As the leader of ArchTam’s national economics infrastructure practice, Toni supports our clients with economic analysis to bolster their decision making, as well as making the case for project investment. She and her team help clients with the development of grant applications and implementation strategies, as well as grant administration and grant manual development.

Since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), was enacted in 2021, she has played an integral role in helping our clients develop and implement funding strategies and position their projects to attract IIJA funding through multiple discretionary programs. Toni holds a doctorate in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government from Oberlin College, Ohio. 

Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry 

I was always interested in why cities and regions exist, and what makes some grow and prosper while others decline. Consider the region of the United States once known as the Rust Belt, for example. Some cities recovered and are thriving, while others are still struggling due to an industrial decline that started over 40 years ago. Why do some places succeed while others don’t?

My interest in cities led to an interest in infrastructure, since transportation and infrastructure are key to helping cities thrive. I specialized in urban and regional economics in graduate school, and wrote my dissertation on how people find jobs, and how your location within a city often influences not only your access to transportation but also your social access, and how that affects your ability to find jobs.  

After finishing my doctoral degree, I worked for a small startup called Economy.com, now known as Moody’s Analytics, as a senior regional economist. When I saw that ArchTam was looking for someone to focus on how highways can be used to spur economic development in impoverished and rural areas, this was like catnip for me, and the rest is history. I’m lucky to work with a group of extremely talented people that make up our economics team here at ArchTam.  

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? 

Different projects have different rewards. I love working on big projects that have huge impacts but it’s also extremely rewarding to work on smaller, local projects or help more rural communities that have fewer resources. It’s fun to help them move their projects along by connecting them with ArchTam’s capabilities. The variety of perspectives that our economics team brings to these projects is key to this forward movement.  

In Willmar, Minnesota we helped develop a rail project that decreased the number of trains that needed to pull into the rail yard downtown. Every single part of the community — residents, the city, county, state and economic development authority, as well as the BNSF Railway and other private businesses — pitched in to move the project forward. When we needed pictures for the grant application, somebody called the newspaper, and the newspaper photographer came out and took some pictures for us.

Our application secured funding through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program and we did the downstream work, adding a rail connection between two existing BNSF railway lines and modifying surrounding roadways to better move freight through the city of Willmar. 

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. 

Through our team’s economics work, we collaborate with communities to gain funding for their projects. Helping people move their projects forward and then seeing those projects come to fruition is extremely rewarding. One example is in Lexington, Kentucky, where the city wanted to build the Town Branch Commons trail. The trail connects many parts of Lexington, sewing them into a loop and closing the gap between the downtown parks and two major trails. The city had tried and failed to get project funding on its own.  

We were able to help them make the case to the United States Department of Transportation for the project by tightening up the details and explaining the importance of the project for the city — why it represented more than just recreation. ArchTam was part of the team that designed it, incorporating green infrastructure for improved water quality. The trail opened in October 2022, and I’m looking forward to spending a long weekend in Lexington to see the project as it’s been realized. 

Share a piece of career advice 

Say yes! Be open to assignments, even if they’re unusual, because you’ll learn something useful through the assignment that you can bring back to your main course of work. You may discover a new interest that you didn’t know you had. ArchTam is such a great platform for learning new things and doing multidisciplinary projects. Find every opportunity to take advantage of that. 

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One potential consideration is an increased focus on the transition to transit electrification. Advancing electrification can play a key role in developing new funding options while also improving transit system efficiency, bringing significant operational savings and environmental benefits to our communities.

Building the case for thriving transit systems

Healthy public transportation networks move people across urban areas and provide so much more than just transportation. Transit systems are intrinsically related to economic development, social equity and sustainability — all of which are vital to maintaining prosperous urban environments and communities. According to the American Public Transportation Association, there is a $4 return on investment for every $1 invested in transit, every $1 billion invested creates 50,000 jobs and a $10 million investment in public transit generates about $32 million in increased business sales and residential property values for homes located near public transit. According to a University of Massachusetts Amherst study, each $1 million invested in transit bus electrification will create 14 new jobs. In short, the hidden economic value of public transit could be up to $1.8 billion per city. Public transit, even in its traditional internal combustion form, produces less air pollution per passenger mile than a single driver car. Electrified vehicles can further reduce that rate.

Here are three ways to advance transit funding during the COVID-19 pandemic and why transit — particularly electrified transit — matters.

1. Build in equity, resiliency and sustainability
Incorporating elements that provide equity, sustainability and resiliency into your transit project can improve funding potential and broaden grant eligibility. These elements are key for new transit projects as their initial incorporation will eliminate retrofitting costs, reducing overall project expenditures. Developing projects with these elements also holds a financial incentive as they involve relatively new industries, such as grid adaptation, that will create jobs — a vital factor in this time of major city and state unemployment. Elements incorporating sustainability and resiliency can protect transit from the stresses of extreme weather and climate change while providing equity in the form of continued mobility access.

2. Play the long game, amp up electrification
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many transit agencies across the U.S. had begun moving toward transit electrification, specifically by transitioning to electric buses. Despite the pandemic, these commitments remain unchanged. It’s estimated that by 2030 more than 25 percent of the United States’ bus fleets could be electric. Transit electrification may offer the potential for additional funding options while benefitting the communities that these systems serve. With day-to-day funding at issue, it may seem unrealistic to ask transit agencies to invest in electrification but investing in electrification creates jobs, advancing city and state economies and in the long term can generate significant savings for bus fueling and maintenance, helping with future transit financing. Electrification also helps with issues of social equity and sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to climate change and public health, particularly in low-income neighborhoods where personal vehicles may be slower to convert but may house fleet routes or bus maintenance facilities. ArchTam’s expertise in cities, transportation, energy, sustainability and resiliency can increase the possibility of project funding and community improvement. We have worked with transportation agencies like the Fresno County Rural Transit Authority in California to model and forecast the future of electrification, identifying opportunities where policies that focus on bringing equitable change to underserved communities can be established.

3. Take a fresh look at legislation
With current means of funding transit proving unequal to the task, it’s time to change the measures that fund transit. Public-private partnerships are just one means of providing funding support. These kinds of partnerships could in the future enable technology and infrastructure companies to own and operate charging infrastructure for transit agencies, a model that has already been tested with charging infrastructure for private vehicles. These arrangements could also promote electrification by providing tax credits to the private sector whenever they make infrastructure investment improvements that advance electrification. ArchTam has the technical expertise to provide recommendation on policy, incentive and even utility tariff changes that can support and accelerate bus fleet electrification.

There are no easy solutions to the issues of transit funding in the age of COVID-19, but with historic, drastic issues cutting across capital and operations funding, doing nothing is not an option. Researching and making informed and well-thought-out decisions will protect transit and the communities that it serves while advancing city and state economies in a time of uncertainty and unemployment. Now is the time to act.

The post Transit Funding in the Age of COVID-19: It’s Time to Think Beyond Stimulus appeared first on Blog.

The U.S. is fighting to remain resilient during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, as policymakers consider the path to recovery, infrastructure investment is emerging as a powerful economic stimulus tool. What solutions are necessary to bolster an economic recovery?

As with all crises, we are likely to witness vast changes in the economic, political, social, environmental and technological landscape, which, in turn, will impact infrastructure requirements. The recovery will need solutions that support and build on one another. Changes may range from zoning policy and social programs to integrated infrastructure investments and sector-specific growth opportunities. Even as we consider the potential adjustments, the overarching importance lies in extending scarce resources so that all Chicagoans benefit from the investments. Identifying potential co-benefits of every solution will be critical, as will focusing on the city’s most vulnerable communities, and understanding the economic feasibility and fiscal impacts of proposed investments.

How can infrastructure drive economic recovery?

Infrastructure programs have a long history of creating sustainable jobs and transforming cities and states. Investing in infrastructure has the power to create opportunities for tomorrow by restoring businesses and consumer confidence, as well as adding more jobs. Nearly 75 miles of streets were built in Chicago in the 1930s as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration program that put millions of Americans to work on infrastructure projects during the Great Depression. According to the American Public Transportation Association’s 2020 Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment report, enhanced infrastructure investment that’s sustained over 20 years can have five times the total effect on the economy as the annual expenditure.

How can innovation help secure resources and address the climate emergency?

The dual demands of climate change and urbanization are putting urban infrastructure under severe pressure. Meeting these challenges will require traditionally risk-averse industries such as water, transport and commercial real estate to change their operations. As an example, the combination of stimulus-funded infrastructure and environmental factors — such as public desire to maintain the air quality benefits of lockdown — could lead to an acceleration of electric and autonomous vehicles on our roads.

Advanced technologies can also help make our urban centers more resilient. Buildings that use a combination of technology and electric grid improvements can play a critical role in tackling climate challenges while reducing costs and improving health in the form of indoor environment for owners and tenants.

How can ArchTam help Chicago maximize its post-pandemic economic recovery?

There’s a growing recognition that in measuring value, we’ve been overly focused on narrow economic measures instead of wider social benefits. As governments move toward broader measures of societal progress, the challenge for built-environment professionals is to identify how they can best use their expertise to holistically benefit communities.

One great example of using infrastructure benefits for economic and social benefits is Chicago’s resilient/sustainable commercial corridor revitalization and more specifically the need and demand for urban projects in communities to drive economic development.

At ArchTam, we want to bring together our resources to support communities’ needs. The best projects can and do have clear and multiple returns on investment with benefits from creating jobs to reducing neighborhood flooding and traffic accidents.

Our teams could also help the City to identify locations suited for manufacturing as part of industrial corridor revitalization efforts. Given the economic impacts of the coronavirus, these corridors generate additional opportunities for investment and development, and Chicago’s transportation network of railways, waterways and highways, would contribute to the success of the manufacturing facilities.

For many, the pandemic has completely changed work habits and rituals. How will these collective differences shape the office of the future?

Every organization must renew their focus on creating safe and healthy environments — both physically and mentally — while continuing to develop workplaces that inspire employees. We must rethink the traditional work environment as many have realized that they can work from any location. The tangible result will be a shift in design strategies, for example, altering workspace locations for increased distance between employees.

ArchTam is helping our clients to maximize their building technology, empowering leaders and enabling them to monitor and better control workspaces. These ongoing changes will require adjustments to understand what is optimal for each building, each office and in many cases, each workforce team.

The post Spurring Chicago’s growth during a global pandemic appeared first on Blog.

These grant awards offer the most predictable funding options for this unpredictable time. By now we all must recognize that we are living through a once-in-a century circumstance and must act accordingly to advance project funding.

We recommend looking at the broader aspects of your project and gauging whether you can use those to gain as many points of grant funding as possible — but as you do, be careful to avoid potential errors that may knock you out of the running. If you are applying for a grant for a public transport electrification project, for example, consider the potential to tie the grant to transforming a diesel engine fleet to one that is electrified and how that can enter into sustainability, social equity, resiliency and climate change requirements.

Producing effective grant applications is an art and a science. Understanding the process and delivering a successful funding application can be the differentiator in your ability to implement your capital project. But there are many potential application missteps that can take you out of the running.

We explain five preparation pitfalls and measures to help you avoid them.

1. Waiting for the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) before starting

Work should begin even before the NOFO is issued. Federal programs typically allot four to six weeks for grant application preparation, but that time goes quickly. Think ahead, reviewing and assembling potential application materials that will give you a head start when the NOFO is presented.

2. Failure to strategize

A coherent strategy will make the most of funding opportunities. Consider grant applications and programs as well as your specific project. Expand your funding opportunities by looking into a range of grant programs. Place each grant program on a calendar, consider how the deadlines align and what elements are required when for each one. Determine where parts of developed grants can be adjusted and repurposed for other programs. This improves efficiency and cuts application costs.

Next, examine the broader funding case. If your project spans borders, look beyond state or municipal boundaries to gather more partners. While aligning these partnerships can be challenging, they can greatly improve funding odds. Partnering with other states or municipalities adds senators, state representatives and congresspeople as well as stakeholders who can express the project’s significance for the communities it would serve.

3. A lackluster narrative

Your narrative tells the project’s story. Producing a compelling narrative can set your project apart by capturing its value to the community. While discussing traditional benefits is important, incorporating relevant attributes outside the customary points will help your project stand out. Think about the grant reviewer who combs through hundreds of applications — a unique angle can set your project apart.

Demonstrating passion for your project can resonate with reviewers even if they have never been to your part of the country. ArchTam’s experienced professionals are adept at developing grant applications and know how and when to emphasize your project’s unique aspects and value and adjust the economic analysis to capture benefits unique to your project. For example, ArchTam assisted the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority in securing TIGER and Federal Railroad Administration grants totaling $75 million to renovate Minnesota’s historic St. Paul Union Depot in downtown St. Paul, transforming the rail station into an intermodal hub for Amtrak, light rail, commuter rail, local and regional buses, and the future Midwest high-speed rail network.

4. Dense or wordy applications

Narrative is important, but so is readability. Effective applications are eye-catching and easy to review. Avoid text-heavy and highly technical descriptions. Use simple words, where possible, to improve readability. Lay out the application graphically incorporating infographics, statistics and images that support your text. Conveying information in a digestible format enables the project story to shine through.

5. Not proofreading or fact-checking

Reviewers will look closely at your application. Miscalculating your match or errors on your benefit/cost analysis (BCA) spreadsheet will disqualify your project. Check your numbers and proofread your narrative to prevent costly mistakes. Likewise, reviewers will look at risk — issues that might arise if the project goes forward. Be sure that technical feasibility, cost estimates and contingency are accurate. And have important elements such as environmental impact studies, permitting and travel forecasting completed.

As an infrastructure consulting firm, ArchTam can deliver needed expertise in developing the BCA while also providing access to professionals who can complete these critical elements, significantly easing the grant application process. Turning to experts in developing the narrative and BCA, along with an attractive design and fully realized risk evaluations can secure funding for a project that will improve the community for years to come.

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