The Federal Railroad Administration announced the award of $2.482 billion in High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail grants. Fifty-four projects in 23 states and several multi-state regions are included in the grant awards. These awards are in addition to the $8 billion in grants for projects approved earlier this year through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Projects in 31 states and the District of Columbia were funded under ARRA awards. (more…)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced nearly $600 million in TIGER II discretionary grant awards for major infrastructure projects ranging from highways and bridges to transit, rail and ports. In total, forty-two capital construction projects and 33 planning projects in 40 states will receive funding from this program.  According to the US DOT, roughly 29 percent of TIGER II money was awarded for road projects, 26 percent for transit, 20 percent for rail projects, 16 percent for ports, four percent for bicycle and pedestrian projects and five percent for planning projects. A list of the projects can be viewed here.  

The Tiger grant program was first started as part of the ARRA stimulus legislation which included $1.5 billion in funding. Over $60 billion was requested in the Tiger I program from the $1.5 billion made available in ARRA. The $600 million in funding for the Tiger II grants was included in the US DOT FY 2010 appropriation legislation. There were over 1000 applications requesting $19 billion of Tiger II funding.  Selection for award was based on an evaluation by DOT judging the likelihood of the project to address sustainability and economic competitiveness. 

The planning grant portion of the Tiger II awards were selected in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) judging the ability of the projects integrate transportation, housing and urban development.  Joining DOT and HUD in the evaluation of the planning grant applications were the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As part of Livability initiative DOT signed a memorandum of understanding with HUD and EPA to cooperate on future integration of transportation and housing planning.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) announced this week a proposal to convert the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel from a cents-per-gallon basis to a percentage basis, a mechanism that could raise revenues to pay for greater highway and transit investment if the price of fuel rises in future years. AASHTO proposed an 8.4 percent tax on a gallon of gas instead of the current 18.4-cent gas tax. The tax on a gallon of diesel would be 10.6 percent instead of the current 24.4 cents.

AASHTO estimates that converting the present fuel-tax rates to a percentage could generate $43 billion more during the expected 2011-16 period that would be covered in a new transportation authorization measure. The estimate is based on anticipated increasing gas and diesel prices — an average increase of slightly more than $7 billion per year. The additional revenue would enable the reauthorization bill to fund $330 billion worth of projects compared to the $287 billion funding level in SAFETEA-LU.

ASSHTO's Executive Director John Horsley said in releasing the proposal, "The most significant barrier to the passage of a long-term transportation authorization bill continues to be the question of how to pay for it. Over the next two months, we hope to start a dialogue on transportation funding options that have a chance of bipartisan support to either grow the level of transportation funding to the level we're shooting for in a new bill, or at least to sustain it at current levels."

AFTEA-LU expired on September 30, 2009, and the highway and transit programs have been operating under short term extensions ever since. The current extension expires on December 31, 2010 so Congress must take action in a lame duck session or program funding will be shut down.

According to a report released by University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, the nation will not be able to continue to compete economically with the rest of the world without new ways to fund America's ailing transportation system. The report is co-authored by former Transportation secretaries Sam Skinner and Norman Mineta and is the result of a three-day conference in September 2009 that included about 80 transportation experts. The report, "Well Within Reach: America's New Transportation Agenda," highlights 10 recommendations on how to improve America's roads and bridges. The group estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent per year through 2035 to rebuild and improve roads, rail systems and air transportation.

The report also urged the United States to rethink how it funds transportation improvements, most notably moving away from a reliance on gasoline taxes. In releasing the report both Mineta and Skinner stressed that Congress must consider introducing a vehicle miles traveled fee to replace the current gas tax, which they described as becoming obsolete. Under this concept, drivers would pay a user based on distance traveled replacing th gas tax user fee which is bringing in less money as cars become more fuel efficient and are powered by alternative fuels.  Both Mineta and Skinner participated in today’s White House conference.

President Obama met today with several governors and mayors to highlight a new report prepared by the Treasury Department and the Council of Economic Advisers which looked at infrastructure spending in the United States and its impact on the economy.

The report, available here, offers four reasons indicating that now is an optimal time to increase our investment in transportation infrastructure as follows:

• Well designed infrastructure investments have long term economic benefits;
• The middle class will benefit disproportionately from this investment;
• There is currently a high level of underutilized resources that can be used to improve and expand our infrastructure; and
• There is strong demand by the public and businesses for additional transportation infrastructure investments.

The report also reiterates six principles offered by USDOT that the transportation system should satisfy to improve the lives of working families:

· Provide more transportation choices to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our dependence on oil, improve air quality and promote public health.

· Improve economic competitiveness of neighborhoods by giving people reliable access to employment centers, educational opportunities, services and other basic needs.

· Target federal funding toward existing communities – through transit-oriented development and land recycling – to revitalize communities, reduce public works costs, and safeguard rural landscapes.

· Align federal policies and funding to remove barriers to collaboration, leverage funding and increase the effectiveness of programs to plan for future growth.

· Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods, whether rural, urban or suburban.

· Expand location- and energy-efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.

The report also notes that infrastructure spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has fallen by 50% in the U.S. since 1960, and now accounts for 2% of the country’s GDP. In contrast, China spends about 9% of its GDP on infrastructure, and Europe, about 5%, according to the report.

Today’s event is a followup to the President’s Labor Day announcement where he suggested that the Administration is ready to get to work on a six year highway and transit reauthorization measure. In that speech he suggested that $50 billion should be “front-end” loaded in the reauthorization to address current high unemployment conditions. This latest report presents the more long term benefits that come from infrastructure investment. The President did not call for action on the transportation bill before the end of the year.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released new reporting requirements for recipients of federal financial assistance, including grants and loans, in compliance with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.

Included in the rules is a requirement that recipients report the total compensation of its five most highly compensated individuals. AGC contacted the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to clarify that this requirement does not apply to contractors working on contracts funded through the federal-aid highway program. FHWA’s General Counsel has verified that these requirements do not apply.