Advocates of public-private partnerships to help finance transportation projects are hailing the new Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, or MAP-21, and hustling to take advantage of a key part of the statute: a more than five-fold hike in a Dept. of Transportation loan program.
As states await word from DOT on preliminary requests for 2013 aid under its Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, they and other P3 supporters know MAP-21 funding, including TIFIA's share, expires on Sept. 30, 2014. They already are talking about trying to increase, or at least hold, the newly achieved gains when Congress works on MAP-21's successor.