The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, will increase federal spending on infrastructure by about $550 billion over the next decade, nearly all through grants to state and local governments, which own much of the nation’s infrastructure. There are still many questions surrounding this bill and what it means for the construction industry. In this four-part series, we share answers to a few of the biggest questions courtesy of industry experts.

The Question: Some IIJA funds are allocated across states by formula. Others require state and local governments to apply for funding. How well is that process going?

The Answer: There is a wealth of federal discretionary programs now. Some of them are new; others are variants of one that have been around for several years.

What federal programs and their staffs are trying to do is figure out how to write a finite number of good applications. They [federal workers] have a hard set of challenges on their plate delivering all of these new programs. DOT [U.S. Department of Transportation] is trying to combine sources where they can. They put a single funding notice in one instance for three different programs, so that instead of applying three times, businesses and organizations only have to do it once. The more they do that, the easier it is for people to actually avail themselves to these programs. On the back end, how they project manage could be challenging if it's not very organized because the dollars will flow through different operating administrations with different rules. Making sure they're adherent to consolidation on the back end as they've been on the front end...would be important.

It's best to view the funding process as a five- to -seven year endeavor, and in many instances the money will be spent 10-12 years out, given the way that things work. A team is being built at the White House to focus on project delivery and on setting up the right structures. Each state has an appointed state infrastructure coordinator at the White House's direction, with one or two exceptions. They're also working hard to make sure low-capacity communities have the resources needed to both plan for and apply for funding. The bill has 375 grant programs, 125 of them brand new.

One odd but very interesting this about this bill is that it includes a competitive program for culverts.There's now a new federal competitive grant program for culverts, which means with IIJA, there's going to be lots of programs, lots of money, and most likely, lots of chaos.

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Answers and responses to this question were provided by (1) Ryan Berni, senior advisor to Mitch Landrieu, the infrastructure implementation coordinator in the White House, (2) D.J. Gribbin, former special assistant to President Trump for infrastructure, and (3) Shoshana Lew, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation.