Highway Bill Should Speed Transport Projects, Mica Says

Provisions in a new surface transportation bill should cut in half the amount of time it takes to launch infrastructure constructions projects, according to the leading Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“Cutting red tape and the inordinate amount of time it takes to get shovels into the ground to build projects will save money. These savings can be invested in other critical projects,” Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said Tuesday in The Hill, a Washington weekly newspaper that focuses on congressional activities.

The committee’s new multi-year spending plan for a $450 billion surface transportation is expected to be unveiled at a press conference on Thursday. The conference was delayed a day because of continuing negotiations between committee Democrats and Republicans, according to a spokesman for Mica.

Mica identified the replacement of an Interstate highway bridge over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis year as the kind of project that could be completed faster with less bureaucracy. In August 2007, the bridge collapsed, but it took 437 days to open the new span.

If the project had followed the existing government approval process, it would have taken seven or eight years to complete the project, Mica said.

“We must consider the Minnesota project to be the model for an initiative to expedite construction of other infrastructure projects around the United States,” Mica said. He called the initiative the “Mica 437-Day Plan.”

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.