This week, the Senate and House saw introduction of bipartisan proposals sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Illinois House delegation members to initiate public-private partnerships for waterways infrastructure.

The Water Infrastructure Now Public-Private Partnership Act would create a pilot program to explore agreements between the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and private entities as alternatives to traditional financing, planning, design and construction models. It would identify up to 15 previously authorized navigation, flood damage reduction, and hurricane and storm damage reduction projects for participation. For the chosen projects, ACE and private entities would enter into agreements to decentralize the planning, design, and construction processes in an effort to speed up project delivery and bring more private investment into water infrastructure projects.

The concept of public-private partnerships is supported by ASA and is consistent with approaches examined in an analysis released earlier this year by the Soy Transportation Coalition ASA supports approaches that will leverage the existing and available federal dollars and enable projects to receive funding up front and in lump sum to reduce costs and shorten timeframes for project completion.

The Waterways Council, of which ASA is a member, also conducted their legislative seminar and Hill visits in Washington this week. ASA Washington staff attended the seminar, which included remarks from Sen. Durbin, House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). The Waterways Council is focused on having the major elements of the Capital Development Plan, which are represented in the WAVE4 and RIVER Act proposals in the House and Senate, included in WRDA.