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Prepared by the U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
This annual summary reports the activities of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as related to major projects for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, as of October 1, 2011. The FHWA takes an active leadership role in advancing transportation initiatives through the stewardship and oversight of major projects, which are defined as those with a total cost greater than $500 million. In FY 2011, there were 85 active major projects. This annual summary documents the performance of these major projects and what actions FHWA has taken to improve their performance.
Active major projects are those that have completed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decision documents and have begun the next stage of project development such as design or construction. In addition, 11 major projects have been completed since FHWA first started to track such projects in 2001. Two of these projects, the (iROX) I-75 from Golden Gate Parkway to SR 80 in Florida and the I-10/Katy Freeway project in Texas, were completed in FY 2011.
A list showing the status of the 85 active major projects is attached. This list also includes all 11 completed major projects.
FHWA tracks cost estimates and scheduled completion dates for projects with approved Financial Plans. In FY 2011, FHWA evaluated the cost and schedule performance of 44 of the active major projects. Eighty-four percent of the projects had total costs within 2 percent of the previous year's costs and 65 percent had completion dates within 2 percent of the previous year's scheduled completion dates. This is the first time that either of the measures dropped below 80 percent. Most of the increased schedule delays are a result of constrained financial resources that have required project sponsors to delay future construction phases in an effort to effectively manage the overall transportation program consistent with good stewardship practices.
In recent years, governments at all levels—Federal, State, and local—have found themselves increasingly facing tight fiscal constraints as traditional sources of revenue have failed to keep up with the need to improve, maintain and operate our Nation's transportation infrastructure. This has forced project sponsors to continually reevaluate their plans and search for additional sources of funding.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has initiated a number of proposals and activities to stretch the Nation's transportation resources. For example, the Administration implements the merit-based, multimodal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grant program. TIGER has leveraged more than two private, State and local dollars for every Federal dollar invested (compared with 20 cents for every 80 cents of Federal funds in our formula programs) and has spurred creative and collaborative transportation projects at the local, State, and regional levels.
In addition, the Administration executes, through FHWA, the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, which provides credit assistance in the form of direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit to finance transportation projects of National and regional significance. State and local governments use the TIFIA assistance to get more bang for their buck, leveraging the initial funds to secure access to capital markets, flexible repayment terms, and lower interest rates. Each dollar of Federal funds can provide up to $10 in TIFIA credit assistance and leverage $30 in transportation infrastructure investment. As of October 2011, TIFIA has helped 24 projects get access to $8.4 billion in credit assistance.
Beyond its efforts to leverage transportation funding through the TIGER and TIFIA programs, the Department has delivered many initiatives to help and encourage our State and local partners to think creatively about how to finance surface transportation. The FHWA has an office dedicated to providing resources that support State and local transportation agencies as they work to apply innovative revenue generation, procurement and project finance strategies in a manner that is at once effective, efficient and in the public interest.
Finally, FHWA launched a major program to identify and deploy innovation aimed at shortening project delivery times. The Every Day Counts initiative is designed to focus on a finite set of actions that will result in better, faster, and smarter ways of doing business. When projects are delivered faster, and with greater certainty, they are often delivered at a reduced cost, which benefits the American people. Innovation is another way to stretch the transportation dollar.
The Initial Financial Plans for the following major projects were reviewed for acceptance concurrently with the applicable FHWA Division Offices.
The Financial Plan Annual Updates for the following major projects were reviewed for acceptance concurrently with the applicable FHWA Division Offices.
Risk-based cost reviews were conducted for the following major projects.
Additionally, risk-based cost reviews were conducted on the following projects expected to be added to the active major project list in the future.
The Project Management Plans for the following major projects were reviewed for acceptance concurrently with the applicable FHWA Division Offices.
The Project Delivery Team participated in the following activities to promote the oversight and stewardship of major projects to FHWA partners and Division Office staff.
ARRA=American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
BR/IM=Bridge Rehabilitation/Interstate Maintenance
DOT=Department of Transportation
D/B=Design-Build
EIS=Environmental Impact Statement
FONSI=Finding of No Significant Impact
GARVEE=Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles
HOV=High Occupancy Vehicle
RABA=Revenue Aligned Budget Authority
RFP=Request for Proposals
ROD=Record of Decision
TIFIA=Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act
TBD=To Be Determined
A listing of the status of all current active major projects is attached.
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