ARTBA Members Talk Infrastructure Costs With White House, DOT Officials

What happened: Several ARTBA members met virtually with Biden administration officials June 21 to provide input on construction costs and related issues. In opening remarks, President Joe Biden’s Senior Advisor Mitch Landrieu (whose team led the meeting) emphasized continued efforts to put funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into action, improving timelines for project delivery, and ensuring the American people are aware of benefits from these investments. The meeting was the latest activity in the administration’s ‘Action Plan to Accelerate Infrastructure,’ launched last October.

Why it matters: The agenda covered numerous issues relating to project costs, which can greatly affect economic benefits derived from infrastructure investments and the public’s perception of them. Following an academic research presentation on cost trends for U.S. highway and transit projects over recent decades, industry participants addressed risk allocation, alternative project delivery methods and the need for cooperation among all parties to projects. Several noted that project costs can also relate to global factors that affect materials prices and availability.

ARTBA Chair Paula Hammond of WSP USA told the group that risk can include uncertainty in a project’s development. Hammond stressed the importance of implementing One Federal Decision and designating a lead federal agency during the permitting process. She also urged federal officials to provide better clarity in rules such as those for Buy America, which enable project participants to better understand and quantify the compliance requirements for federal-aid projects. ‘Time is money, but also risk is money,’ she said.

ARTBA General Counsel Rich Juliano related the ongoing need for conversations between the public and private sectors on risk in order to facilitate a better mutual understanding of how parties view projects. He noted the success of ARTBA’s 2022 compilation, ‘Risk Factors in Design-Build,’ which the White House recognized in the rollout of its 2022 project acceleration initiative. Juliano also pointed out that disparate public policy objectives, such as those relating to Buy America and other areas of the law, can affect project costs.

What’s next: White House and U.S. Department of Transportation officials indicated their dialogue with industry on these topics will continue. ARTBA will seek additional opportunities for members to interact with federal decision makers as part of these discussions.