U.S. DOT institute raises awareness of transportation funding options

A new institute affiliated with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently announced that it will host its first live webinar to increase public awareness of options for transportation investment.

The webinar will be about an innovative public-private partnership that will replace or repair hundreds of bridges that are structurally inadequate.

The webinar will emphasize recent accomplishments by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), which has used a public-private partnership to replace 558 bridges that were structurally deficient throughout the state.

Part of the Build American Transportation Investment Center (BATIC) under the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the purpose of the "BATIC Institute: An AASHTO Center for Excellence," is to train state transportation departments to secure financing. Officials from the DOT announced the new center in September 2015.

A survey is available on the institute’s new web site -- www.financingtransportation.org -- to help officials plan for information that is most important to the future features at the institute.

“With this specialized website, online training and peer-to-peer exchanges, the institute will deliver the types of services and information our state departments of transportation need to examine all of their options,” Jennifer Brickett, the institute director, said.