The passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) on November 8, 2021 provides $1.2 trillion for infrastructure investments in the United States, of which $550 billion is new spending. Of the new spending, $274 billion is for surface transportation programs which provides an unprecedented opportunity for transit agencies, local governments and private parties to make an investment in surface transportation infrastructure and expanded technological investments, such as battery-electric buses.
Boothe is advising multiple clients regarding the funding available and an overview of existing and new federal programs. For each those clients, he prepared an extensive overview of each surface transportation program and project eligibility to initiate planning to leverage available federal capital funding over the five-year period of the BIL.
City of Austin: The City of Austin (City) seeks to make investments in vehicle-to-vehicle (V to V) and vehicle-to-everything (V to X) as part of becoming a “smart city” to prepare for the expected emergence of autonomous vehicles. BIL provides billions through several programs to invest in the infrastructure necessary to operate AVs on the City streets. Boothe set up meetings between the City and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to identify funding opportunities to redress the negative impact of Interstate 35 corridor resulting in the separation and destruction of once vibrant neighborhoods. Further, Booth is advising City as ta partner with Capital Metro through the Austin Transit Partnership to greatly expand the transit system through a series of investments in Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail over the next 15 to 20 years.
City of San Antonio: Advised the City of San Antonio (CoSA) in the preparation of a grant application for Fiscal Year 2021 Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) discretionary grant funding for the Zarzamora Creek Greenway project. He is currently advising CoSA regarding supportive corridor investments that will support the Advanced Rapid Transit North/South Bus Rapid Transit corridor currently in the Project Development phase of the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program.eTransEnergy: eTransEnergy is a subsidiary of Duke Energy to provide non-regulated services to local governments and transit agencies to invest in battery electric buses (BEBs). Boothe has provide an overview to eTransEnergy of the BEB investment opportunities in BIL and identified potential transit agencies seeking to make an initial investment or expanded investment in BEBs. Boothe facilitated a series of meeting with nearly a dozen transit agencies to discuss the services that eTransEnergy can provide on the non-regulatory side to help achieve the zero emission objectives of those agencies.