The Chicago (Ill.) Department of Transportation (CDOT) has released a strategic transportation plan that it’s calling “the nation’s first” urban plan developed in the wake of the pandemic, economic and racial justice crises of 2020. Also, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is now accepting applications for its Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Environmental Document Preparation.
The House Appropriations Committee on July 16 approved the Fiscal Year 2022 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) funding bill of $84.1 billion, a more than 11% boost over 2021.
Throughout my series about the Gateway Program over the past two years, I have often noted changes in circumstances that could, or at least should, give Gateway proponents reason to consider changing the nature or the magnitude of its component projects. That recently happened with the project to start building two new single-track tunnels under the Hudson River.
The U.S. Senate on June 10 confirmed Nuria Fernandez as the 15th Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Fernandez is also the first Senate-confirmed woman of color to lead FTA, and the first confirmed Administrator in more than a decade.
The U.S. Department of Transportation reported on June 11 that 22 transit projects in the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program will receive a total of $250 million in American Rescue Plan funding allocations; four are rail-related and will receive a total of $64.9 million.
Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a $547 billion, five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill on June 4.
Caltrain’s launch of electrified service will be delayed two years, until late 2024, due to “complications in the installation of signal systems, unforeseen conditions under Caltrain’s tracks, and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which severely disrupted supply chains necessary to the project.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is slated to receive $88 billion under President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, which was submitted to Congress on May 28.
A critical federal component of the politically controversial Hudson Tunnel Project segment of the Gateway Program on the Northeast Corridor—stalled by the Trump Administration but rapidly rescued and advanced by the Biden Administration—has received a Final Environment Impact Statement (Final EIS) and Record of Decision (ROD from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA).
Carolyn Gonot will return to California’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) on July 12—this time serving as General Manager and CEO.
