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Click on HERE to read Senator Collins’ opening statement.

Click HERE to watch Senator Collins’ opening statement. Click HERE to download the high resolution video.

washington d.c.—Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, co-led a hearing on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s fiscal year 2023 budget request. Senator Collins questioned Secretary to Transportation Pete Buttigieg on a number of transportation issues, including protecting states’ flexibility in using highway funding, prioritizing infrastructure funding for rural communities, training ships for maritime academies and l impact of 5G implementation on aviation.

In her opening statement, Senator Collins also told Secretary Buttigieg how proud she was of a recently completed bridge project in Portland over the course of a single weekend and posted images of the project’s progress between the start of demolition on Friday evening and the reopening of the bridge on Monday morning. Maine DOT and its partners, Cianbro Corporation and Shaw Brothers, completed the replacement of the I-295 Veranda Street Bridge in just days rather than years, as would be typical for this type of project.

I-295 Bridge Replacement

Senator Collins: “I want to show you a truly extraordinary technical feat that just happened in the state of Maine last weekend, and I emphasize the word weekend. In Portland, Maine, a 60-year-old four-lane highway bridge was replaced over the weekend. Work began Friday evening at 7 p.m. It’s shown on the graph to my right, what it looked like on Friday and Saturday, and it started at 7 p.m. to remove the bridge, which crosses Veranda Street in Portland. On Saturday, crews completed demolition and put in place two new bridge sections, which had been built along the existing freeway, using a self-propelled modular transporter. The bridge, as you will see on my left, opened earlier than expected shortly before 7am Monday.

“According to the Maine Department of Transportation, a more conventional approach to bridge construction would have created traffic jams and detours for four years, disrupting the approximately 53,000 motorists who use this portion of I-295 daily. Instead, it was done in a weekend. So I am very proud of the Maine Department of Transportation and its partners, Cianbro Corporation and Shaw Brothers, for achieving what is truly a technical feat. And if you look closely at Monday’s photo at 5:53… of the new bridge, you’ll see it’s not just in place, it’s paved, it’s painted, it’s completely finished. And yet, on Friday evening, there was only a big gap with the demolition.

“So the reason I’m taking the time to delve into this is for me that’s why we need the flexibility to allow this ingenuity—these feats of engineering—to take place.”

Highway capacity

Click on HERE to watch the Q&A

Senator Collins“I mentioned in my opening statement the Federal Highway Administration memorandum that discourages states from moving forward with projects that add highway capacity and instead indicates that federal funds should be used to prioritize projects that improve existing surface transportation needs… Congress, clearly on a bipartisan basis, rejected the idea championed by DOT in the December memo, so I’m going to ask you a very simple. Do you want to cancel or revise this note?”

Secretary Buttigieg: “So I’ll be happy to clarify the memo if it continues to confusebut it was designed in such a way as to take great care, to emphasize the importance that everything the Federal Highway Administration does must be consistent with the law as it is written, and our intention in our practice is to do just that .

Senator Collins: “I think this clarification would be really helpful because I can assure you, having spoken to my colleagues and the State Commissioners, that these guidelines have created a great deal of angst and concern and are in conflict with our intent.”

Infrastructure funding for rural communities

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Senator Collins: “…[D]o you intend to allocate a certain percentage of RAISE grants to ensure that states and rural communities can receive this funding as they have in the past? »

Secretary Buttigieg: “So it is very important to us to make sure that small communities and rural communities have the support of this legislation and these programs in particular, and we have sought not only to meet the legal requirements, but to go beyond if necessary. And an example I would give is that in the last round for INFRA grants, I think there was, in the legislative plan, 25% reserved for rural projects. We ended up doing not 25, but 44%so almost double… So my point is that this is meant to be in the spirit of making this more user-friendly for all communities, including small communities, and you have my commitment that smaller and rural projects will not be bypassed in the RAISE program or any other provided by law.”

Maritime Academy Training Ships

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Senator Collins: “For the past several years, this committee has allocated funds for the replacement of training ships that are in state maritime academies. They are rapidly reaching the end of their useful life. I have two questions about them. , With rising steel prices and supply chain disruptions, what are the prospects for ensuring these much-needed vessels are delivered on time?”

Secretary Buttigieg: “So just as the price of a gallon of milk can be impacted by inflation, so can the cost of shipbuilding and that is something we are very concerned about. I think one of the benefits is that the multi-year view that has been set through these acquisitions will hopefully allow for some smoothing out of the thorny nature of, for example, raw material and commodity prices who are involved in the construction, but this is something we will be watching closely to try to ensure that these cost concerns do not prevent timely and on budget delivery..”

Senator Collins: “Recently it has come to my attention that the first ship of its kind, going to the State University of New York Maritime College, is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, on the side of the ship, although obviously, SUNY’s Maritime College is located in New York. Now all current training ships have the location of the school on them, and The Maine Maritime Academy certainly wants to see Castine, Maine, not Norfolk, Virginia…on the ship. Each of the schools is very proud of these ships…What can we do to ensure that we follow the practice that we have always followed, and that the location of the Maritime Academy is printed on these ships?”

Secretary Buttigieg: “So this matter has also recently come to my attention. And I know there are many intersecting issues of both custom and law, I would be happy to continue to liaise with your office and work with you on this because I know it is of great interest to state academies and I understand the importance of the issue.”

5G implementation

Click HERE for Q&A

Senator Collins: “In December and January, the aviation industry nearly experienced significant operational disruption due to concerns about the rollout of 5G C-band services and uncertainty about this effect on aircraft and radio altimeters. My question is the following. We know that the agreement that has been reached will expire this summer. Do we anticipate any further disruptions? We are seeing an increase in the number of passenger trips. We know we have supply chain issues. And I’m very concerned that we could end up in a situation for those approximately 5% of airports where 5G has not been activated nearby.”

Secretary Buttigieg: “Thank you for bringing this up. It continues to be a major concern and something that I personally am very committed to. We are in much better shape than December and January, largely because we have a good better dialogue and collaboration, not just between regulators but across industries and we have engaged directly with airlines, aircraft equipment manufacturers and telecom operators to ensure we are on a better path…We’re doing everything we can to pursue the technological solutions that I believe will be the ultimate long-term solution for this, while continuing to pursue and support the negotiated solutions, which I note have really worked on a voluntary basis until now, and I think that’s a credit to the collaborative spirit that we’ve been able to achieve across industries and playersbut has not yet been replaced by a technological solution and will not be completely resolved by the summer.

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