...the federal Highway Trust Fund will soon be depleted. “But the transportation bill is essential because it’s long-term,” he says. “It’s what will create the shovel-ready projects of five years from now.” Uncertainty also clouds the future of the $70-billion Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which will support funding of the Airport Improvement Program and implementation of the NextGen air navigation system for FY2009-2012. The House version was approved in May, but the Senate has yet to take action.

Reshaping Private Sector’s Role

Ensuring a stable flow of public transportation funds is also critical because public-private partnerships (P3s) have lost some of the their luster in the past few years, due in part to the evaporation of ready capital as a result of the global financial crisis.

A proposed 75-year, $12.8-billion deal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike failed last year, while efforts to make Chicago’s Midway Airport the nation’s first major privatized airport have stalled due to investors’ inability to get the needed financing.

But though interest in the P3 concept has cooled, states are hardly ready to abandon it. In March, the Florida Dept. of Transportation finalized its $1.2-billion design, build, finance and operations contract for the 10.5-mile I-595 corridor project in Broward County with a team led by Spain’s ACS Infrastructure Development Inc. The deal gives ACS a 35-year concession in opeations.

Texas is using availability contracts—periodic payment based on factors such as lane availability and level of service—for two of its major P3 initiatives: the $4-billion LBJ/635 and $1.6-billion North Tarrant Express reconstruction/toll lane projects. Denver’s Regional Transportation District plans to partner with a private company to design, build and operate its 23.6-mile East Corridor and 11.2-mile Gold Line rail transit projects.

Some think standard P3 concepts are forever changed. “States and localities no longer look at infrastructure as monetary assets,” Werner says. “Future P3s will be greenfield projects that can be done efficiently, effectively and quickly, with states and localities retaining ownership.”

As the nation’s transportation market achieves a new sense of post-recession normalcy, design firms will be faced with new responsibilities and new roles. “There will be a big push on sustainability as public agencies focus on resource management and conservation during both construction and operation,” Lyman says.

Morsches says staffing cutbacks within transportation agencies will require engineering consultants to more frequently assume the role of program managers. “The whole idea of engineers as ‘project implementers’ will be commonplace,” Morsches says.