Long Bridge view from the Potomac River. (izanbar/Getty Images)
Members of the congressional delegation from Virginia would like to see the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, or Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, reauthorized when it ends in less than two years.
The BIL has fueled internet access expansion and funded several transportation and environmental projects in Virginia, including financially supporting the Long Bridge Project’s expansion and cleanup efforts at abandoned mine lands.
The law expires on Sept. 30, 2026, leaving a reshaped Congress and new presidential administration to consider its reauthorization.
Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the BIL was signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021, authorizing $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending with $550 billion targeted for “new” investments and programs over six years, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“We have just entered the fourth fiscal year out of a five-year package, so it’s not too soon to be talking about what comes next,” said Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to the media during the Oct. 15 groundbreaking of the Long Bridge Project in Arlington.
“What we’ve had in this bipartisan infrastructure package is a level of investment that we’ve not had in my lifetime, clearly very much needed, especially when you talk about a 100 year-old asset like Long Bridge and thousands of cases like that around the country,” he added. “So we need to, I think, take all of the successes and learn from the experiences of the last few years, and it will very much be one of the biggest things on Congress’ plate in just about a year from now.”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, lawmakers laid out how the act has helped and advocated for the law to be reauthorized.
Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, D-Prince William, said the Long Bridge expansion was an example of how the law continues to impact Virginians and “makes good on the promise of investing in our communities.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said reauthorizing the law would help address some unmet needs for rail, highways and airports in the commonwealth.
“If we just keep all the folks who voted for it last time and add in all the members of Congress who didn’t vote for it, but have shown up in ribbon cuttings across the country during the last five years, we’ll have an 85% passage,” Warner said.
“This is also a catch-up for crumbling infrastructure that was allowed to languish and be neglected for a long time,” said Congressman Gerry Connolly, D-Fairfax.
Some lawmakers have had a change of heart concerning BIL.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, had voted against the policy, initially criticizing how much of it was new spending or just reauthorizations of approved funding. Yet, he touted his role in securing a $1.6 million federal grant benefitting the Piedmont Planning District’s Commission’s Route 122 Regional Corridor Plan, which was funded under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Griffith explained the contradiction by saying “…once it’s passed into law, I would be failing to do my job if I didn’t then advocate for those federal monies to come to the 9th District,” in a September interview with the Mercury about his campaign for re-election in the Southwest Virginia-based district.
Transportation
Lawmakers and industry leaders in transportation are excited about the future of public transit after millions in BIL federal funding have been dedicated to projects across the commonwealth.
Danny Plaugher, executive director for Virginians for High-Speed Rail, said the federal government’s $16 billion investment nationwide for rail is making a “huge difference,” eclipsing an earlier record of $2 billion.
In October, Virginia celebrated the groundbreaking of the Long Bridge expansion project after the commonwealth was awarded $729 million. Once completed, the bridge that connects Washington D.C. and Virginia, will allow for more freight and passenger rail service separation.
The current two-track system, widely considered a choke point, has negatively impacted travel times. The plans include expanding to a four-track corridor and constructing approximately 1.8 miles of improvements to rail and pedestrian bridges.
Plaugher said the two largest federal investments for rail before the Act were $74 million in 2009 and $100 million for the Franconia-Springfield Bypass last year. The bypass is an elevated rail bridge south of the Franconia-Springfield station that separates passenger trains from the existing freight tracks.
However, across rail and transit services, Plaugher said Virginia has aggressively sought grants for bridge repairs, rail improvement, and safety projects.
“Both the railway and transit side have been very aggressive in pursuing opportunities for those competitive grants, and we have also been very successful,” Plaugher said. “And so I think we should be proud of our elected and appointed leaders for ensuring that Virginia gets its fair share, and that good things are happening.”
According to USDOT, Virginia is expected to receive $1.2 billion under the law to improve its public transportation options.
Other investments for Virginia include approximately $386 million for infrastructure development for airports, about $106 million per year over five years to support the expansion of an electric vehicle charging network in the commonwealth, and along with grant opportunities, earn a portion of $2.5 billion.
Energy & environment
The legislation had a significant impact on environmental issues as well, and is assisting the commonwealth in tackling outdated pipes, supporting electric grid programs and cleaning up abandoned mine lands.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aiding Virginia Energy’s abandoned mine cleanup
Along with the release of incremental amounts of funding for Virginia to upgrade water and gas infrastructure, the BIL provided over $50 million in October to replace those lines in the state.
Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $35.1 million is headed to Virginia to replace lead drinking water pipes, in line with an administrative rule to identify and replace those lines across the country within 10 years. The announcement comes after the EPA awarded $94 million to Virginia in February to upgrade drinking water, and wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
About $15.7 million out of the U.S Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, or PHMSA, is going toward replacing 13.25 miles of aging gas mains with polyethylene and cathodically protected steel coated lines in Richmond.
Although environmentalists are critical of maintaining fossil fuel infrastructure, PHMSA said the funding will reduce 22.26 metric tons of methane, the most potent climate change causing greenhouse gas, annually by eliminating leaks.
Under the BIL, funding for energy efficiency programs, including those that insulate buildings to conserve how much energy is needed for heating and cooling, meter upgrades and clean school buses are coming to Virginia.
But a larger $85.4 million investment is coming out of the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office, to test a battery storage device connected to the Iron Mountain data center in Manassas.
Data centers, the energy intensive warehouses storing internet processors, are proliferating in Virginia, prompting electricity generation sources to be built, including natural gas-run facilities.
Through the Grid Resilience and Innovative Partnerships, or GRIP, program, the awarding to Iron Mountain will help explore how a data center can operate on the battery storage device to reduce how much demand on the electric grid and generation sources, both of which are maintained in Virginia through ratepayer funds.
Norfolk officials signal changes are necessary for floodwall to move forward
And while doling out almost $400,000 to the city of Norfolk for its Coastal Storm Risk Management project, including a floodwall planned to deal with increasing storm surges the state is facing, the BIL also supercharged the Virginia Energy department’s effort to clean up abandoned mine lands, or AMLs in Southwest Virginia.
Virginia Energy had received about $3 million to $4 million annually since 1981 to clean up mine lands, but the BIL increased the coffers by $23 million over the next 15 years.
The AML program exists to clean up mine lands coal companies left unreclaimed, or remediated, before the 1977 Surface Mine Reclamation Act, which now requires sites to be reclaimed, meaning returned to their natural states or revamped for future economic opportunities. Dangers, such as a landslide in the town of Pound, can result from improper irrigation at AMLs if reclamation doesn’t happen.
The increased funding is expected to allow Virginia Energy to reclaim 70% of its inventory of abandoned mines it has found since 1981. That’ll lead to the creation of more than 1,000 jobs, the agency said.
If Congress considers reauthorizing the law, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, predicted his colleagues could debate turning the act into a longer term investment.
“Six years is going to prove to the American public, and I hope to Congress, of course it’s worthwhile,” Kaine said. “So my prediction is when we have the reauthorization vote, it’s going to be by a bigger margin than the first one.”
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