Karen J. Hedlund
Nancy C. Smith
Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott, LLP
August 1, 2005
On Friday, July 29, 2005 the House and Senate passed the "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users'' or ''SAFETEA-LU". President Bush has announced he will sign it. The Act, which authorizes $286.5 billion in funding for surface transportation projects through FY 2009, also includes long-sought provisions that will enable public funds to be leveraged with billions more in private investment. Public-private partnerships will now have new tools to implement innovative financings for highways and intermodal facilities, including:
• private activity bonds for highways in surface freight transfer facilities,
• enhanced authority to use tolling to finance construction of interstate highways,
• increased flexibility in using design-build contracting,
• streamlined environmental processes, including a 180-day statute of limitations on actions contesting federal agency approvals for transportation projects, and
• improvements to innovative finance programs, including TIFIA and SIBs.