The state of California and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) have entered into a strategic partnership designed to ease the flow of “innovative project and financing opportunities for multibillion infrastructure improvements” across the state.
"Gove. Gavin Newsom and #US Department of Transportation announced a strategic partnership to help facilitate innovative projects and financing opportunities for multibillion infrastructure improvements in California amid supply chain crisis," Safety4Sea@safety4sea.com posted on Twitter.
The arrangement comes after Newsom recently enacted an executive order aimed at tackling ongoing supply chain issues and as part of a President Joe Biden-Vice President Kamala Harris task force examining supply chain disruptions. The new partnership paves the way for California to expedite work on a network of related projects that stand to quickly boost the economy as opposed to the state being forced to rely on a piecemeal system.
“California’s ports and infrastructure system is key to the country’s supply chain,” Newson added in a U.S. Department of Transportation news release. “Thanks to our collaboration with the Biden-Harris administration, this innovative federal-state partnership will help us fast track those projects that will make our ports and infrastructure even more efficient. This partnership will help us jumpstart and support multiple infrastructure projects to improve our supply chain, making sure goods get to where they need to go faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly”
Under the terms of Emerging Projects Agreement, the Build America Bureau at DOT will “support the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) in developing California infrastructure projects designed to improve the capacity and resiliency of the goods movement chain and will assist project sponsors in exploring innovative financing opportunities for billions in infrastructure investment, in part through the USDOT credit assistance programs Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF),” the department said.
Other projects that could receive support through the agreement include port-specific upgrades, expanding capacity for freight rail, developing inland port facilities for increased warehouse storage, railyard and truck electrification and highway upgrades to improve truck travel times.
The Biden-Harris task force is also working with a growing number of private companies from across the supply chain industry to expand operations to around-the-clock, all in hopes of expediting handoffs to each other. To date, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the ILWU, Union Pacific Railroad, and retailers including Walmart, Target, FedEx, UPS, and The Home Depot, have committed to the expanded hours plan.
