Specialty Fabrics Review April 2024 - 49

A glance at the map filled with
colorful dots indicates many public
infrastructure projects potentially in the
works, but some geosynthetics companies
say they have not yet noticed the
law's impact. " I don't think very much
money has been released yet, " says Keith
Gardner, a business partner representing
Conover, N.C.-based Dalco Nonwovens
and Union, S.C.-based Global Felt
Technologies. Dalco is a needlepunch
nonwovens company that makes and
sells materials to distributors for geotextiles
and other industries.
Although he believes the rollout
has been slow, Gardner says anything
having to do with infrastructure,
highways, railroads and airports are
going to benefit from the law. " Roads
will probably be the biggest component
of this law, " he says.
Funding faucet turned on
Unlike Gardner, Jonathan Curry,
executive director of the Erosion
Control Technology Council, is starting
to see infrastructure funding flowing
into communities. " I know there are
projects at different levels across the
country and money has started to
flow into them, " he says. " Most of the
projects are either maintenance and
rehabilitation projects or medium- and
large-size projects. I am not sure if mega
projects, which would be [something]
like massive bridge projects, have
received much money yet. "
While the White House map is
one place to assess the law's impact,
Gardner relies on information from
distributors and contractors in local
communities to understand how the
law is rolling out or affecting their
communities and would advise others
to do the same.
" Local knowledge is everything, "
he says. " They are the boots on the
ground. They know what's going
 MIRAFI®
RS580i, manufactured in Cornelia, Ga., is
installed for ballast reinforcement. Image: Solmax
SpecialtyFabricsReview.com 49
on in their communities. I trust them,
and they have relationships with the
big contractors. "
Challenges ahead
Both Gardner and Curry anticipate
hurdles for companies that want to
participate in the work generated by
the law. One of the challenges involves
the requirements of the Build America,
Buy America (BABA) rule, which
establishes that the threshold for
noncompliant products is no more than
the lesser of $1 million or 5% of total
allowable costs. A later clarification of
the rule states that waivers are available
when applying the BABA requirement
when it " would be inconsistent with
the public interest, " according to the
Federal Highway Administration.
The BABA provision could have
a chilling effect because engineering
firms seeking materials for projects
tend to be risk-averse and will not want
to be caught doing a project that won't
be funded and paid for, Curry says. " If
they view the Buy American provisions
" I feel [the infrastructure
law] is going to be good
for our industry. "
Keith Gardner
Dalco Nonwovens and
Global Felt Technologies
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Specialty Fabrics Review April 2024

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