White House aims to speed-up pace of building infrastructure
JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will host a summit
Thursday to help speed up construction projects tied to the roughly $1 trillion
infrastructure law — an effort to improve coordination with the mayors and
governors who directly account for 90% of the spending.
“This is the first time we’ve tried this in 50 years on this
level,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator and
the former mayor of New Orleans. “We’re going to really push hard to make it go
faster and try to do it better, and try to get at least all the federal
agencies focused on accelerating the pace of design, construction, permitting.”
The event occurs at a critical moment for the nearly
year-old law as high inflation and worker and material shortages are threatening
to delay many projects.
At stake is a legacy-making investment championed by
President Joe Biden, who has said that it's the largest set of public works
projects since the Interstate Highway System began in the 1950s during Dwight
Eisenhower's presidency. Going into midterm elections this year, Biden has
repeatedly told voters that the government can deliver results with Democrats
and Republicans working together.
Administration officials plan to use the summit to smooth
the way for accelerating the pace of construction, which in turn can help to
control costs and maximize the value of dollars spent.
The Transportation Department will launch an internal center
to provide best practices on project design, planning and construction for
state and local leaders. The Commerce Department will have a “Dig Once” effort
so that construction workers are not repeatedly punching holes into roads to
lay water pipes, broadband connections and electricity and natural gas lines,
in addition to other efforts by government agencies and industry groups.
“I just fully expect that the more we work on this, and the
better we get, the more money we’re going to save and the more time we’re going
to save,” said Landrieu, who will be speaking at the event along with
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Michael Regan, among others.
Roughly 3,000 people are expected to gather in-person and
online for the summit, which begins Thursday morning. It will overlap with
Biden's being away from the White House as he travels to Western states.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock will speak on a panel about
getting projects done on time. He said that inflation, worker shortages and
supply chain issues have each been barriers and cause an increase as high as
30% in forecasted costs.
“All of those issues are the most critical threat to what
we’re trying to do,” Hancock said.
Denver is using federal funds to ensure that neighborhoods
remain connected as express lanes are added to a 10-mile stretch of Interstate
70 that bisects the city. Hancock wanted to ensure that the neighborhoods on
either side of the highway were not cut off from each other, which could make
it more difficult for children to attend school. Funding from the
infrastructure law provided an additional $14 million to keep neighborhoods
intact, with the project scheduled for completion in 2026.
Hancock said that the infrastructure law also created an
“unprecedented” opportunity to partner with female and minority-owned
contractors.
“We should not let this moment pass by,” he said.
New battery storage facility proposed in Preston
Claire Bessette
Preston ― FirstLight Power gathered company and local
officials at its power generation station along the Quinebaug River Wednesday
to announce it is retiring the last remaining fossil-fueled plant in its system
in May 2023 to be replaced with renewable battery facility.
FirstLight operates a 17-megawatt Kerosene-fired power
generation plant, located on the same property as the Tunnel Dam hydropower
facility in Preston.
The 1969 plant operates only at times of peak power needs,
FirstLight CEO Alicia Barton said. The company will replace the Kerosene
facility with a 17-megawatt cleaner, more efficient battery energy storage
system.
The new system still needs state permits and a connection
agreement with ISO-New England, which manages the electric grid in all six New
England states, Barton said.
Construction will take about two years, and the battery
facility is expected to become operational in 2024 or 2025.
The new battery plant also will be a peak-period only power
generating facility and will be co-located at the Tunnel Dam 3-megawatt
hydropower plant in Preston.
Also Tuesday, FirstLight announced it will collaborate with
battery facility developer New Leaf Energy to donate $60,000 to Operation Fuel
for its workforce training program and to provide energy assistance to residents
during the coming winter. Operation Fuel partners with 58 agencies throughout
the state, including Thames Valley Council for Community Action, to provide
fuel assistance through the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistae Program,
called LIHEAP.
Operation Fuel also runs a job training program to train
people for the growing clean energy industry.
“We appreciate this opportunity to expand Operation Fuel’s
capabilities to become part of Connecticut’s growing energy efficiency and
renewable energy efforts,” Brenda Watson, executive director of Operation Fuel
said in a news release on the announcement.
7 tools to navigate IIJA funding
President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, marking the single biggest sum for
roads, bridges and other surface routes in a generation. Navigating the new
opportunities in the sprawling piece of legislation, however, can be a daunting
task.
Money from the infrastructure act is starting to trickle to
federal agencies and states, and these entities have lists of upcoming projects
to bid on, including those funded by the IIJA. To further help contractors
identify opportunities for new work, several organizations have released
trackers and tools mapping out the IIJA’s programs and deadlines. Here is a
roundup of some of the most useful ones for construction pros looking for new
work.
1. White House resources
The White House released an infrastructure act guidebook to
help potential grantees identify funding opportunities and prepare to receive
the money. It also created a resource for rural communities specifically. In
addition, state fact sheets help illustrate where the money is going.
Find them here:
Resource
for rural communities
2. The Brookings Institution infrastructure hub
Policy think tank Brookings’ detailed federal infrastructure
hub breaks down IIJA funding by project type and agency, and allows users to
zoom into specific grant programs. It also subdivides programs by formula or
competitive status, and notes whether a program is new.
Find it here: Federal
infrastructure hub
3. Government Finance Officers Association NOFO tracker
The association has a Notice of Funding Opportunity tracker,
complete with info on eligible uses and applicants, grant links and
deadlines.
Find it here: Notice
of Funding Opportunity tracker
4. National Governors Association resource page
NGA has an IIJA implementation resource page with abundant
information about the legislation. Its aim is to help states and territories
navigate IIJA programs and to easily access actions and upcoming milestones.
Most recently, it released a tracker for formula and competitive grant programs
in the IIJA.
Find it here: IIJA
implementation resource page
5. American Society of Civil Engineers grant tracker
ASCE has a members-only resource to track open IIJA grants
and more. It includes legislative analysis and opportunities to weigh in on
implementation, and will soon have a schedule of upcoming funding distribution
cycles.
Find it here: IIJA resource center
6. National Association of Counties’ legislative analysis
NACO’s analysis breaks down the infrastructure act’s funding
by agency and topic, and details its impact on various programs and laws. The
page also contains a helpful list of open funding sources for county
governments, as well as a matrix outlining all of the IIJA’s funding
opportunities.
Find it here: NACO
legislative analysis
Rising prices, labor shortages threaten infrastructure law implementation: DOT report
The U.S. Department of Transportation needs to recruit,
develop and retain an expanded staff to oversee the implementation of $660
billion in funding for programs authorized under the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act, while dealing with supply chain issues, rising prices and a
shortage of the skilled labor required to build the many capital projects the
IIJA will enable, according to the DOT’s inspector general, Eric Soskin, who
issued this warning in a report
to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Oct. 5.
The sheer number of infrastructure projects the DOT will
have to manage is mind-boggling. Over the next year, states, territories,
tribes and local governments will begin work to improve 65,000 miles of road
and 1,500 bridges; invest in 600 airport infrastructure
projects; purchase 15,000 new buses, ferries and subway cars; and buy 75
new locomotives and 73 intercity train sets for Amtrak. On top of that, the
administration’s five-year goal is to build half a million electric vehicle
charging stations.
The transportation department is actively hiring to meet
the demands of the infrastructure law, with a goal of adding 1,700 employees
over the next five years. But state and local governments, which apply for and
receive IIJA funds, “are facing historic shortages of workers with expertise in
important areas, such as auditing, procurement, and acquisitions,” the report
says.
Labor shortages extend to the construction industry,
particularly in skilled trades. That could affect the ability of grant
recipients to complete projects on time and on budget. A 2021 report issued by
the National
Infrastructure Advisory Council found that “the workforce development
system in the United States lacks the coordination, data, and strategic human
capital management necessary to ensure a skilled workforce for critical
infrastructure.”
Inflation often results in changes to construction contracts
to account for increasing costs, which can also affect the project schedule,
the Office of the Inspector General’s report states. It concludes that “rising
prices of critical construction materials will likely blunt the impact of IIJA
investments.”
Administrative issues will also challenge the DOT, with
the report noting that the infrastructure law appropriated funds for 15 new
discretionary grant programs and made significant changes to existing programs.
Based on the department’s prior work, both the OIG and the Government
Accountability Office found that the DOT could struggle to provide sufficient
direction to grant applicants, recipients and program staff while ensuring that
they adhere to DOT guidelines, policies and procedures.
The report calls out the Federal Highway Administration and
Federal Transit Administration as needing to review additions and revisions to
statewide transportation improvement programs and local transportation
improvement programs.
“As the Department is aware, the volume of IIJA funds,
coupled with the creation of new programs and priorities, present a number of
significant implementation and oversight challenges,” Soskin wrote in his memo
to Buttigieg.
Chief among those challenges, the report says, is mitigating
increased risks of fraud and waste. The IIJA requires that at least 10% of
funds the DOT spends on surface transportation, transit and highway safety
research and development go to disadvantaged business enterprises, which have
sometimes been used
as fronts for non-DBE businesses and pass-through schemes.
On a positive note, the OIG credits the DOT with
acknowledging the risks and challenges its report identifies and for taking
steps to meet the demands placed on it by the IIJA.
The report urges the DOT to strengthen its risk management,
be creative and adaptable in dealing with stakeholders and maintain focus on
continuous improvement of its processes.