Archives

How the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Will Incentivize P3s

Public-Private Partnerships are used far less in the U.S. than elsewhere. They comprise roughly 1-2% of infrastructure spending in the U.S. vs. 5-20% in other developed countries.  The big question today is whether the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will send that percentage up or down. For surface transportation, specifically, the BIL provides $110 Billion out […]

The Post-Post Earmarks Pork Barrel Politics

The most impactful earmark of the current legislative era wasn’t technically an earmark at all. The Gateway Program consists of a series of major projects between New Jersey and Penn Station in New York, including a new tunnel under the Hudson River. The current price tag for the program is $12.3 billion, but federal funding […]

FHWA Seeking Input On BIL Implementation

Although its passage alone was a milestone, some of the most important decisions regarding the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are still to come. Given the amount of discretionary spending in the legislation, agencies now have a monumental task in developing procedures to advertise funding opportunities, collect and review applications, and make the best possible allocation decisions. […]

Applications Open for New Round of IIJA Grants for Transport Projects

The Department of Transportation has published its 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant (MPDG) program. This year public sponsors will be able to apply for more than $5.5 billion in federal discretionary infrastructure grants through the program, or roughly double the amount advertised in fiscal 2022.

Infrastructure Development by Emergency Declaration

When the highway overpass on I-95 north of Philadelphia came down last month, it wasn’t due to the usual poor maintenance or political dysfunction that are often blamed for America’s crumbling infrastructure. A gasoline truck lost control and crashed into the underpass, and the ensuing fire brought the short bridge down. All of a sudden, […]

Permitting Pork and the Debt Ceiling Deal

Permitting reform is not exactly a topic that you would expect to be wrapped up in the middle of last month’s federal debt ceiling negotiations, but there it was. The fact is that there are factions in both parties who support reforms to the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and a handful of other tweaks […]

Biden Admin Releases Permitting Action Plan Guidance

On March 6th, detailed guidance on how to speed up environmental permitting was finally released to federal agencies. The guidance was published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) in the White House. The three agencies were tasked with producing […]

Transit Costs Project Publishes Final Report

The Transit Costs Project based out of NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management has been collecting data on mass transit projects around the world, inspired by a single question: Why are transit projects in the United States so incredibly expensive? Today, the research initiative’s trove of data amounts to more than 900 projects in 59 […]

FHWA Updates BIL Implementation Guidance Memo

On February 24th, the FHWA published an update to its “Policy on Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resources to Build a Better America” guidance memo. The new memo replaces the original guidance from December 16th, 2021. That original memo caused quite a stir from Republicans in Congress and some governors, who claimed that the guidance was […]

The Brent Spence’s Long Road to Bridge Funding

In 2011, when Public Works Financing reported on Ohio’s new enabling legislation for transportation Public-Private Partnerships, one project was identified as a prime candidate for the procurement model: the Brent Spence Bridge replacement and expansion project.