Nebraska has received $5.15 million in federal transportation grants intended to help the state evaluate new ways to finance and deliver major transportation projects more quickly.
Gov. Jim Pillen, Nebraska Department of Transportation Director Vicki Kramer, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster and other officials announced the initiative Friday in Omaha.
The funding will support transportation planning and technical assistance across a seven-county region in eastern Nebraska, with projects focused on improving mobility, addressing congestion and developing alternative ways to finance major infrastructure improvements.
The grants are not construction grants that immediately fund road projects. Instead, they are intended to help Nebraska evaluate projects, develop financing strategies and determine how alternative delivery methods and public-private partnerships could be used to move major projects forward more quickly.
One of the grants provides $1.15 million through the Regional Infrastructure Accelerator program for the state's ACCEL-NE initiative — Accelerating Critical Connections for Elevating Livability in Nebraska.
ACCEL-NE encompasses more than $6 billion in priority transportation projects in the Omaha-Lincoln region and surrounding areas. The grant will help evaluate the feasibility of those projects and build the institutional capacity needed to move them forward.
NDOT has already begun the process of developing the program. The department issued a request for qualifications in August seeking professional services to support the ACCEL-NE Regional Infrastructure Accelerator.
Nebraska also received two $1 million grants through the Build America Bureau's Innovative Finance and Asset Concession program.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's official award list, one grant will conduct an asset scan of nine selected projects in the Omaha metropolitan area and along the I-80 corridor between Omaha and Lincoln. The goal is to evaluate existing transportation assets and identify opportunities for innovative financing and potential private-sector partnerships.
The second $1 million grant will focus on “The Stitch,” a roughly 20-acre parcel of state-owned land near the I-480 and Dodge Street interchange in Omaha. The grant will evaluate the feasibility of redeveloping the property and using a combination of public and private investment.
The Omaha project could eventually provide opportunities for housing, business development and other uses on land currently affected by the surrounding interstate and highway infrastructure. Omaha Mayor John Ewing said the grant will allow officials to examine what is realistically possible for economic development at the site.
Federal officials say the broader goal is to help Nebraska move major transportation projects from planning to construction more efficiently.
McMaster said the three Build America Bureau grants will allow Nebraska to “plan and innovate to accelerate project delivery.”
Kramer said NDOT historically operated largely on a pay-as-you-go model, waiting until funding was available before moving projects forward. She said the rising cost of transportation projects and the state's growing infrastructure needs have made alternative financing approaches increasingly important.
Nebraska has already begun using some of those approaches. Kramer said changes in financing, along with faster environmental permitting and other reforms, are expected to allow the U.S. Highway 275 corridor project to be completed eight years earlier than previously projected.
The federal Build America Bureau describes its role as helping states and local governments combine federal financing and funding programs with innovative project-delivery approaches, including public-private partnerships.
The announcement builds on Nebraska's broader effort to speed transportation project delivery. In February, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an agreement giving Nebraska full responsibility under the federal National Environmental Policy Act assignment program, giving NDOT more control over environmental reviews for future transportation projects.
Pillen said transportation investment is important not only for roads and mobility but also for Nebraska's economic growth, supply chain and food production.
“If we don't have infrastructure, we can't grow,” Pillen said.
For North Platte and western Nebraska, the grants do not directly fund a specific local project. The announcement is primarily focused on eastern Nebraska, but the financing and project-delivery strategies being developed could provide a model for how NDOT approaches major transportation projects elsewhere in the state.