Shifting federal priorities are altering the landscape in infrastructure funding, permitting, contracting, staffing and delivery—creating project uncertainties for New York and New Jersey agencies and industry firms, while driving a need to innovate to stay compliant and competitive, speakers told ENR’s NY/NJ Infrastructure Forum on Sept. 15. 

Even as Trump administration executive orders and policies, congressional legislation and recent court decisions have rescinded or reduced federal mandates for environmental protection and workplace and infrastructure equity—and halted funding for now out-of-favor projects and initiatives—U.S. law still requires compliance and access, said Emily Gallo, HNTB Corp. vice president and director of infrastructure and mobility equity. States also have their own programs, and the public still expects infrastructure that is safe and a wise investment of taxpayer dollars, she told the 400 attendees.

“It makes business sense, because just as we consider risks around engineering or supply chains or labor or environmental permitting, we can also consider risk around inclusive infrastructure and community needs, and that can help us avoid things like rework, schedule delays, cost overruns and protests,” Gallo said.

The changes have resulted in “direct conflict between federal approvals and state programs,” said Fred Wagner, principal advisor for environmental solutions at Jacobs. He shared a recent anecdote about submitting documents for a bridge project on which the firm’s federal partners crossed out every mention of words such as “equity,” “justice” and “greenhouse gas.” But states still have their own programs in these areas so the project team must produce two parallel sets of documents: one without offending terms for federal agencies and one meeting state requirements, Wagner said. 

In many ways, initiatives for resilience, equity and environmental justice are about safety and making peoples’ lives easier, so many of the same principles apply to a project regardless of the nomenclature, he noted. “Resilience is an engineering principle at heart,” Wagner said. “We have not abandoned it, even if somebody is taking a pen and crossing out words.”

Innovation Has a Wide Range

Project innovations span widely—from shiny technology to nuanced approaches for talent retention or contract development, with key need to manage adjustments and evaluate whether they are worthwhile, said Rizwan Baig, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chief engineer.

James Carone, New Jersey Turnpike Authority executive director, said community involvement has been a key strategy to build community support for projects such as the controversial $11-billion Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension Improvements program, which includes replacing 29 bridge structures along 8.1 miles in a congested urban area for a key highway link to New York City. The agency is working with the town of Bayonne, N.J., on local community projects and is pushing project contractors to consider local suppliers and subcontractors. 

The agency does not have the same funding concerns as others since about 90% of its revenue comes from usage tolls. But the Newark Bay program has been “really eye-opening for us” regarding permitting, Carone said. At first, authority officials were unsure about the changes in federal permit process for the multi-faceted megaproject, to replace a more than 70-year-old bridge by 2031. But specialized consultants assisted to connect it with the U.S. Coast Guard to gain needed approvals. “What really helped is that we found the right people who have the experience,” he said.

For agencies without the authority’s reliable revenue stream, public-private partnerships can help solve funding concerns and tap valuable project experience, said Chris Livingstone, infrastructure strategy and delivery partner at financial advisory firm CohnReznick. The arrangements can allocate risk between public and private partners, he added, highlighting the Port Authority’s recent LaGuardia Airport terminal replacement. “Done right, [using P3s] can fundamentally accelerate projects,” Livingstone said. “It can move risk away from the public sector, and it can get us building projects in a really efficient way.” 

For some agencies, workplace innovation extends to what contracts allow. The New York City Dept. of Design and Construction is testing a new approach to handle change orders called an expanded work allowance, said Eric Macfarlane, the department’s first deputy commissioner. Contractors used to have to wait nine months to a year for change order payment, but the modification now allows 80% payment to go out immediately while documents are still being processed.

Unlocking New Possibilities

Other agencies are reconsidering how to determine what contracts should stipulate. New York City’s procurement policy board recently approved a competition-based system that allows potential contractors to propose solutions to stated agency needs, said Nerissa Moray, chief financial officer of the city Dept. of Environmental Protection. “That kind of innovation and policy can unlock a whole different possibility of seeing what answers to the physical problems we’re trying to solve might be,” she noted.

Agencies are also innovating how to attract more graduate engineering talent. The New York Dept. of Transportation has launched new efforts to raise interest in civil engineering among high school students, said Chief Engineer Stephanie Winkelhake, and is also appealing to younger workers through technology. Location-adjusted compensation has also been a popular incentive, she said. 

The environmental agency is also finding ways to help all staff keep learning. Senior staff are invited to its Environmental Tech Lab once a year where 20 technology startups pitch products, and younger staffers are being rotated earlier through different departments of the country’s largest water and wastewater utility.

Parth Oza, assistant commissioner of capital program management at the New Jersey Dept. of Transportation, shared details on work by agency engineers to develop the New Jersey Extension—technology that uses cameras and radar detectors to extend time at a crosswalk for a slower pedestrian, or delay a green light if a speeding car is likely not stopping at its red light. He also noted the value of personal connection, pointing to the annual lunch that Baig has organized for leaders of regional turnpike and port authorities. “Having those relationships, I think, is extremely important, because we all have our own challenges but when we work together, we all succeed,” said Oza.

One Stop for Data

Luciana Burdi, chief infrastructure officer for capital programs at the Massachusetts Port Authority, launched the Massport Infrastructure Condition Assessment database as a single location for employees to quickly check the status and condition of the 171 buildings it manages. Staff can pull up facts about facility components, along with exact locations and visuals, for every structure.

Burdi proposed the idea because of concern with how organizations at the authority’s scale handled their data, with details scattered across platforms and project teams developing different ways to track assets. 

The data collection and compilation showed more than 3,300 recommended property changes and 16 possible capital projects that Massport had not been aware of. When a tenant posed questions about Terminal B at the Boston Logan International Airport, it only took the agency one-half hour to create a 300-page report answering their request complete with pictures. 

“My original idea was really to do this thing to make people busy, and then put it to bed,” Burdi said. “I guess I unleashed a monster.” 

She said jet bridges, HVAC systems, streetlights and more are being added to the database, as are about 3,300 pending property updates. 

Eventually, the authority will think about how predictive analytics can even mine the assessment database for infrastructure changes not yet anticipated, Burdi said.