreasonable cost or price evaluation as the three most prevalent reasons for sustained protests. Examining the cases identified by the GAO for each of those reasons can help public owners understand procurement practice pitfalls that ...

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program in an effort to jumpstart the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging networks. To support that endeavor, the NEVI formula program allocates $5 billion, over five years, to states to deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI) along an interconnected national network. There are three particularly noteworthy elements of the NEVI formula program ... 

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other environmental laws can create significant legal risks for the delivery of complex infrastructure projects using alternative procurement strategies. On October 10, 2024, I had the pleasure of collaborating with my Nossaman colleague Rob Thornton, along with guest speaker Tim Suydam from the East County Advanced Water Joint Powers Authority, to discuss … 

On September 23, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued an Opinion and Order in Mid-America Milling Co., LLC, et al., v. U.S. Department of Transportation, et. al., No. 3:23-CV-00072-GFVT, 2024 WL 4267183 (E.D. Ky. Sept. 23, 2024), granting a preliminary injunction on the basis that the race- and gender-based rebuttable presumptions used in the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program violates the United States Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. ... 

Through recent updates to California’s Public Contract Code, public agencies are being equipped with new tools to deliver major infrastructure projects through use of the progressive design-build (PDB) model. As more public agencies gain access to the legislative tools available to use PDB, we expect to see an increasing number of water projects undertaken and completed successfully under the PDB or other early contractor delivery methods. … 

Much has been said already about President Trump's call to "rebuild our crumbling infrastructure," in his first State of the Union address. The President asked Congress to advance a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that, in part, should be "leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment."

But not all "crumbling infrastructure" is state and local infrastructure. The federal government's infrastructure also needs attention (e.g., river locks, some dams and levees, federal buildings, etc.). In late ...