WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation has set up a Build America Bureau that will combine bond, loan and grant programs to facilitate the development of transportation infrastructure projects throughout the country.
The bureau, announced by DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx on Wednesday, "will streamlin[e] credit and grant opportunities while providing technical assistance and encouraging innovative best practices in project planning, financing, delivery, and monitoring," DOT said in a release.
"The Build America Bureau will be a one-stop shop to help develop projects and provide financing in a single streamlined, effective, and comprehensive manner," said Foxx. "It will allow DOT to be responsive to America's changing transportation needs and opportunities, so we can deliver real, tangible infrastructure development for local, regional, and national population centers."
The bureau will combine the following programs: private activity bonds; Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), the Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC); the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing, and the new $800 million Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-Term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) grant program.
BATIC, announced in 2014, serves as a single point of contact and coordination for states, municipalities, and project sponsors looking to utilize federal transportation expertise, apply for federal transportation credit programs, and explore ways to access private capital in public private partnerships (P3s). Since BATIC's formation, DOT has closed over $10 billion in financing to support $26 billion in projects, the department said.
"To the customer, there will be a single entity in charge of DOT credit, large scale, and intermodal project development, and a single point of contact for working with DOT on infrastructure finance and development," DOT said in its release.
"The Bureau outreach and development team, continuing the work of the BATIC, will work with the project sponsors to support them on how they can best combine DOT credit, funding, and innovative project delivery approaches such as public-private partnerships (P3s), and then offer project-level technical assistance to get them ready to pursue it," the department said. "The department's credit team will be able to underwrite loans from multiple sources together, so that the customer is no longer getting a TIFIA loan or a RRIF loan, but instead a single credit package from DOT to help them build the infrastructure they need."
In addition, the bureau will manage the application and evaluation process for the FASTLANE grant program, which funds high-impact projects that address key challenges affecting the movement of people and freight.
