ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ participated in a town hall-style meeting with U.S. Department of Transportation's top leaders who addressed the next long-term transportation bill. This meeting was the final event in the Department's series of "listening tours" leading up to release of its principles the surface transportation reauthorization.The senior DOT officials provided very few specifics about their current thoughts regarding various aspects of a surface transportation bill and provided no answer when asked when they will release their principles. DOT officials did however pledge their support for a long-term funding authorization and expressed the need to expedite the process of approving and finishing construction projects.The Congressional Democratic leadership met with President Obama at the White House this week to discuss the legislative agenda for the remaining weeks before the Congressional summer recess. While vowing to continue to emphasize job creation and economic recovery, not included in the discussions were passing additional stimulus legislation with transportation funding or moving the long-stalled multiyear surface transportation reauthorization legislation.ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½'s CEO Steve Sandherr participated in a town hall meeting called by House republican leadership with the leaders of the business community to discuss steps that can be taken to create jobs. Sandherr reminded the participants about the depressed state of the construction industry and made the following points:• Infrastructure investment must be a national priority so that free trade is not restricted by transportation delays.• Private investment finances 70% of construction projects and maintaining the tax cuts enacted during the Bush Administration is necessary to provide needed capital for investment.• A moratorium on new federal regulations should be implemented to remove uncertainty, cost of compliance, and increased business costs.
CNBC's fourth annual study of America's top states for business measures ten categories, including transportation and infrastructure, as well as education, workforce and quality of life.
Time is running short for Congress to take action on a multi-year highway and transit reauthorization bill. SAFETEA-LU authorization expired on September 30, 2009 and the program has been operating under short term extensions ever since. In addition, the Highway Trust Fund is depleted and infusions of general fund revenue have been needed for it to meet its obligations.
Members of Congress will be home this week for the Fourth of July recess and also in August. This is an excellent time to make them aware of the impact this lack of action by Congress is having on your state's highway construction program.
** Action Requested **
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation today marked-up the FY 2011 transportation spending bill. The bill provides $45.2 billion for the highway program, an increase of more than $4 billion over this year's funding level of $41.07 billion and  President Obama's budget request of $42.36 Billion. The bill also would provide $11.3 billion for transit program funding, a $500 million increase over the President's budget request. The bill also provides $3.5 billion for the Airport Improvement Program, the same amount as appropriated in previous years and $1.4 billion for high-speed passenger rail, a $400 million dollar increase from the President's budget request but a $1.1 billion decrease from FY 2010. In addition, the bill provides $400 million for TIGER Grant programs while failing to provide the $4 billion requested by the President for a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund. At this time it is unclear if or when the full committee will consider the transportation spending bill. If they fail to act prior to the end of FY 2010 the transportation programs will continue to operate at current funding levels. Congress must also act to provide the necessary authorization as the current short term extension expires on December 31, 2010 the end of the first quarter of FY 2011. In addition, more revenue will be needed in the Highway Trust Fund as the current revenue will only support funding through mid 2011.
Following months of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and other transportation construction stakeholders successfully lobbying Congress and the administration to restore $8.7 billion of rescinded highway contract authority, the House of Representatives is poised to take $2 billion of that unobligated money away to offset a $10 billion appropriation to preserve teachers' jobs included in the House supplemental appropriations bill. The intent of the bill is to provide funding for U.S. troops; however, the House Appropriations Committee added additional funding that required an offset of $11.7 billion. As co-chair of the Transportation Construction Coalition, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ sent a letter to Congress opposing the House supplemental proposal, and argued that the rescission creates further uncertainty in an already-suffering transportation construction marketplace. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ also argued that it raises questions about future federal transportation investment commitments.
Congress approved a bill to extend aviation programs and excise taxes through Aug. 1. The short-term extension will give lawmakers another month to attempt to finalize a multi-year FAA reauthorization bill.Both the House and Senate have passed long-term authorization bills but they are very different. An attempt was made to pass a longer term extension to allow time for compromise legislation to be negotiated, but that effort failed. Upon its return Congress will hopefully get to work on resolving the different bills.
The Transportation Construction Coalition, co-chaired by ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, is meeting today in Washington, D.C. to urge lawmakers to pass a multi-year program to fund critical highway, bridge, transit and aviation construction programs. The group also placed an advertisement in Capitol Hill's Roll Call newspaper.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has been receiving inquiries these past few days from highway contractors and ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ chapters from around the country concerning the shortage of a variety of pavement marking materials. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has learned that a number of factors have conspired to create a significant shortage in supply of these materials. These factors include a breakdown of a Dow Chemical plant that produces the majority of the feedstock for a resin used in the production waterbourne traffic paint, and shortages in the supply of Titanium dioxide, widely used as a whitener for paint and other products, and rosin esters, the primary resin system used in alkyd-based thermoplastic.In addition to shortages, the price of these materials have already increased and are expected to continue to increase significantly. Supplies of these paints are running 40 to 50 percent below project demand.From what ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has learned, Dow chemical and several of the major paint and marking material suppliers have taken the dramatic step of protecting their interests by claiming a "force majeur" exemption to relieve themselves of liability under their contracts for failure to meet contract requirements.ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ has contacted FHWA and AASHTO to urge that they work with the state DOTs to develop a contingency plan to ensure that critical highway construction projects can move forward safely to completion, including final stripping and to ensure that there are no negative ramifications for contractors, subcontractors or suppliers for events that are out of their control.ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ chapters and contractors have been meeting with their state DOTs to discuss a variety of remedies that may provide at least temporary relief, including extension of contract deadlines, change orders, prioritizing stripping requirements and easing up on MUTCD specification requirements, at least temporarily, until this shortage is resolved.Please keep us informed of what's happening in your state and remedies that have been effective.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued guidance to state DOTs advising them on implementation of President Obama's Executive Order 13502 encouraging the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). The order specifically permits the use of PLAs on projects receiving federal financial assistance, including the federal-aid highway program. While the order directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidance on the use of PLAs on federally-assisted projects, OMB has not yet acted. FHWA indicates that following issuance of guidance by OMB new FHWA guidance may be necessary.Generally the guidance states that a decision to use a PLA is a state determination. FHWA will consider the request for the use of a PLA as part of its normal review of project requirements. The use of a PLA may be approved if the state DOT has made a reasonable showing that the use of the PLA on the project will advance the interests of the government. While the Order only applies to projects with a total cost of more than $25 million, FHWA indicates that PLAs can be used on projects below that threshold. FHWA spells out the factors that will be considered to determine if a PLA is in the governments interest, include: size of project, importance of the project timeline; risk of labor unrest on the project; impact of labor unrest on users; cost of delays caused by labor disruption; availability of labor with appropriate skills. A PLA that a state wishes to include in a contract must meet the following criteria to gain FHWA approval: a) Bind all contractors and subcontractors on the construction project through the inclusion of appropriate specifications in all relevant solicitation provisions and contract documents;b) Allow all contractors and subcontractors to compete for contracts and subcontracts without regard to whether they are otherwise parties to collective bargaining agreements;c) Contain guarantees against strikes, lockouts, and similar job disruptions;d) Set forth effective prompt, and mutually binding procedures for resolving labor disputes arising during the PLA;e) Provide other mechanisms for labor-management cooperation on matters of mutual concern, including productivity, quality of work, safety, and health; andf) Fully conform to all statutes, regulations and Executive Orders.