The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act has created once-in-a-generation investment in America’s infrastructure.
Since the bill was signed into law by President Biden, projects have broken ground in all 50 states addressing rebuilt roads and bridges, cleaner and safer water, pollution cleanup, expanded internet access and the development of clean energy technologies.
In just the first two years, more than $850 million of the $2.1 billion authorized has made its way into direct federal spending at the state and local level.
Needless today, construction is booming at a level not seen since the Interstate Highway Act as more and more projects are allocated each month. Through this law, the construction sector and supporting industries are enjoying economic opportunity, creating good-paying jobs and growing America’s economy from the middle out.
There were some early hiccups in supply lines, in part due a residual effect from the Covid-19 pandemic and in part due to a sudden acceleration in project demands. Though those seem to be mostly solved by now as ports and international gateways have adjusted.
The early days of IIJA also saw a backlog in permitting as America began its largest longterm investment in our nation’s history.
Before dollars can be put to work and shovels in the ground, Congress needed a lengthy overhaul of the permitting process.
Permitting is intended to ensure projects are built safely and with minimal environmental impact. But with a federal law more than 50 years old, multiple federal agencies responsible for permitting projects failed to coordinate or assign contradicting requirements both to win approval and begin work.
To counteract this, the Biden administration in 2023 took aggressive action to accelerate project permitting and environmental reviews, spending around $1 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to install a Permitting Action Plan.
Changes included setting deadlines for completion of reviews and making documents more readable by limiting their length. By taking these actions, industries can move forward with investing in the bidding process knowing that projects will proceed in a timely manner.
By reforming federal permitting, agencies are completing a higher proportion of environmental impact statements than ever before, shortening decisions from an average of 15.4 months in 2017-20 to just 9.6 months.
Federal policies now also expand the use of categorical exclusions, bringing reviews down to a matter of weeks if there is little to no environmental impact. More than 99 percent of federal highway projects fell under this exclusion in 2022.
These policies also are being expanded to expedite sectors such as electric vehicle charting, broadband internet, CHIPS manufacturing and clean energy projects.
One way this is accomplished is by allowing multiple priorities to be simultaneously addressed rather than consecutively. The new policies also allow for shared analysis to discourage duplication of effort.
It used to be that projects that necessitated federal and local permits typically were bogged down by Washington. Now, those times are evening out for people who know how to maximize the system.
With services in 48 states and parts of Canada, Express Permits has the experience you are looking for in a commercial permit expeditor. Call us at (877) 898-9988, email us at sales@expresspermits.net with any questions or fill out our contact form to get the ball rolling.
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