By Buzz McClain
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe will sign a new transportation funding law on Tuesday at George Mason University as part of a daylong conference examining 20 years of public-private transportation partnerships in the Commonwealth.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne, and Tom Rust, chairman of Virginia’s House of Delegates’ transportation committee, will join other legislators as well as leaders in transportation and public-private partnerships for the public forum.
The forum, “Public-Private Partnerships: Building on 20 Years of Experience,” begins at 10:30 a.m. on May 12 at Founders Hall on Mason’s Arlington Campus and continues until 2:30 p.m. Lunch is provided.
The conference is part of the national observance of Infrastructure Week, May 11-15.
“Virginia is a national leader in the use of public-private partnerships for infrastructure delivery,” says Jonathan Gifford, director of Mason’s Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy. “In the 20 years since the passage of the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995, through Democratic and Republican administrations, the Commonwealth has been able to marshal the resources of the private sector to manage risk and deliver projects safely and efficiently.”
An example of a Virginia public-private partnership in transportation is the development of I-495/I-95 Express Lanes, a partnership between the state and Transurban. Jennifer Aument, group general manager North America for Transurban, will be a speaker at the forum.
McAuliffe will sign into law HB 1887, which, among other adjustments, modifies the funding formula for allocating transportation funds. He will sign the bill at noon.
Mason’s public-private transportation partnership center is hosted by the School of Policy, Government and International Affairs.
A full list of the speakers is below.
Aubrey Layne
Virginia Transportation Secretary
Delegate Tom Rust
Virginia House of Delegates
Chairman, Committee on Transportation
Douglas Koelemay
Director, Virginia Office of Public-Private Partnerships
Jennifer Aument
Transurban, Group General Manager North America
Pierce Homer
Moffatt & Nichol, former VA Secretary of Transportation
Judah Gluckman
Deputy Director, D.C. Office of Policy and Legislation
Dale Witmer
Pennsylvania Office of Policy and Public-Private Partnerships
Janet Kavinoky
Executive Director of Transportation and Infrastructure, US Chamber of Commerce
Richard Fierce
Senior Vice President, Fluor
President, Association for the Improvement of American Infrastructure
Michael Schneider
Senior Vice President , HDR, Inc.