Late Friday night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes $450 billion for highway and public transportation investments and a new, five-year reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs. The legislation passed the House 228-206, compared to the bipartisan 69-30 Senate vote in August. The measure earned support from 215 Democrats and 13 Republicans. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick was the lone Republican from Pennsylvania voting yes on the measure. All Pennsylvania Democrat House members voted in favor of the bill.
Go here to view slides from ARTBA showing specific increases that will come to Pennsylvania over the next several years. In essence, it will mean the following:
- Would increase PA DOT federal money by $675 million. This is the total of the core highway program plus PA’s share of the special bridge program
- Will translate to about an additional $500 million in project lettings in year one with growth over the period of five years.
- This would take PennDOT lettings from $2.0 to $2.5 billion per year. Practically, we need to have a construction program of about $3.0 billion and growing.
During our recent discussions with PennDOT, and as late as last week during several District meetings, DEs and Central Office personnel have indicated that they have projects ready to go in almost every District and we should see lettings increase without much lag time. PennDOT and other states will have some brief waiting period for FHWA to allocate the funds and produce any necessary guidance.
Here is ARTBA’s detailed analysis of the bill.
We will have more details during our upcoming APC Weekly Online Update on Wednesday, November 10 and, of course during the APC-PennDOT-Turnpike Fall Conference in Hershey.
