Pallone on Trump’s Infrastructure Proposal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2018


Washington, D.C. – Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today issued the following statement on President Trump’s infrastructure proposal:

“President Trump’s infrastructure proposal is woefully inadequate for addressing the urgent needs of modernizing our nation’s infrastructure. The proposal does not include any new funding, and it forces the majority of costs onto cash-strapped state and local governments. President Trump spared no expense and required no offsets for his tax scam benefiting corporations and the wealthiest few, but he refuses to provide any new funding to repair our crumbling infrastructure.

“The President also wants people to believe that environmental protections are preventing infrastructure projects from moving forward when in reality the obstacle is a serious lack of funding. The harmful environmental rollbacks included in the President’s proposal will endanger human health and the environment and threaten our communities. Congress has already passed bipartisan legislation to speed up permitting, but the President has not implemented it. We do not need to sacrifice a safe environment in order to modernize our infrastructure and expand our economy.

“Last week, House Democrats unveiled A Better Deal to Rebuild America, which invests $1 trillion in federal funds and creates more than 16 million jobs. This comprehensive proposal includes real and significant investments to fix and modernize our infrastructure. It puts real dollars where they are needed, creating jobs, revitalizing communities and addressing serious threats to human health and the environment.”

How To Cut The Cost Of Infrastructure Construction In NJ

New Jersey's cost of road and bridge construction is the highest in the nation by far. It doesn't have to be.

Forty states use design build bidding which uses the competitive process to design the most efficient construction -reducing construction costs and overhead. New Jersey does not.

On multi-contractor, multi-agency construction, like the Rt. 35 project which cost taxpayers $25 mil for a contractor doing no work for months, a construction project manager could have avoided the work stoppage that kept a contractor idle because of a lack of communication among state and local officials.

Inexplicably Governor Christie suspended Phase II of a contract with Rutgers to recommend measures to cut the cost of infrastructure construction. The cost of Phase II was $60,000.

"Phase II of this study will conduct an analysis of toll road authority expenditures and produce a detailed case study analysis of various NJDOT and toll authority roadway and bridge projects to understand cost efficiency variation more completely."


NEWS RELEASE

Rutgers study estimates cost to build and maintain NJDOT roads

(Trenton) - New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials today announced the release of a new study conducted by Rutgers University's Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center that determined the average cost to plan, construct, operate, and maintain one mile of roadway under NJDOT jurisdiction is $183,757.

The study is part of a two phase effort to provide an understanding of aggregate costs associated with NJDOT roadways and bridges. Rutgers will conduct additional research to understand more completely the factors that influence cost efficiency.

“The New Jersey Department of Transportation is committed to providing a modern, safe, and reliable transportation system throughout the State in the most effective manner possible,” NJDOT Acting Commissioner Richard T. Hammer said. “The study is part of an on-going effort to identify those factors that drive costs in New Jersey’s public transportation sector.” 

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Pallone, Menendez Visit Crumbling Bridge in Perth Amboy, Highlight Critical Need for Long-term Infrastructure Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2015

PERTH AMBOY, NJ – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D NJ-06) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today joined transportation advocates and labor leaders to call on Congress to approve long-term, dedicated funding to repair and upgrade the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Funding for critical highway, transit and safety programs will expire at the end of the month, and the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) faces insolvency by summer.

“The sooner Republicans join Democrats to take responsibility for repairing our country’s transportation system the less it will cost to maintain in the future,” said Congressman Pallone. “With thousands of crumbling roads and bridges, the need for renewal of the Highway Trust Fund and a commitment to robust investment in infrastructure is two-fold – a boost to the economy and job creation, along with the long-term safety and health of our transportation system. The time is now for this vital investment.”

“The ability to move people and goods safely and efficiently is critical to our economy and our quality of life,” said Senator Menendez. “We can’t keep pretending the problem is going to resolve itself if we just wait long enough. I categorically reject the idea that we can’t afford to fix our transportation system. We can’t afford not to fix it.”

The federal lawmakers stood along a structurally deficient Rte. 35 Bridge over County Road 624/Rte. 440 Connector in Perth Amboy, one of over 2,300 bridges in New Jersey deemed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to be deficient.

First built in 1960 and carrying 22,000 cars daily, the span is scheduled for full structural replacement by the N.J. Dept. of Transportation in its FY2016 capital plan. However, if the HTF goes bankrupt this summer, reimbursements to states for critical highway repairs and transit projects like this will be reduced or slowed.

Sen. Menendez and Rep. Pallone also stressed the need for greater infrastructure investment in roads, rail and transit, including replacing the two aging Hudson River rail tunnels that also sustained significant damage from Superstorm Sandy.

Attending today’s press conference were: Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex); Joseph McNamara of the New Jersey Laborers Union; Erin Rice of the Operating Engineers, Local 825; Daniel Ortega of the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative; Janna Chernetz of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign; Dr. Patrick Szary of the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT); Andres Roda of the Bridge Evaluation and Accelerated Structural Testing Lab (BEAST) at CAIT; and Tracy E. Noble and Cathleen Lewis of AAA Mid-Atlantic.


Infrastructure: By the Numbers

Highways/Bridges
· 65% of major roads in America in poor condition
· 1 in 4 U.S. bridges need significant repair
· Highways and bridges face an $808.2 billion backlog of investment needs
· $121 billion and 2.9 billion gallons of gasoline wasted due to traffic

Transit
· Zero access to public transportation for nearly half of Americans
· $86 billion backlog of transit maintenance needs
· $18.5 billion a year through 2030 required to bring transit assets into state of good repair

Freight/Ports
· 52,000,000 tons of goods annually moved across U.S. transportation system
· $46 billion in freight transported across the U.S. each year
· 44 million jobs directly dependent upon U.S. freight industry

Economy/Jobs
· The American Society of Civil Engineers found that the economy could lose almost $1 trillion in business sales and lose 3.5 million jobs annually beginning in 2020 if we fail to build our infrastructure to keep pace with this growth.
· An estimated 36,000 jobs are supported by every $1 billion invested in public infrastructure.

Safety
· 33,561 lives lost in highway crashes in 2012.
· 2.3 million people injured in highway crashes in 2012.
· Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.
· Pedestrian and bicycle deaths have risen in recent years and accounted for 16 percent of the total fatalities on U.S. roadways in 2012.

Source: USDOT