All over the United States, contractors and state DOT agencies alike are puzzled at the slow rate at which projects are being awarded.

Once again, spending on highway construction is declining, even as record levels of highway funding are available through the largesse of the Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

The latest stats from the U.S. Department of Commerce show spending on highway and street construction at an annual rate rose 3.5 percent from February to March 2001, but for the year was 8.6 percent below 2000 highway and street construction's annual rate.

Highway and street spending at an annual rate for April ($54.7 billion) was barely higher than March ($54.3 billion), and still trailed April 2000's annual rate of $55.9 billion.
 

Money there for highways

President Bush's proposed budget for FY 2002 would fully fund the $27.2 billion guaranteed for highway programs under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), reported the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

It also calls for investing $4.5 billion in revenue aligned budget authority (RABA) resulting from the higher than anticipated federal motor fuel tax revenues. With $739 million of additional Minimum Guarantee and Emergency Relief funds, the core highway program would be funded at approximately $32.5 billion in FY2002, a $2 billion increase.

On June 26, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Bush's budget proposal, 426-1, and the proposal moved to the Senate.

So why is this happening in the munificent era of TEA-21? The reasons are varied:

o State DOTs are feeling the pain of years of staff cuts and are unable to process projects as quickly as before.

o As the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) found, in some states, outsourcing of engineering is not allowed by law.

o Some states may be unable to raise matching funds to meet TEA-21's significantly higher amounts of federal funding.

o But the feds, state DOTs and industry associations are zeroing in on the complicated environmental process through which projects must traverse. They are looking to "environmental streamlining" to break loose the logjam.
 

Same challenge for airfields

Similarly, airports have most of the money they need to build more concrete runways and taxiways. That's due to the abundance of locally generated money, combined with the federal Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21).

President Bush's FY 2002 budget requests funding for aviation programs at $13.3 billion, including $3.3 billion for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP); the rest of the funds is for FAA facilities, equipment and operations. Both TEA-21 and AIR-21 funds must be approved by Congress by Sept. 30, when FY 2001 ends.

Yet at least 19 major airfield construction projects are bottled up by environmental reviews and the way the process is exploited by airfield expansion opponents, a House subcommittee learned in late May.

A new report just released by the FAA said that streamlining the environmental review process will move runway construction projects forward, give a shot in the arm to airfield expansion, and alleviate aircraft congestion in the air and on the ground.

With airport construction, the circumstances are so calamitous that state and city airport owners, the FAA, professional airport operators, and the construction industry joined forces in the first half of 2001 to take control and break the hold the permitting process has over runway construction.
 

House looks at highway project delivery

In late May -- through the prodding of chairman Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) -- the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit looked at surface transportation congestion, and how streamlining of projects can break the logjam.

At the May 23 hearing, experts said a new streamlining process between local, state and federal agencies must be implemented to ease America's highway traffic congestion. Highway congestion cost the nation $78 billion and led to the waste of 6.8 billion gallons of gas in 1999, the House subcommittee said.

"Reestablishing trust in the Highway Trust Fund has been a success and increased funds are available for an unprecedented variety of transportation purposes," a spokesman for the House subcommittee said. "However, project delivery remains slow and congestion continues to rise."

In March 2000, a hearing on the implementation of TEA-21 was held. Subcommittee members raised concerns there that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) had not made tangible progress in carrying out the streamlining provisions of TEA-21.

In September 2000, the subcommittee held a hearing on FHWA's proposed planning and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. Witnesses said the new regulations complicated the project delivery process and predicted that if the new rules were finalized without major changes, project delivery would be even more time-consuming.

And earlier this year, a hearing on the nation's highway and transit systems gravitated to congestion and its inhibition of the mobility of freight and people.
 

Dean Carlson lays it on line

Kansas DOT Secretary Dean Carlson, president, American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO), said that streamlining the process was one of the most important challenges to getting projects built and resolving congestion. "Even if we have the resources and the political will, we can't get new projects built if we can't get them approved," Carlson said.

"As everyone knows by now, the approval process for new highway projects has broken down," Carlson said. "It takes too long. It cost too much. It's too complex. And it's too easily sidetracked by small groups of determined opponents. If we are going to deliver the capacity we need to serve our growing population, we simply must find a way to fix this broken approval process," Carlson said.
 Up to 1980, highway capacity kept pace with economic growth, Carlson said. But that's changed.

"The strategy for the last 40 years was to build the highways that were needed for the prospering economy," Carlson said. "However, most of that construction occurred during the first half of the period. From 1956 to 1979 total highway system lane miles increased by 1.1 million miles. From 1980 to 1999, the increase was less than one-third of that. Only 300,000 miles were added to the system. And that vision must recognize that we need new capacity, not just preservation and maintenance."

"When we look back over the past 20 years, we all can see that adding new capacity -- or even maintaining the system we already have -- has become increasingly difficult," Carlson said. "TEA-21 provided a record level of funding for highways and transit. While a portion of the federal investment will go for building new capacity, most will be used for reconstruction and preservation of the existing system."

Factors slowing delivery of projects include:

o Costly right-of-way acquisition. Property acquisition -- especially in developed urban areas -- involves higher costs because of the real estate involved and the neighborhoods and businesses affected.

o States, cities and counties are investing more in environmental mitigation to comply with increasingly stringent environmental standards.

o To be more responsive to community concerns, to comply with the increased complexity of environmental requirements, and to deal with litigation, state transportation agencies are also investing more in planning, design and legal staff work.
 

AASHTO offers specific reforms

Carlson provided five specific reforms that Congress could take this year to help streamline the process, including:

o Reforming duplicative federal regulations regarding historic properties and parks by eliminating the overlap between sections of the National Historic Preservation Act, and restoring balance and proportionality to better base decisions on the type of resource being affected and the extent of a project's impact

o Delegating to states the authority to conduct National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) reviews for smaller projects with little environmental impact

o Affirming transportation agencies' authority over deciding issues of transportation policy and methodology

o Making streamlining project reviews a part of all federal agencies' missions, and

o Establishing pilot projects to encourage innovation.

Ominously, Carlson said the difficulty of reforming the process without changing the laws poses a substantial barrier to speeding project delivery through streamlining.

Carlson noted that last year, a section of proposed environmental regulations listed 53 separate statutes and executive orders that FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) are legally obligated to follow when completing an environmental study.

"We all can agree that streamlining should be achieved without weakening existing environmental protections," Carlson said. "But I think we also can agree that significantly reforming the process without changing a single word in any of those 53 statutes or executive orders is a tall order, maybe an impossible task.

"We have to be realistic," he told Congress. "To a great extent, the conflict and delay that plagues the environmental process is not the result of poor coordination or inadequate resources; rather, it is the natural and unavoidable result of an overwhelmingly complex labyrinth of legal requirements enacted by Congress over more than 30 years. Quite simply, some reform of those underlying requirements might be needed before we can make serious progress toward streamlining."
 

Utah I-15 was expedited, at a cost

If the will is there, enough pains are taken, and money is available, enormous projects like Utah's I-15 reconstruction can proceed quickly and smoothly, the panel heard.

Thomas Warne, then executive director of the Utah DOT, told the subcommittee that "good things can when state and federal agencies work together on crucial transportation projects" in Salt Lake City's I-15 reconstruction project, the largest design-build public project in history.

Warne said the project, which included the construction of 142 new bridges, realigned three major interstate junctions, and several new freeway-to-freeway connections, originally was expected to take between eight to 10 years to complete.

But when Salt Lake City was selected in 1995 as the host of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, local, state and federal agencies all began a cooperative effort to complete the project before the games began. As a result, the project was completed in only four years.

"We learned that when people really care about it, things can be accomplished quickly," Chairman Petri said. "Despite the terrible congestion, everybody thought it would take 10 years to upgrade Salt Lake City's I-15, but when they realized that the Olympics were coming, they got it done in half the time. Maybe we should name the projects currently in stalemate as Honorary Olympic Sites," he said with dry humor.
 

Average 12-year review process

There's no way concrete will be poured for adequate capacity improvements unless streamlining takes place, said Taylor Bowlden, vice president, policy and governmental affairs, American Highway Users Alliance (AHUA).

Success of congestion-mitigating capacity improvements will depend in large measure on streamlining the process for reviewing the environmental impact of major road projects, he said.

"Today, it takes approximately 12 years for major highway construction projects to wend their way through the stages of planning, design, environmental review, and right-of-way acquisition, and that's before a single spade of dirt can be turned!" Bowlden said. "Typically  one to five years of that time is spent completing the necessary environmental reviews, often to the detriment of the environment, public safety, and mobility."

Bowlden noted a bridge over the Ohio River to connect the Indiana and Kentucky portions of I-265 around Louisville has been in the planning and review process for 15 years. The ongoing environmental review, public hearings, and litigation make it likely that construction on the bridge won't begin until 2003 at the earliest.

"Meantime, Louisville motorists waste time sitting in traffic or taking the long way to get around town, business development is slowed because of this critical missing link in the area's transportation network, and local taxpayers foot the bill for even more environmental studies and litigation," Bowlden said.

He added there are at least 65 federal laws, regulations, or executive orders that directly address the environmental effect of building roads. At least six cabinet departments and three independent or executive agencies have responsibility for administering those various provisions.

"Due to the proliferation of reporting requirements and the layers of bureaucratic review, the environment itself often takes a back seat to the cumbersome process designed to protect it," Bowlden said.

Bowlden mentioned AHUA's new publication, aimed at defusing the approval minefield. Cooperative Environmentalism: Safer Roads and a Better Environment, a white paper on streamlining the environmental review process that was commissioned and released by the American Highway Users Association. It's available in pdf format off AHUA's web site at http://www.highways.org/.

On the opposite side of the issue, Roy Kienitz of the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) testified that the construction of additional roadways did not mitigate congestion. According to an STPP analysis, he said, areas that increased road capacity saw no better congestion relief than those areas that did not add capacity.
 

Similar blame for airfield delays

On May 24, Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey told the House Subcommittee on Aviation that as the new century begins, it takes an average of 10 years to construct a new runway.

That day, Garvey released a new document, Report to Congress on Environmental Review of Airport Projects. Airfield construction is paralyzed, the report implies, stating that from 1995 through 1999, only three new runways were put in service at the United States' 28 biggest airports. The result is increasing congestion in the air and growing flight delays.

"The underlying environmental impediment to airport expansion is not the environmental review process," the FAA said in its report. "It is the opposition on environmental grounds to airport expansion."

"We are working hard to expedite environmental reviews of important airport capacity projects," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta before the House transportation appropriations subcommittee a month earlier, Apr. 25. "There are 19 runways currently proposed by airport proprietors at large hub primary airports through the year 2010.

Of these 19 runways, 10 already have received environmental approval by the FAA, Mineta said. Another five runways have environmental impact studies (EISs) underway, with draft EISs issued on four of the five.

Of the remaining four, two runways are under consideration at Washington-Dulles airport where an FAA EIS team has already been established and preliminary EIS discussions held. The other two runway proposals -- at Dallas-Ft.Worth and Baltimore-Washington airports -- are beginning the environmental planning process to address increased traffic forecasts.
 

Mineta: Lots of concrete on way

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mineta knows that improved technology can optimize the existing capacity of the U.S. air system. All options are on the table as the U.S. scrambles to provide capacity to meet demand. But technological innovation alone won't solve the problem.

In an advocacy ad, a public/private group, the Runways Coalition, said "A lack of coordination among federal, state, and local review has delayed several major airport projects and new runways by up to 15 years ... [Our] goal is not to compromise environmental safeguards, but to streamline the current review process[es]."

Runways says that just 50 miles of new runways are all that is needed to solve congestion in the air.

Secretary Mineta realizes that construction is an essential part of the overall solution. "A number of large airports, doing their part to catch up with demand, are bringing major new runway projects toward completion," Mineta told airport executives earlier this year.

"Philadelphia and Phoenix recently completed new runways," Mineta said. "Denver, Detroit, the Twin Cities, Orlando and Seattle are in construction, and Cleveland, Miami, Houston, Atlanta, St. Louis and Charlotte are close to construction. In short, lots of concrete is on the way."
 

They want that concrete

The construction industry doesn't want lip service to increased utilization of technology, or airline coexistence, take the place of hard concrete.

The construction industry is very keen to move these projects off center. Before the House Subcommittee on Aviation May 24, Robert McCord, vice president of operations for Ballenger Paving Division of APAC-Georgia, Inc., located in Taylors, S.C., described the stranglehold on projects that environmental streamlining must ease, and the performance his firm expedited at Atlanta Hartsfield once the project attained final approvals.

APAC is the nation's largest asphalt and concrete paving company, and a major supplier of construction materials, conducting business through 46 divisions operating in 14 Sunbelt states. McCord testified on behalf of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), which represents over 5,000 firms and public agencies in all sectors of the U.S. transportation construction industry.

"The development of a transportation project involves multiple agencies evaluating the impacts of the project as required by NEPA," McCord said.

But NEPA does not establish a uniform set of regulations and submittal documents nationwide, and this is causing trouble for the industry. "For example," McCord said, "the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their companion state agencies each require a separate review and approval process, forcing separate reviews of separate regulations and requiring planners to answer separate requests for additional information. Also, each of these agencies issues approvals according to separate schedules."

McCord told Congress ARTBA maintains that:

o Concurrent review with specific deadlines is essential to streamlining the environmental review process

o Airports should not be able to short circuit the State Implementation Plan (SIP air quality planning) process in what is inherently a state planning function

o Contractors are well-equipped to deliver the goods if given the flexibility, dedication and teamwork of everyone involved

o The FAA needs to develop greater flexibility in its funding process to easily respond to change

o The FAA should eliminate or substantially reduce the amount of retainage it withholds from contractors, and

o The aviation community needs to be more focused on long-term
planning for construction projects and recognize the interdependence of each aspect of a project.
 

Big airport projects waiting in wings

This spring the Air Transport Association (ATA) -- the national association of the airlines -- listed 13 major airport improvement initiatives now on the drawing boards, or in stages of approval, that would boost capacity and alleviate congestion in the air. These projects include:

o Atlanta Hartsfield (ATL). A new 9,000-foot runway 10/28 can be in service by May 2005 and will provide capacity benefits of 50 percent, from 180 operations per hour to 270 per hour.

o Boston Logan (BOS). Although plans are mostly complete, construction is not expected to begin before 2002 on a new unidirectional 5,000-foot commuter runway at a cost of $33 million, that will alleviate delays at Boston Logan by as much as 60 percent during certain operational conditions. Owner Massport and the airline industry are trying to overcome local political opposition that has prevented this runway from moving forward.

o Chicago O'Hare (ORD). A new 7,500-foot runway 9/27, discussed then shelved in 1994, would create the ability for "triple approaches" at O'Hare and could be completed in the 2008 timeframe if planning re-starts today and construction begins in 2005-06. The estimated cost is $2 billion given the need to relocate other runways, taxiways and support facilities.

o Cincinnati (CVG). A third, fully independent, 8,000-foot north-south runway, with an estimated price tag of $220 million, will improve capacity at Cincinnati by as much as 50 to 70 percent by providing triple parallel approaches, and could open by December 2005.

o Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). A 9,760-foot eighth runway at DFW, at an estimated cost of $350 million, would allow for four approach streams and raise the annual capacity to 1.2 million operations and come into service in 2006.

o Greensboro (GSO). Capacity at Greensboro could be increased by as much as 60 percent with the construction of new runway 5L/23R, estimated to cost $126 million, in late 2005 or early 2006.

o Los Angeles (LAX). Airfield delays are becoming more common at LAX, especially as traffic continues to grow without any appreciable increases in airfield capacity. The City of Los Angeles is developing a master plan, and its preferred alternative includes marginal airfield improvements, such as additional taxiways to improve airfield circulation and an extension to one of the primary takeoff runways.

However, because of political, environmental and community pressures, the preferred alternative does not include the addition of any new runways. There is also strong sentiment in the region that planning should focus on improvements to other airports in Southern California instead of LAX, ATA said.

o New York Kennedy (JFK). ATA reported that understand that Port Authority of New York/New Jersey planners are beginning to explore potential new runway capacity at JFK.

o Philadelphia (PHL). Airfield delays are a serious impediment to future air traffic growth at Philadelphia with the completion of two terminal expansion projects in the next two years. Philadelphia has retained outside engineering and planning firms to study alternatives to provide more runway capacity, with the goal of accommodating dual independent jet operations, and improve the constrained system of taxiways, with the goal of accommodating two-way traffic in many areas.

o San Francisco (SFO). Airport planners are in the preliminary engineering and environmental planning phases, including the modeling of capacity benefits of the various options for reconfiguring runways. Even without unnecessary delay, any redesigned runway(s) would not come into service until after 2008 at estimated costs of $2.5 billion to $10 billion.

o Seattle-Tacoma (SEA). A new 8,500-foot third runway, expected to begin service in 2006 at a cost of $773 million, will increase the capacity of Sea-Tac by 12 to 18 arrivals per hour in poor weather.

o St. Louis-Lambert (STL). When completed in 2006 at a cost of $1.1 billion, new runway 12R/30L will increase the hourly capacity of St. Louis Lambert by up to 51 percent. It will be the largest airfield construction project since Denver International Airport (DIA).

o Washington Dulles (IAD). New runway 1L/19R is targeted for completion in December 2011 at an estimated cost of $183 million and will reduce delays by approximately 33 percent. New runway 12L/30R, targeted for completion in January 2006, carries an estimated price tag of $216 million and will reduce delays by an estimated 50 percent.