supporting and accelerating infrastructure projects

By: dan kennedy, senior director

UTCA envisions creating a positive impact on New Jersey citizens, the health of the environment and our shared economic prosperity by leveraging its respected expertise and relationships to promote a sustainable infrastructure sector. This vision can only be met if construction projects are designed, permitted, bid and constructed at a reasonable pace. Delays in governmental processes related to infrastructure have long been a source of contention with construction trade associations and labor unions. Archaic standards and the lack of available government employees is a key part of the story related to delays in approvals. Without approvals, there is no work. With no work there is no progress.

This is why UTCA’s strategic goal of “Supporting and Accelerating the Work” may be our most critical priority. We advocate for legislation, policies, regulations & specifications that accelerate the project pipeline and bring more projects to construction in a timely manner. We know that funding sitting in a federal or state agency account for years does nothing for our members or the public at large.

Delays are not only aggravating, but costly. Quicker government approvals mean that we stay ahead of inflation and make good on the promise of having infrastructure projects stimulate increased work hours and community economic development. A more ex-

Building from Precedent - Licensed Site Remediation Program

Faced with the challenge of a massive list of contaminated sites that were not being cleaned up in a timely manner, in 2009 the Site Remediation Reform Act ("SRRA") was signed into law. The Governor, the Legislature and the NJDEP at the time worked to develop this legislation that dramatically altered the process for conducting environmental investigations and cleanups. There was a clear acknowledgement that the governmental approval process was a large barrier in getting sites cleaned up.

SRRA established a licensing program for Site Remediation Professionals ("LSRP’s") who have responsibility for oversight of environmental investigation and cleanups. There are essentially licensed engineers and environmental professionals in the private sector. The NJDEP continues to have final authority over the clean-up process by requiring that remediating parties comply with applicable regulations, but the day-to-day management of cleanups is overseen by LSRP’s. This is all done while maintaining the protection of public health and safety and the environment.

The LSRP program has led to many more site clean ups and has brought many previously “dirty” sites back into productive uses. This program is a great model of what is possible when government leaders show courage and acknowledge challenges that cannot be met with current government resources and choose a different path. As increased federal funding comes to New Jersey, UTCA and our partners will be pushing for additional state and local governmental reforms in the same spirit.

NJ Infrastructure Bank – Outside Engineers

peditious process will also bring the community / environmental benefits that infrastructure projects deliver faster. Delays in approvals delay all these benefits to communities, commuters, taxpayers, and utility ratepayers.

With an active project list in the billions of dollars, last year at the urging of UTCA, the NJ Infrastructure Bank published a Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”) to prequalify a pool of engineering consulting services firms to provide consulting environmental and engineering services, engineering design review and construction management services necessary for the review and approval of applications, construction design, requisitions and site inspections of projects anticipated to be financed through the “Water Bank.”

From the pool of qualified engineers, late last year, 20 active projects were approved by the NJ Infrastructure Bank Board for outside engineering services to complement / supplement DEP staff review. The goal is to get critical water infrastructure projects out to bid and constructed faster. More projects will proceed through this track moving forward, once lessons are learned from this initial batch of reviews. Credit to NJDEP Commissioner LaTourette and Infrastructure Bank Executive Director David Zimmer for supporting this critical reform.

Local Inspections Under the State Uniform Construction Code

A recent amendment to the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code (UCC) Act permits contractors to bypass unresponsive and slow public inspectors. This law passed with unanimous support in one of the last voting session last year. At the bill signing in January, Governor Murphy said “As both builders and homeowners can tell you, time is money, and more time in construction means less-affordable homes.” We agree with the Governor. We hope this opens the door for further reforms.

While most large infrastructure projects are not covered by the UCC, infrastructure projects that involve buildings (for example, lead service line replacement projects) are at times held up by slow inspections. The alternative created by the amendment may provide important relief during critical construction activities. UTCA Associate Member Trif & Modugno LLC summarized the law in their legislative bulletin the following way:

“Under the Amendment to the Act, any party in charge of the work is permitted to notify the public inspectors that certain work is ready for inspection. The notice must be in writing and at least 24 hours from the date of the requested inspection. The public inspectors are required to perform the inspection within three business days of the date the inspection is required. If it is unable to comply with its inspection obligations and alternative accommodations cannot be negotiated, the party in charge of the work is free to contract with an authorized private on-site inspection agent to conduct the inspection. The Amendment provides a meaningful alternative to owners, developers and contractors racing to meet deadlines during critical construction activities.”

TheAt the bill signing, state officials repeatedly stressed the move to allow private inspections would not slacken safety standards. We agree. This is not about cutting corners with codes and standards. It’s about getting through the process more efficiently. The Department of Community Affairs will oversee compliance with the new rules and is empowered to levy penalties on municipalities that consistently fail to meet the new statutory deadlines. Rule making to enable this new law will be undertaken in the coming months.

We agree with NJBIA’s Ray Cantor who said “Many towns do not have enough construction officials on staff or available to do inspections in a timely manner, and when that happens there are delays in progressing projects. It could be days in some instances, or it could be weeks or months.” The same challenges exist in state government, and we will push forward in the coming years to accelerate more infrastructure work while hoping that the same governmental leaders show courage and acknowledge that the challenges they face cannot be met solely with government employees.