Infrastructure deal appears to vindicate Biden's faith in bipartisanship

Annie Linskey and Tyler Pager, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - A beaming President Joe Biden led a group of Democratic and Republican senators out of the White House shortly after noon Thursday on a sunny yet not-too-hot Washington summer day. He motioned for the 10 lawmakers to gather around him for a moment he'd long envisioned.

"We had a really good meeting," Biden said, wearing the grin of a person who has been doubted and then proved right, even if just for the moment. "We have a deal."

If passed by Congress, the $973 billion bipartisan agreement to fund roads, bridges, pipes, transmission lines and broadband over five years will be the largest package of spending on the country's infrastructure in modern history.

It also would show that Biden has found a way to bridge a divided Washington - at least on the popular issue of spending money on construction - and achieve an agreement that eluded his predecessor, whose frequent promises to focus on infrastructure became a running joke in Washington. One of Biden's central campaign pledges was that he could make the country's legislative system work again, a claim that was mocked as either naive or hopelessly out of touch, even by some of his own supporters.

But now Biden is poised to deliver legislation that would rid the country of dangerous lead pipes carrying drinking water, fund thousands of construction jobs and pour money into transit - including his beloved Amtrak - all with at least a handful of Republican votes. Biden also has pledged to sign a separate measure, likely to be passed only with Democratic support, that includes liberal priorities such as subsidizing health-care workers, extending direct child-care payments to families and bringing down college costs.

Both measures would need to be passed for Biden's optimism to be vindicated. But the president took a minute Thursday to savor victory nonetheless.

"I know there are some in my party who discouraged me from seeking agreement with our Republican colleagues - who said that we should go bigger and go alone," Biden said at a separate news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the deal. "To them I say this: I've already shown in my young presidency I'm prepared to move the country forward. . . . We can find common ground."

He also appealed to the country to reduce the partisan fever. "We've devoted far too much energy to competing with one another and not nearly enough energy competing with the rest of the world to win in the 21st century."

The unusual nature of the moment garnered Biden praise from some onetime opponents.

"It feels that this is the beginning of a progressive era that could last 25 years," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who was a national co-chair for the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. "People will look back and think Joe Biden ushered in the beginning of the progressive era. . . . It would be the actual rejection of Reaganism."

Biden's tentative win on infrastructure, however, comes as progress on other Democratic priorities has stalled. The anniversary of George Floyd's killing by a police officer in Minneapolis came and went without tangible progress on a police reform measure that is bogged down in Congress. Gun control remains out of reach even as the nation undergoes a wave of murders and mass shootings. And the week began with the failure of a sweeping voting rights measure billed by Democrats as a way of shoring up American democracy amid GOP efforts to limit access to voting.

Yet Brian Fallon, executive director of the liberal group Demand Justice, who has worried that Biden might sell out the left for a GOP compromise, sounded a note of optimism: "If they keep with this two-track plan, I think that Biden is going to be able to have his cake and eat it too."

Longtime friends and allies of Biden's said the deal was personally significant to the president as a way of ensuring that the possibility of bipartisan consensus did not disappear, while also reflecting his desire to leave a lasting legacy.

Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser, said Biden has an abiding belief in the legislative process to pass "longer lasting laws with broad support."

"He understands there are people in our party who don't agree with his assessment, but he believes this is the way to move forward when it's available, and if the other side doesn't want to work with you on an issue, you will have to go at it alone," she said. "But when there is the possibility of building a consensus, the probability of passing something into law becomes much higher."

Former senator Ted Kaufman, D-Del., a close Biden ally, said the moment is the culmination of a lifetime of seeking to work across the aisle.

"It's like anybody who has prepared for two years, five years, or 10 years, or 15 years to be a concert violinist or to be major league second baseman," Kaufman said. "It's essentially that he's been preparing his whole life."

But Kaufman also said Biden knows that this week's deal could be ephemeral: "This is like if you win six games in the beginning of the season and you have 115 more to play. This is not the time to break open the champagne."

Biden has long suggested that GOP resistance to working with Democrats was caused by former president Donald Trump.

Republicans would have an "epiphany" if he defeated Trump, he had said. On the campaign trail, Biden also said that Republican were "decent people," a friendly posture that irritated some liberals.

The president kept that theme going Thursday, making a point of naming Republican senators he said he can trust and saying it's possible to have faith in a person with whom he might disagree on many issues.

"They've given me their word," Biden said outside the White House, referring to the five Senate Republicans standing behind him who were involved in crafting the deal. "Where I come from that's good enough for me."

He returned to the idea of trust in comments later.

"Mitt Romney has never broken his word to me," Biden said, referring to the senator from Utah and former Republican presidential nominee who helped hammer out the deal. "You know, the senator from Alaska, the senator from Maine, they've never broken their word. They're friends. The people I was with today are people that I trust."

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, said, "Everybody that's willing to come to the table and compromise deserves credit."

"This is the first time since he started that he came to the cameras and said we have a bipartisan agreement," Fitzpatrick said. "We're proud of that. Everybody that had a piece of that should be proud of that. I hope that they, you know, my hope is that, you know, our colleagues here don't try to hijack that with the reconciliation process."

But Thursday's announcement required more than just cutting a deal with some members of the GOP; Biden also needed to sell it to his own party. Because of the 50-50 split in the Senate, any Democratic senator or one of the independents who caucus with Democrats will effectively have veto power over the agreement.

Biden has long predicted that his 36 years of experience as a senator would allow him strike the kind of deals he announced.

"I'm going to drive you crazy for the next four years, because I'm going to tell you the truth as I see," Biden said Thursday. "I know the Senate and the House better than most of you know it."

The bravado was quickly followed by a measure of humility as the president was asked to predict whether this complicated deal really could work. "Nobody knows for sure," Biden said. "That idea of my telling you now that I know what every senator - how they're going to vote - it's is just not - I don't know that."

Biden then toggled back to his experience: "I don't have any guarantee, but what I do have is a pretty good read over the years of how the Congress and the Senate works."

Infrastructure deal would boost investments in rail and transit

Ian Duncan, The Washington Post

An infrastructure spending deal crafted by a bipartisan group of senators would represent among the biggest federal investments in rail and transit, the White House said, with spending that could serve the administration's climate and racial equity goals. But the president also agreed to dramatically pare back a proposed fund to remove or redesign urban highways while cutting investments in electric vehicles.

The agreement includes $312 billion dedicated to transportation, a proposal that would represent a significant boost in federal spending on the nation's transportation infrastructure. Layered on top of current federal spending, it would provide billions more than lawmakers have included in transportation funding bills moving through Congress, even though it's scaled back by about one-third from the White House's initial American Jobs Plan.

Despite the lower overall spending, the administration said it would achieve many of the same transportation objectives.

"This is a big deal for transportation infrastructure, climate action, equity, job creation, and more - it represents a key part of the president's economic agenda, with major and much-needed investments in America's future," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet.

The White House said the plan would "improve healthy, sustainable transportation options for millions of Americans by modernizing and expanding transit and rail networks across the country, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions." The administration said spending on roads and bridges would come with a focus on reducing the impact of climate change and ensuring the safety of drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

The agreement calls for $109 billion for roads, bridges and major construction projects, along with $49 billion for transit and $66 billion for rail. The package also would include $25 billion for airports and $16 billion for seaports and waterways - figures that are in line with Biden's original pitch.

On some specific equity and climate measures, the new proposal would provide significantly less money than Biden initially requested.

 

It allocates $1 billion for a fund to reconnect communities divided by transportation construction in the 20th century, far less than the $25 billion in the original White House pitch. Funding for electric-vehicle infrastructure would amount to $7.5 billion, with another $7.5 billion for electric buses, down from a combined $40 billion. The White House says even the smaller sum for charging infrastructure would be enough to meet its goal of installing 500,000 outlets across the country.

Jeff Davis, a fellow at the policy analysis group Eno Center for Transportation, calculated that when it comes to road, rail and transit spending, the framework proposes about $16 billion more than a transportation bill advancing through the House. (The Senate is considering a similar bill but hasn't set a funding level for transit.)

The American Society of Civil Engineers, which produces an influential rating of the nation's infrastructure, said the new framework was encouraging and could help address what it assesses to be a $2.59 trillion shortfall in needed spending over the next decade.

The Biden administration has framed its transportation plans as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape how people get around. Many bridges and highways are reaching the end of their life span and need to be replaced or overhauled. At the same time, transportation is the nation's biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, with electric vehicles slowly taking hold. Communities of color and poorer neighborhoods often suffer from fewer transportation options, limiting access to jobs and health care.

Details on how the money would be spent were limited - specifics that some analysts cautioned Thursday could alter the agreement's ability to reach Biden's goals of helping the environment and making the transportation system more equitable.

"What policy is attached to these expenditures?" said Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress. "That matters a great deal."

He pointed to a transportation bill written by House Democrats, which would require states to consider transit and other options before expanding their road networks, while holding them accountable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.

A Senate committee's version of the bill would set fewer restrictions on spending, but it passed unanimously out of committee.

Paul Skoutelas, president of the American Public Transportation Association, praised the bipartisan group's latest effort Thursday while also reiterating the organization's support for the House bill.

"Our nation demands forward-looking infrastructure investment that modernizes public transit and passenger rail systems and meets the growing and evolving mobility demands of communities," he said.

Although some senators involved in negotiations floated fees on drivers as one way to cover the cost of new spending, the package steers clear of changes to the gas tax or fees on electric vehicles.

Next steps for the proposal weren't clear Thursday. Lawmakers could fold the additional money into existing transportation spending bills in Congress or write a separate piece of legislation. Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have said they want the bipartisan package to advance alongside a budget bill that would not need Republican votes in the Senate, which could be used to fulfill other Democratic objectives.

Infrastructure spending promises boost for industry

DAMIAN J. TROISE, AP Business Writer

Plans to pump money into rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure could give companies that make machinery and materials a solid foundation for growth.

Caterpillar, with its heavy machinery, and construction materials company Vulcan Materials could see years of additional business as roads and bridges are rebuilt and buildings are modernized. The benefits would be even broader, impacting Sherwin-Williams, United Rentals and others that make, sell, or rent anything used for construction.

The plans are long overdue, economists and business leaders have said, as the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure age without any significant overhaul. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation’s roads a poor grade in its 2021 report, saying 40% of the system is now in poor or mediocre condition. Bridges, schools and much of the key infrastructure in the U.S. doesn’t score much better.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that a bipartisan agreement had been reached on a $953 billion infrastructure plan.

Details of the deal were scarce, but the pared-down plan, with $559 billion in new spending, has rare bipartisan backing and could open the door to the president’s more sweeping $4 trillion proposals later on.

“From an economic growth perspective, we see the infrastructure deal really boosting productivity,” said Ken Johnson, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Analysts at Citi and elsewhere have been focusing on the president’s $1.7 trillion American Jobs Plan. That amount, or close to it, seems likely to be what Congress eventually approves or enacts through other means.

Any deal that makes it to the president’s desk for a signature will be spread out over many years, giving stock values an initial boost before the long-term benefits to profits and revenue kick in. And it’s the larger companies that will likely see greater benefits from years-long construction and overhaul projects.

Citi expects nearly all heavy machinery makers in its coverage group to benefit from government spending, but Caterpillar is likely going to be the biggest winner.

“Coming as little surprise to anyone that has passed by a major highway project, Caterpillar has strong market share positions in most of the heavy construction equipment categories in North America,” according to a Citi report.

Profits for many companies tied to the construction or industrial sector are already projected to gain ground over the next several years as the economy recovers. Any spending measure spread out over years will help secure and boost that growth through contracts for projects and orders for supplies and equipment.

Makers of cranes, bulldozers and other machinery are still only part of the bigger picture. Companies that make asphalt, concrete and other road and building materials are in a good position with any future infrastructure spending. Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta Materials are among the biggest makers of aggregates in the U.S.

“Remember that in any definition of infrastructure, if it’s new construction, aggregates is going to be in the foundation,” said J. Thomas Hill, president and CEO of Vulcan Materials in a conference call with investors. “So, it’ll help us whether it’s roads and bridges or other forms of infrastructure.”

Paint and coatings makers like Sherwin-Williams and PPG Industries are also in a good position to take advantage of any ramped up government spending. Bridges need paint and other coatings to stay hardy against the elements, while roads and buildings also need a significant amount of paint.

West Haven has an I-95 bridge rated 'deficient.' Here's the CT plan to fix it.

Brian Zahn

WEST HAVEN — A structurally-deficient bridge supporting Interstate 95 over the Metro North Railroad tracks is scheduled for maintenance in about two years, according to the state.

A state Department of Transportation spokesman said the state-owned bridge, which is located approximately 1,300 feet east of First Avenue, is tentatively scheduled for maintenance in summer 2023 to address structural deficiencies to the bridge’s superstructure. The state said the bridge is safe.

For the project, state officials are planning a widening of the bridge for a total estimated cost of $14.5 million in federal and state money.

According to DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick, inspectors rated the superstructure of the bridge a four out of nine, an indicator that the superstructure is in poor condition.

However, he said that rating is not “alarming or worrisome” and the construction project is “typical” to address aging infrastructure.

“It is expected and anticipated that over the long life of a bridge, that it will eventually at some point fall into the category of being structurally deficient,” he said. “This is the aging process of a bridge structure; when you reach that point, a mechanism is engaged to rehabilitate or replace that structure.”

“(W)e want to minimize and mitigate, to the greatest extent possible, impacts to I-95 traffic flow during the project,” Nursick said.

Nursick said DOT inspects all of the structures to make sure they are safe every 2 years at least.

According to an overview of the planned construction, the existing West Haven bridge — constructed in 1956 and rehabilitated in 1985 — consists of a simply supported, six-span, steel multi-girder superstructure with a reinforced concrete deck and a bituminous concrete wearing surface.

“The purpose and need for the project is to address the structural deficiencies and functionally obsolescence of Bridge No. 00162,” the overview said, referring to the name of the West Haven bridge.

“The bridge is structurally deficient due to the poor condition of the superstructure and functionally obsolete due to the inadequate deck geometry,” the report states.

A state report says the bridge consists “of three 12-foot travel lanes, a 4-foot left shoulder and a 4-foot right shoulder in both the northbound and southbound directions” and had an estimated daily ridership of 136,900 vehicles in both directions according to a 2017 study cited in the report.

The project “involves the removal and replacement of the six-span simply supported superstructure, piers and abutments with a three-span curved steel composite continuous superstructure, piers and abutments, which will be supported on existing and proposed concrete piles,” according to the project overview.

“The structure will be widened to accommodate three 12-foot travel lanes, a 12-foot operational lane, a 16-foot left shoulder and a 12-foot right shoulder in the southbound direction; the northbound direction will consist of three 12-foot travel lanes, a 16-foot left shoulder and a 12-foot right shoulder,” the state report says.

West Haven Mayor Nancy Rossi said her office has not yet been contacted by the state about traffic mitigation efforts, although “usually they do.” She said she supports a widening of the bridge while maintaining several lanes of traffic to prevent an influx of cars traveling through the city during busy periods.

“If I-95 backs up, everybody hops off there,” she said. “It’s rough with the traffic.”

According to the project overview, there will be construction on an estimated 2,200 feet of roadway. A PowerPoint presentation from the CTDOT indicates plans to keep three lanes of traffic open during peak hours.

Nursick said two seasons of construction are expected to complete work to the bridge, which would mean a tentative completion date of late 2025. Nursick said traffic type and volume, and climate conditions make an impact, in “a winter weather state, our bridges take a little more abuse.”

Norwalk River Valley Trail $3 million construction grant receiver

The Norwalk River Valley Trail, (NRVT,) recently received a $3 million construction grant through support from the Town of Ridgefield, and WestCOG, (Western Connecticut Council of Governments,).

The grant will cover all construction for the 1.5 mile Ridgefield Ramble trail. It is the single largest grant that has beeb received by the trail’s organization, since its inception in 2012. The funds for the grant are from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, (LOTCIP,) which provides Connecticut state funds to urbanized area municipal governments in lieu of Federal funds. To activate the grant, the trail needs to raise $130,000, which is 4 percent of the grant amount, to complete design, engineering, leasing applications, and all state and local permitting for the grant.

“We are so grateful for the support by First Selectman Rudy Marconi (Town of Ridgefield) and WestCOG for this major construction grant. The trail will be a standout amenity for Ridgefield and it’s a major push forward for the NRVT,” Norwalk River Valley Trail Executive Director Beth J. Merrill said. “We now call on the public; the residents of Ridgefield, and surrounding towns, to help us raise the $130,000 to activate construction. Please help us build this wonderful trail in Ridgefield! Visit our website to donate. (www.nrvt-trail.com),” Merrill said.

“The Town of Ridgefield supports the NRVT 100%. Our receipt of a grant to cover the majority of costs have been achieved. We now need Ridgefield's help to reach the match required. Please support this vital asset for our community,” Rudy Marconi, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.

Ridgefield Ramble’s beautiful property begins at a pond adjacent to the Norwalk River (Rt. 7 & Simpaug Turnpike), and follows around the pond, along the Norwalk River, then begins a climb into the Berkshire foothills. There it wanders serenely among large old trees, rock outcroppings, and in sight of a nearby rock escarpment. The top section of the trail runs through a sheep fold from the early 1900’s, (at Bobby’s Court,) before it connects to the NRVT Redding Mile, which is currently in pre-construction. When it is completed, people will be able to hike from the Ridgefield Ramble parking lot at Route 7 up to Fire Hill Rd in the town,, and connect to the Redding Mile for a 2.8 mile long excursion. Once complete, the trail’s Ridgefield section will be a five mile trail that connects Wilton to trails in Redding.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDnXcm4ZAd4 for a view of the trail site.

Waterbury lands $4 million grant for brownfields cleanup

Mike Puffer

WATERBURY — The state’s latest round of brownfield grants will bring $4 million to continue cleanups of two derelict and polluted industrial sites in Waterbury. Torrington will receive $200,000 to plan the cleanup of another.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday the state has awarded $19 million to pursue cleanups of 31 blighted properties in 23 cities and towns.

“Cleaning up blighted properties that have been vacant for decades and putting them into productive use will ultimately generate back many more times the amount of these grants through private investments,” Lamont said, according to a release by his office.

Waterbury already has spent a $1 million state grant having a contractor demolish an industrial complex on a 14-acre site on Freight Street. The site had long been used for metals manufacturing and industrial waste processing.

In April, the state awarded a $2 million grant to continue the cleanup at the former Anaconda American Brass site on Freight Street. The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments also committed $200,000 to this project in April.

Thursday’s announcement means Waterbury has $4.2 million in new grant funds to continue work at the site.

The latest round of awards also committed $2 million to help the city continue cleanup at the 17-acre Anamet industrial complex off South Main St.

“This is an amazing investment from the state of Connecticut,” Waterbury Mayor Neil M. O’Leary said. “Cleaning up these sites brings enormous potential. We are very grateful to Gov. Lamont and (Department of Economic and Community Development) Commissioner David Lehman.”

The state’s economic development agency handled grant applications. In Waterbury’s case, these were submitted by Waterbury Development Corp. The city agency has overseen cleanup and redevelopment efforts at these and other industrial sites, a major component of O’Leary’s nine-year administration.

Using a mix of state and local funding, Waterbury’s development agency already has overseen about $5.3 million worth of demolition and repair work at the former Anamet site off South Main St. That massive manufacturing site closed in 2000 and had since become a crumbling, dangerous eyesore. The city has paid contractors to demolish several large buildings and plans to take down another four. It recently paid $2.3 million to repair the roof of a 220,000-square-foot building on the site, a building O’Leary hopes to sell or lease for warehousing or industrial use.

Thursday’s announcement also brings $200,000 to Torrington toward redevelopment of the 7.1-acre Nidec site along the Naugatuck River.

The funding will help the city and Nidec Corp. plan a brownfield redevelopment strategy, including a remedial action plan and developer outreach. In 2015, the massive complex was demolished.

“The city and Nidec will work together to attract a developer for this site, and the state grant can be used to assist the developer with any additional testing that may need to be done, the development of a remedial action plan and/or a soil management plan that will guide both the remediation efforts and development of this parcel,” Torrington Mayor Elinor C. Carbone said Thursday.

The funding comes as the city completed remediation of 100 Franklin St., the former home of Torrington Manufacturing Co. The site is being prepared for construction of a 60-unit apartment complex.