CT Construction Digest Thursday October 13, 2022
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.