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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Brian Deery, 703-837-5319
Monday
March 17, 2003
Dennis Day 703-963-2506
AGC
URGES RESTORATION OF GRANDFATHERING PROVISION
AGC
Calls Upon Congress to Introduce Money and Time Saving
Highway Legislation
Alexandria,
Va.- Rep
Kevin Brady (R-Texas) recently introduced H.R. 673,
“The Safe Roads and Highways Act,” legislation
designed to restore a sensible approach to the
transportation and air quality planning process. The
transportation conformity provisions of the Clean Air
Act link transportation and clean air planning. Under
the current regulatory scheme, transportation
construction projects that have received all required
environmental clearances and are ready to be built can
be stopped if a metropolitan area falls out of
compliance with national air quality standards. The
Brady bill “grandfathers” such projects and allows
them to move forward while the city creates an
acceptable air quality plan. The Associated General
Contractors (AGC) supports H.R. 673 and is developing
position papers to urge the introduction of similar
legislation in the Senate.
“Stopping
transportation improvement projects that have already
received approval to be built undermines safety and
congestion relief and can have a negative impact on
air quality,” says AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr.
“Congress should reconsider whether the costs
associated withthe transportation conformity process
result in equal benefits to the environment."
During
a conformity lapse, which occurs when a conformity
determination for a transportation plan has expired
and is no longer valid, virtually all federally funded
and regionally significant non-federally funded
projects are potentially at risk.
H.R. 673 would “grandfather” these
transportation projects and allow them to proceed
through construction- even during conformity
lapses—so long as the projects themselves have not
been materially changed. This would permit needed
surface transportation projects to move forward
without undue burdensome delays. Reforming the
transportation conformity process is one of many
crucial changes that AGC would like to see included in
TEA-21 reauthorization.
The
Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) is the
largest and oldest national construction trade
association in the United States.
AGC represents more than 35,000 firms,
including 7,500 of America’s leading general
contractors, and over 12,000 specialty-contracting
firms. Over
14,000 service providers and suppliers are associated
with AGC through a nationwide network of chapters.
Visit the AGC web site at www.agc.org.
AGC members are "Building Your Quality of
Life".
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