US DOT Moves Aggressively to Promote TIFIA Program

A key component in the just passed MAP-21 transportation reauthorization legislation is a significant increase in funds made available through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program. Funding for TIFIA was increased from $120 million in FY 2012 to $750 million in FY 2013 and $1 billion in FY 2014. The TIFIA program provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit to major transportation infrastructure projects that have the revenue base necessary to pay back the loans. A wide variety of transportation projects are eligible for TIFIA support including highway, bridge, rail, transit, multi-modal projects and others. MAP-21 increased eligibility for groups of related eligible transportation projects secured by a common pledge. The new law also established a 10 percent set-aside of the funds for rural projects which also receive a reduced interest rate; an increase in the share of eligible project costs that TIFIA may support from 33 percent to 49 percent; and a rolling application process. On July 27, 2012, two months before the many policy and program changes in MAP-21 formally go into effect, US DOT issued a notice of funding availability that outlined the new types of projects eligible for TIFIA assistance and announced that DOT will begin immediately accepting “letters of interest” from project sponsors. Final approvals to actually grant such assistance will not be made before the new 2013 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. Today DOT sponsored a webinar to discuss the changes and answer questions. Several hundred parties participated resulting in DOT scheduling a second webinar on August 3. Since its inception in 1998, the TIFIA program has used $9.2 billion in funding to leverage more than $36.4 billion in private and other capital to help build 27 major transportation projects around the country.