Engineering Inc. - January/February 2005 - 17

ACEC Executive ROUNDTABLE Edited by Kristine N. Ruff Addressing Critical
Transportation Victor Mendez Infrastructure Needs Director With the
one-two punch of decreasing funding and Arizona Department of
Transportation increasing congestion, the people who build the What
innovative programs/policies exist to build nation's network of bridges,
tunnels and roadways projects faster, cheaper and better? have to be more
innovative than ever before. When it uring the past several years, the
Arizona D comes to large-scale transportation projects, these Department
of Transportation ADOT and local governments have made exten- days the
question is not so much how to build it, but sive use of the Highway
Expansion and Exten- how to build it with fewer public dollars and as sion
Loan Program HELP to accelerate the construction of important highway
projects quickly as possible. Engineering Inc. recently asked throughout
Arizona. By accelerating projects officials from federal and state
departments of trans- through the use of this innovative program, the
projects have been completed sooner then they portation, as well as from
ACEC-member firms, how otherwise would have been, and at a lower cost.
they navigate the current funding obstacles while still The program has
been particularly useful in accelerating projects on the Maricopa County
delivering in today's challenging environment. Regional Freeway System,
which was made pos- sible through the use of board funding obliga- tions,
or BFOs. This is a unique mechanism that allows the state transportation
board to borrow funds from the state treasurer to provide William M. Dowd
capitalization for HELP. These state funds would have been invested
Executive vice president elsewhere by the treasurer, but can now be used
for highway infrastructure, while at the HDR Engineering, Inc. same time
allowing the state a market return Considering the challenges faced with
limited trans- on its funds. portation infrastructure funding and growing
infra- HELP is one of the most active state infra- structure needs, how
has your firm adapted to more structure banks SIBs in the country, and
con- effectively work with the state DOTs in delivering sistently ranks
among the top SIBs in the nation projects? in terms of number and amount
of loans approved. As loans are repaid, the funds are being used to
accelerate other projects. e have had a long-standing culture of
work-sharing among offices. We have W We expect used this approach to
mitigate the impacts of the federal funding un- that this will certainty
caused by the delay in the reauthorization of TEA-21. continue to While
there has been uncertainty at the federal level, there have been state or
be an impor- regional funding initiatives that have dramatically increased
transportation funding tant program in certain parts of the country. Among
the states that have been positively impacted for financing are
Washington, Oregon, Texas, Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona. highway We
have temporarily assigned personnel from softer markets to assist offices
in projects in these stronger markets. We find that this not only
increases our capacity to serve the Arizona. growing needs in the stronger
markets, but also it is a good training tool, because it creates teams of
people who have honed their skills for different clients and under
different mentors. January l February 2005 ENGINEERING INC. 1 7
Engineering Inc. - January/February 2005

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