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RESOURCE PAPER
Accelerating Project Development
Approaches and Techniques for Expedient Project Delivery
Sharon Greene, Sharon Greene and Associates
Michael Schneider, PB Consult
D
espite a number of recently developed tools and refers to moving the traditional federal-aid transporta-
techniques for innovative financing of surface tion process from a single strategy of federal funding on
transportation projects, relatively few such pro- a "grants reimbursement" basis to a diversified
jects have experienced substantial acceleration in actual approach that includes innovative financing concepts
delivery to the public. States, municipalities, and special- developed from both the public and the private sectors.
purpose authorities have used new methods to leverage As is well known to conference participants, the federal
traditional sources of funds, which in many cases have government has traditionally financed transportation
allowed the delivery of projects that would have had to infrastructure primarily through outright 80 percent
wait for pay-as-you-go financing. However, the value of grants. With the Intermodal Surface Transportation
such innovation in the more rapid delivery of trans- Efficiency Act of 1991, the National Highway System
portation projects is often lost because of factors that Designation Act of 1995, and the Transportation Equity
substantially inhibit their effective use. Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), the U.S. Department
The purpose of this resource paper is to encourage of Transportation (USDOT) began providing alternative
and stimulate discussion about methods by which more or "innovative" forms of nongrant assistance, as well as
projects may be delivered more expediently. Not surpris- means by which the traditional federal grants process
ingly, many nonfinancial factors interact in project deliv- could be made more flexible. This definition conveys a
ery, which in combination reduce the value of new rather large playing field for innovation, which encom-
methods for generating and utilizing funds for capital passes virtually all programs that utilize borrowing,
project development. This paper will explore such factors guarantees, and other means of leveraging funds. By this
and their relationship to innovative finance, with the definition, a significant number of transportation pro-
principal objective of defining more effective approaches jects in the past 12 to 15 years have taken advantage of
for consideration in the "Next TEA" reauthorization innovative financing. Many are now in operation; oth-
process. Succinctly stated, the full value of innovations in ers are in the final stages of development, environmental
financing methods for surface transportation programs clearance, and preliminary and final design.
will only be realized when they are paired with compan- As paraphrased by the U.S. General Accounting
ion innovations in the project definition, development, Office in its September 25, 2002, testimony before the
approval, and implementation processes. Committee on Finance and the Committee on
Environment and Public Works, the goals for the
FHWA Innovative Finance Program are as follows:1
INNOVATIVE FINANCE FRAMEWORK 1 Statement of JayEtta Z. Hecker, Director, Physical Infrastructure
Issues, United States General Accounting Office, testimony before the
According to the Federal Highway Administration Senate Committee on Finance and the Committee on Environment
(FHWA), "innovative finance" is a broad term that and Public Works, Sept. 25, 2002.
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