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Speaker 1: (00:00)
The new trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed by Congress last week is due to be revised. And reimagine many of the country’s roads, bridges, ports, rail traffic, and power grids. San Diego is about to get tens of millions of dollars off the bill. And coincidentally, the San Diego government association is currently working on updating the next regional transportation plan, a project that could include creating a rail link to the San Diego airport, as well as other improvements to how the federal infrastructure bill could impact San Diego’s ambitious infrastructure plans are currently underway set by SANDAG officials. I am joined by Hassani Curata, Chief Executive Officer of the Government of San Diego. Hassan, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: (00:48)
We will be with you. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1: (00:51)
Is San Diego Guaranteed Amount of Money Under the Infrastructure Bill?
Speaker 2: (00:57)
The bill consists of two parts. One of them is the formula funding we’re going to get from Washington, but most importantly the grant funding we could get if we put together good proposals. And I can tell you that this federal law is welcome news. It’s an amazing opportunity for this region to postpone major infrastructure projects, to put it simply, this national infrastructure law states that every federal funding program is steroid. It doubles the federal program to support and expand regional rail transport. It makes projects like setting their motto for moving the tranq, uh, more achievable. It finances more than the infrastructure and makes our autonomists a project, a more accessible one. Um, it moves us into the future when it comes to electric charging. It’s an amazing program. And I think the San Diego area will be one of the regions that will serve as an example of their success.
Speaker 1: (02:08)
As you mentioned, much of the money is distributed at the Department of Transportation’s discretion. These grant funds, as you said, how did San Diego prepare to compete for those funds?
Speaker 2: (02:18)
In recent years we have actually proven that we can get funding from the federal and state governments because we have very innovative and creative programs that we can implement at SANDAG, actually we’ve been ready to apply for funding for some time, the tracks to relocate the cliff, to symbolize the cliff, to build the car message to continue our environmental work on the new S-Bahn lines. So we will immediately file a police application as soon as the department has finished with the rules. Not only that, this application has all the innovations and the data necessary to make it successful. That’s us, we at SANDAG are more than ready. And, and that’s something your listeners will likely be interested in, uh, San Diego, when it comes to population, we’re roughly 1% of the country’s population. But if you look at our story, we won over more than one person for funding because we are creative and innovative. We are ready to take these five big steps. This plan, which our board of directors are currently working on adapting, definitely saw the future of transportation in San Diego and definitely got us to compete in Lyon and be the best competitor for all of these programs that this national draft is Has. So we’re really modern. We are ready to go and we are ready to receive significant funding from the federal government.
Speaker 1: (03:48)
So you say you think the proposed new regional transport plan will, uh, give us an edge in the competition for funds because of the nature of the projects in it. Do you say that
Speaker 2: (03:59)
Absolutely. As I said, this plan not only envisions the future of transportation in San Diego, but also addresses the areas that this bill emphasizes on the 200 mile Air Belt Rail we are laying. And we will begin by starting the environmental work, laying the tracks on the Del Mar property and stabilizing the property for the construction of the necessary tunnel, where we have just signed a letter of intent with our partners in Mexico, not IMS, a two a, we’re building a central mobility hub and meeting, uh, opportunities for San Diego to get around. So these are the big five steps, the new plan has definitely positioned us to compete for not just federal funding, but government funding. It positions us to be very successful and accurate. We expected exactly what will happen this year. Right now when we start working on it
Speaker 1: (05:00)
If the money from the Infrastructure Act would now enable SANDAG to abandon ideas such as charging a 4-cent-mile driving fee to finance transport projects.
Speaker 2: (05:10)
The simple answer is yes it could. We still need to know how this will affect the overall regional transport plan, but if we could find the cause of the national incentives we could get enough money. Of course we need local funding. They did not exist in history and many projects that were one hundred percent funded by the federal government. So you need the local match to be successful. Every project requires you to put local money on the table. We’re about to deliver the medium cost, a $ 2.2 billion project. The federal government paid half a billion, and we can have that, so I don’t expect this to need federal funding, but local government funding, but is this considered, for example, in the nationwide widespread exposure. That has to be there, because the state will do that until 2030, the additional toll. Yes sir. We’ll evaluate and see if we still need each other, but that will definitely have an impact on our local financial strategy.
Speaker 1: (06:21)
Aren’t there also climate considerations, with that 4 cents, one-mile fare to try to get people off the street and onto public transport?
Speaker 2: (06:28)
Total. Uh, I think I’m Maureen, I was talking to you about porn when I started here, but almost three years ago. And I told you a nice one, you could research this article. I told you climate change will determine all transportation decisions. And that is exactly what is still true today. Climate change is leading to road tolls, a very effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That was still part of the discussion, but even if we have scaled down the local funding sources, we still need to develop measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as we are legally obliged to do so. So yes, there are global warming considerations for this Napali funding. And now that we have a national incentive that we believe will compete well, do we need the state tax and the local tax, or do we need one of them? And we still don’t know the answer to that, but at the end of the day we will have a plan that will meet the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction that meets federal requirements for financial constraints and our goals as a region to move forward with the system that we envision for the future of transport.
Speaker 1: (07:46)
And how soon do you expect the funds to be released? And these projects started
Speaker 2: (07:51)
I think that’s the optimist in me. Uh, I think hopefully by the end of this year we should see final rules. Uh, but for us we are currently writing the application pending the completion of this food. It quickly depends on the stages of the project we have right now, $ 1 billion worth of projects ready to kick off whatever it took on the ground, but we have billions of dollars in projects that we still have Environment, uh, and in design have process. And I hope so when the Ministry of Transport, the national Ministry of Transport, sets the rules that projects at the environmental stage are eligible. And that is our hope. So it can be very quick, but it all depends on how quickly the rules can be put in place. So the rules of the game are clear.
Speaker 1: (08:48)
I spoke to Hassan, the chairman of the board of directors for Grotta, the San Diego Governments Association. Me Sam, thank you very much.
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