Pennsylvania and West Virginia have bonding and road use maintenance agreement programs for their... more Pennsylvania and West Virginia have bonding and road use maintenance agreement programs for their state roads, which place financial and roadway condition maintenance responsibility on industry roadway users. DOT officials and other sources suggest that as a result, industry has covered tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in roadway maintenance and upgrades to rural roadways in these states. DOT officials also noted that while this can be effective for lower-level (smaller/rural) roadways, it is difficult to implement on higher-level roads due to the difficulty of identifying specific users. Other DOT representatives indicated that their agencies do not use bonding on state roads, but the practice is sometimes used by local jurisdictions. Some of these states are also starting to develop road use maintenance agreements with industries in select districts, although the practice appears to be ad hoc and inconsistent statewide.
"This report presents a methodological framework to evaluate public sector financial risk ex... more "This report presents a methodological framework to evaluate public sector financial risk exposure when delivering transportation infrastructure through public-private partnership (PPP) agreements in the United States (U.S.).
A Project Management Plan (“Plan”) defines how a project is executed, monitored, controlled, and ... more A Project Management Plan (“Plan”) defines how a project is executed, monitored, controlled, and eventually closed. The Plan defines and describes all activities under individual tasks that need to be performed to accomplish the project. The Plan includes a detailed schedule of tasks and subtasks, and project deliverables (including necessary review time by all affected agencies). The Plan also identifies risks and mitigation strategies. It describes the communication plan with the project sponsor including submission of progress reports and regular team meetings to discuss outstanding issues. It supports timely submission of quality deliverables within budget. The intended audience of the Plan includes the project sponsor, project advisors, and research team members. The project goals outlined in this report are to: (1) produce a framework for Texas’ freight transportation system in 2055 and (2) develop a set of rail planning recommendations that will be beneficial to Texas Departm...
Historically, Southern European countries have shared a 'semi-peripheral' model of capitalism whi... more Historically, Southern European countries have shared a 'semi-peripheral' model of capitalism which has been characterized by fundamental fragilities in the production system. The financialization induced by the EMU has rendered these economies more fragile and unstable. Liberalization and market reform policies have taken southern economies onto the path of a credit-based and passively-extroverted financialized economy that trap them into a low-cost-of-wages search of competitiveness. However, the lack of autonomy in macroeconomic policies has weakened Southern opportunity to react to the financial crisis. The 'internal devaluation' policies that followed have caused a deep and thorough process of de-industrialization. This has sped-up the centralization of the European economy that has its centre in a narrow space within Paris,
Texas legislation enacted in 2007 created transportation reinvestment zones (TRZs), an innovative... more Texas legislation enacted in 2007 created transportation reinvestment zones (TRZs), an innovative tool that allows local governments to raise funds to help pay for transportation improvements using all or part of the incremental growth in property and sales taxes from a designated area around the project. Legislation passed in subsequent legislative sessions has made significant changes to the law, facilitating greater use of the tool by local governments and expanding the scope of possible incremental tax dedication to include local sales tax. This document presents the results of research conducted to evaluate the use of TRZs by local governments throughout the state. This evaluation had three main objectives: (1) Summarize the legal framework, including the modifications made to the framework since it was first adopted; (2) Describe the advantages and limitations of this financing tool through lessons learned during the implementation of municipal and county TRZs throughout the s...
Real estate property value analysis is used for municipal taxation and budgeting. Commercial prop... more Real estate property value analysis is used for municipal taxation and budgeting. Commercial properties make up a large percentage of the property tax base in many, if not most, taxing jurisdictions. Data constraints limit the number of analyses conducted on commercial property value patterns. This study employs a fairly extensive data set to address that problem in the context of El Paso in 2013. The sample contains data for 105,611 commercial real estate parcels. Empirical analysis is conducted using geographically weighted regression analysis. Results confirm that parameter estimation for the commercial property data in this sample should be conducted using methodologies that allow for spatial autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank David Stone and Howard Johnson from the El Paso County Central Appraisal District for invaluable support in facilitating access to the data required to conduct this research. The efforts of Beatriz Mesta, who assiste...
The objective of this project was to gain first-hand perspectives from state department of transp... more The objective of this project was to gain first-hand perspectives from state department of transportation (DOT) officials about the ways that intensive energy development has impacted state roadways, what is and is not being done to address those impacts, and the outcomes of policies and programs on states’ ability to deal with these challenges. This project covered eight states—Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming—and included a policy and literature review of energy development revenue and transportation funding programs, and over 40 interviews with DOT officials in these states. While these are not the only states with energy development activity, they have experienced substantial recent growth in intensiveness of crude oil extraction, natural gas production wells, and/or utility-grade wind turbine developments. These states represent a range of geographic locations, histories, infrastructures, resources, populations, and philos...
Investments in public infrastructure such as highways, airports, mass transit, and stadiums can i... more Investments in public infrastructure such as highways, airports, mass transit, and stadiums can increase adjacent property values, generating a value premium for private developers and adjacent property owners. A portion of this value can be "captured" as public revenue via property taxes to assist financing such improvements. States and local governments aim to anticipate and capture the economic value created by transportation accessibility. While value capture (VC) represents an opportunity for regional agencies to recapture some transportation infrastructure costs, it is not clear how much value is added by the infrastructure in a particular region. This research applies geographic weighted regression (GWR) to quantify the impacts of transportation infrastructure accessibility on real property values in El Paso, Texas. The presence of spatial nonstationarity and heterogeneity confirms that transportation infrastructure proximity and accessibility might generate a premi...
Journal of Behavioural Economics Finance Entrepreneurship Accounting and Transport, Jan 23, 2014
This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving internatio... more This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving international trade. A methodology to disaggregate regional flows from the Federal Highway Administration's Freight Analysis Framework (FAF 3) to the state level was developed and applied to the State of Texas. To keep international trade moving in a timely and efficient manner, it is important to have accurate information identifying and anticipating capacity shortfalls and congestion nodes. As trade levels increase, the strain on existing infrastructure serving international trade will only get worse; therefore, this information is important for improving strategic investment decisions. This research presents findings from literature reviewed about the FAF 3 structure and existing methodologies to estimate freight flows at statewide and regional levels. A methodology to disaggregate national FAF 3 data and then assign and estimate the tons of international freight flows through statewide roadways and railroads was developed. Texas's international trade corridors are used as a case study to apply the methodology and estimate current and future freight demand. Results from the case study demonstrate encouraging findings about this methodology. Conclusions and recommendations to refine and improve this methodology and the FAF 3 are provided.
This report provides macroeconomic analyses of Texas’ international trade and estimates internati... more This report provides macroeconomic analyses of Texas’ international trade and estimates international freight flows through highways and railroads in Texas. Results demonstrate encouraging findings to identify and anticipate capacity shortfalls and congestion nodes. This information is important to improve strategic investment decisions that aim to keep international trade moving in a timely and efficient manner.
A funding crisis exists for financing much needed transportation infrastructure projects across t... more A funding crisis exists for financing much needed transportation infrastructure projects across the nation and Texas is no exception. Texas has responded to the crisis by passing several bills allowing innovative financing and alternative options for project financing. Among these is Senate Bill 1266 (SB1266), which is a landmark legislation and was passed in 2007 as part of the 80th Legislature to provide the legal backdrop for the creation of the Transportation Reinvestment Zone (TRZ) to facilitate value capture of the tax increment from a future transportation project. This research aimed to provide various mechanisms to augment the implementation and understanding of SB1266 provisions across the state of Texas including but not limited to documenting the current understanding and knowledge of the legislative provisions, compilation of actual implementation case examples, development of standardized methods for screening, TRZ development and revenue assessments, and also presents...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2012
Abstract: This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving ... more Abstract: This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving international trade. A methodology to disaggregate regional flows from the Federal Highway Administration's Freight Analysis Framework (FAF3) to the state level was ...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
tion nodes would strategically improve infrastructure investment decisions. As trade levels are p... more tion nodes would strategically improve infrastructure investment decisions. As trade levels are projected to increase in the coming years, primarily driven by emerging economies such as those of Brazil, India, and the Pacific Rim, the strain on existing infrastructure serving international trade will only get worse. Canada and Mexico are the main trading partners for U.S. exports; nonetheless, China's emergent consumer class is becoming a more prominent market for U.S. exports, recently surpassing Japan. For U.S. imports, China has moved up as the main importer following Canada and Mexico. Nonetheless, high oil prices that increased supply-chain costs have made some companies rethink sourcing with "near-shoring" strategies. After having left for plants in China, some manufacturing is now coming back to Mexico. A new element of the recovery is that international trade patterns are changing globally, and this change could affect the U.S. transportation system, including that of Texas. It is too early to determine what the ultimate structure of the new trade patterns will be. The picture of the new trade patterns will become more apparent once the manufacturing base that will spur the expansion period of the next economic cycle has been established. Another important element that will influence new trading patterns is the expansion of the Panama Canal. This $5.2 billion expansion is expected to start operations in 2014 and will allow super-sized vessels (larger than current Panamax sizes) to come through the canal and serve U.S. ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Trans-Pacific trade between Asia and the U.S. East Coast accounts for more than half of the canal's traffic. The expansion of the Panama Canal will alter trade patterns that currently use ports on the West Coast. The Port of Houston, Texas, is one of the first U.S. ports on the route from Asia and Oceania via the Panama Canal to U.S. customers. For ports near Houston, their fastest-growing market is East Asia, with total tonnage increasing more than 30% in the last 3 years. It is anticipated that growth will continue with the expansion of the canal (2). The Texas Transportation Code, Section 201.6011, requires the Texas Department of Transportation to update the International Trade Corridor Plan (ITCP) biennially and report on its implementation to the presiding officer of each house of the Texas legislature in each even-numbered year. The objective of the ITCP is to provide recommendations to help improve trade movement between the United States and Mexico in the state of Texas. One of the key elements of the ITCP is a definition of the flow of international trade through Texas. The ITCP has been updated by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) since 2006, and the most recent version of the
Pennsylvania and West Virginia have bonding and road use maintenance agreement programs for their... more Pennsylvania and West Virginia have bonding and road use maintenance agreement programs for their state roads, which place financial and roadway condition maintenance responsibility on industry roadway users. DOT officials and other sources suggest that as a result, industry has covered tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in roadway maintenance and upgrades to rural roadways in these states. DOT officials also noted that while this can be effective for lower-level (smaller/rural) roadways, it is difficult to implement on higher-level roads due to the difficulty of identifying specific users. Other DOT representatives indicated that their agencies do not use bonding on state roads, but the practice is sometimes used by local jurisdictions. Some of these states are also starting to develop road use maintenance agreements with industries in select districts, although the practice appears to be ad hoc and inconsistent statewide.
"This report presents a methodological framework to evaluate public sector financial risk ex... more "This report presents a methodological framework to evaluate public sector financial risk exposure when delivering transportation infrastructure through public-private partnership (PPP) agreements in the United States (U.S.).
A Project Management Plan (“Plan”) defines how a project is executed, monitored, controlled, and ... more A Project Management Plan (“Plan”) defines how a project is executed, monitored, controlled, and eventually closed. The Plan defines and describes all activities under individual tasks that need to be performed to accomplish the project. The Plan includes a detailed schedule of tasks and subtasks, and project deliverables (including necessary review time by all affected agencies). The Plan also identifies risks and mitigation strategies. It describes the communication plan with the project sponsor including submission of progress reports and regular team meetings to discuss outstanding issues. It supports timely submission of quality deliverables within budget. The intended audience of the Plan includes the project sponsor, project advisors, and research team members. The project goals outlined in this report are to: (1) produce a framework for Texas’ freight transportation system in 2055 and (2) develop a set of rail planning recommendations that will be beneficial to Texas Departm...
Historically, Southern European countries have shared a 'semi-peripheral' model of capitalism whi... more Historically, Southern European countries have shared a 'semi-peripheral' model of capitalism which has been characterized by fundamental fragilities in the production system. The financialization induced by the EMU has rendered these economies more fragile and unstable. Liberalization and market reform policies have taken southern economies onto the path of a credit-based and passively-extroverted financialized economy that trap them into a low-cost-of-wages search of competitiveness. However, the lack of autonomy in macroeconomic policies has weakened Southern opportunity to react to the financial crisis. The 'internal devaluation' policies that followed have caused a deep and thorough process of de-industrialization. This has sped-up the centralization of the European economy that has its centre in a narrow space within Paris,
Texas legislation enacted in 2007 created transportation reinvestment zones (TRZs), an innovative... more Texas legislation enacted in 2007 created transportation reinvestment zones (TRZs), an innovative tool that allows local governments to raise funds to help pay for transportation improvements using all or part of the incremental growth in property and sales taxes from a designated area around the project. Legislation passed in subsequent legislative sessions has made significant changes to the law, facilitating greater use of the tool by local governments and expanding the scope of possible incremental tax dedication to include local sales tax. This document presents the results of research conducted to evaluate the use of TRZs by local governments throughout the state. This evaluation had three main objectives: (1) Summarize the legal framework, including the modifications made to the framework since it was first adopted; (2) Describe the advantages and limitations of this financing tool through lessons learned during the implementation of municipal and county TRZs throughout the s...
Real estate property value analysis is used for municipal taxation and budgeting. Commercial prop... more Real estate property value analysis is used for municipal taxation and budgeting. Commercial properties make up a large percentage of the property tax base in many, if not most, taxing jurisdictions. Data constraints limit the number of analyses conducted on commercial property value patterns. This study employs a fairly extensive data set to address that problem in the context of El Paso in 2013. The sample contains data for 105,611 commercial real estate parcels. Empirical analysis is conducted using geographically weighted regression analysis. Results confirm that parameter estimation for the commercial property data in this sample should be conducted using methodologies that allow for spatial autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank David Stone and Howard Johnson from the El Paso County Central Appraisal District for invaluable support in facilitating access to the data required to conduct this research. The efforts of Beatriz Mesta, who assiste...
The objective of this project was to gain first-hand perspectives from state department of transp... more The objective of this project was to gain first-hand perspectives from state department of transportation (DOT) officials about the ways that intensive energy development has impacted state roadways, what is and is not being done to address those impacts, and the outcomes of policies and programs on states’ ability to deal with these challenges. This project covered eight states—Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming—and included a policy and literature review of energy development revenue and transportation funding programs, and over 40 interviews with DOT officials in these states. While these are not the only states with energy development activity, they have experienced substantial recent growth in intensiveness of crude oil extraction, natural gas production wells, and/or utility-grade wind turbine developments. These states represent a range of geographic locations, histories, infrastructures, resources, populations, and philos...
Investments in public infrastructure such as highways, airports, mass transit, and stadiums can i... more Investments in public infrastructure such as highways, airports, mass transit, and stadiums can increase adjacent property values, generating a value premium for private developers and adjacent property owners. A portion of this value can be "captured" as public revenue via property taxes to assist financing such improvements. States and local governments aim to anticipate and capture the economic value created by transportation accessibility. While value capture (VC) represents an opportunity for regional agencies to recapture some transportation infrastructure costs, it is not clear how much value is added by the infrastructure in a particular region. This research applies geographic weighted regression (GWR) to quantify the impacts of transportation infrastructure accessibility on real property values in El Paso, Texas. The presence of spatial nonstationarity and heterogeneity confirms that transportation infrastructure proximity and accessibility might generate a premi...
Journal of Behavioural Economics Finance Entrepreneurship Accounting and Transport, Jan 23, 2014
This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving internatio... more This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving international trade. A methodology to disaggregate regional flows from the Federal Highway Administration's Freight Analysis Framework (FAF 3) to the state level was developed and applied to the State of Texas. To keep international trade moving in a timely and efficient manner, it is important to have accurate information identifying and anticipating capacity shortfalls and congestion nodes. As trade levels increase, the strain on existing infrastructure serving international trade will only get worse; therefore, this information is important for improving strategic investment decisions. This research presents findings from literature reviewed about the FAF 3 structure and existing methodologies to estimate freight flows at statewide and regional levels. A methodology to disaggregate national FAF 3 data and then assign and estimate the tons of international freight flows through statewide roadways and railroads was developed. Texas's international trade corridors are used as a case study to apply the methodology and estimate current and future freight demand. Results from the case study demonstrate encouraging findings about this methodology. Conclusions and recommendations to refine and improve this methodology and the FAF 3 are provided.
This report provides macroeconomic analyses of Texas’ international trade and estimates internati... more This report provides macroeconomic analyses of Texas’ international trade and estimates international freight flows through highways and railroads in Texas. Results demonstrate encouraging findings to identify and anticipate capacity shortfalls and congestion nodes. This information is important to improve strategic investment decisions that aim to keep international trade moving in a timely and efficient manner.
A funding crisis exists for financing much needed transportation infrastructure projects across t... more A funding crisis exists for financing much needed transportation infrastructure projects across the nation and Texas is no exception. Texas has responded to the crisis by passing several bills allowing innovative financing and alternative options for project financing. Among these is Senate Bill 1266 (SB1266), which is a landmark legislation and was passed in 2007 as part of the 80th Legislature to provide the legal backdrop for the creation of the Transportation Reinvestment Zone (TRZ) to facilitate value capture of the tax increment from a future transportation project. This research aimed to provide various mechanisms to augment the implementation and understanding of SB1266 provisions across the state of Texas including but not limited to documenting the current understanding and knowledge of the legislative provisions, compilation of actual implementation case examples, development of standardized methods for screening, TRZ development and revenue assessments, and also presents...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2012
Abstract: This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving ... more Abstract: This research presents a methodology to estimate freight flows along corridors serving international trade. A methodology to disaggregate regional flows from the Federal Highway Administration's Freight Analysis Framework (FAF3) to the state level was ...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
tion nodes would strategically improve infrastructure investment decisions. As trade levels are p... more tion nodes would strategically improve infrastructure investment decisions. As trade levels are projected to increase in the coming years, primarily driven by emerging economies such as those of Brazil, India, and the Pacific Rim, the strain on existing infrastructure serving international trade will only get worse. Canada and Mexico are the main trading partners for U.S. exports; nonetheless, China's emergent consumer class is becoming a more prominent market for U.S. exports, recently surpassing Japan. For U.S. imports, China has moved up as the main importer following Canada and Mexico. Nonetheless, high oil prices that increased supply-chain costs have made some companies rethink sourcing with "near-shoring" strategies. After having left for plants in China, some manufacturing is now coming back to Mexico. A new element of the recovery is that international trade patterns are changing globally, and this change could affect the U.S. transportation system, including that of Texas. It is too early to determine what the ultimate structure of the new trade patterns will be. The picture of the new trade patterns will become more apparent once the manufacturing base that will spur the expansion period of the next economic cycle has been established. Another important element that will influence new trading patterns is the expansion of the Panama Canal. This $5.2 billion expansion is expected to start operations in 2014 and will allow super-sized vessels (larger than current Panamax sizes) to come through the canal and serve U.S. ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Trans-Pacific trade between Asia and the U.S. East Coast accounts for more than half of the canal's traffic. The expansion of the Panama Canal will alter trade patterns that currently use ports on the West Coast. The Port of Houston, Texas, is one of the first U.S. ports on the route from Asia and Oceania via the Panama Canal to U.S. customers. For ports near Houston, their fastest-growing market is East Asia, with total tonnage increasing more than 30% in the last 3 years. It is anticipated that growth will continue with the expansion of the canal (2). The Texas Transportation Code, Section 201.6011, requires the Texas Department of Transportation to update the International Trade Corridor Plan (ITCP) biennially and report on its implementation to the presiding officer of each house of the Texas legislature in each even-numbered year. The objective of the ITCP is to provide recommendations to help improve trade movement between the United States and Mexico in the state of Texas. One of the key elements of the ITCP is a definition of the flow of international trade through Texas. The ITCP has been updated by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) since 2006, and the most recent version of the
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