Destination: Florida

By Huw Thomas

As government investment flows into the state, Florida DOT’s Kevin Thibault explains that high-speed rail is only one part of the transportation picture.

On 28 January 2010, Tampa had some unusually high-profile visitors. President Obama and Vice President Biden chose the Sunshine State as the venue to announce which high-speed rail projects would be benefiting from an initial $8 billion of government funding. As expected, Florida was one of the big winners, landing a cool $1.25 billion to spend on its Tampa to Orlando line. A few days ahead of the announcement, we caught up with Florida DOT's Kevin Thibault. He was understandably excited at the potential investment flowing into the state but also keen to talk about the other priorities on his agenda.

As you might expect, high-speed rail is right at the forefront of the DOT's plans. Though it is dismissed by some critics as an expensive boondoggle, Thibault is adamant that there is both a palpable requirement and strong public support for HSR in the state. "There is a definite need," he says. "For Orlando and Tampa, the only real way to connect those two right now is Interstate Four. Many times because of either excess demand or an incident it's shut down.  Then the travel between those two major urban areas is shut down and you have to use these surface streets which are hardly effective.  By having the high-speed rail line in place will provide a definite improvement to that corridor." In addition, Thibault details future plans for an Orlando-Miami link, a 300-mile corridor that should allow some very high speeds between the two major urban centers.

But HSR only forms a small portion of the administration's ARRA transportation plans. Any project that wished to secure cash had to be 'shovel ready' and possible to be quickly implemented, the better to help speed economic recovery. "We were fortunate that we were able to take the portion of funding that we got and allocate it at the state's discretion," says Thibault. "We had a number of projects that we had developed that just couldn't get the construction funded that were able to pull them off the shelf and get them under construction.  So we were able to benefit from that and really get people to work. There was also the additional benefit that a lot of those projects were adding capacity. So at the end of the day when the project gets done, not only did we provide a stable employment picture for a number of people for several years, but we also provided capacity relief to those areas that we were able to do those projects."

A total of $1.3 billion of ARRA funds were allocated to highways in Florida, of which $400 million was given straight to local governments. This money has typically been used for simple jobs such as resurfacing and intersection improvements. "The 900 million that was at the state discretion was spread out," Thibault continues. "We made sure that we had projects that were pretty much in every geographic portion of the state, from the panhandle, out to Pensacola, all the way down to Miami. It had to be a project that was ready to go. It had to have all its federal requirements met. So when you start going through those filters you then develop this pool of projects that can consume the funds."

Though some critics have express serious doubts over the efficacy if infrastructure investment as a tool of recovery, Thibault is in no doubt about the positive benefits it can bring, the Florida DOT contending that for every dollar spent on transportation you can expect mixed economic benefits of around five dollars. "There was an independent group that was hired to look at how much economic benefit transportation investment brings," he explains. "They use an economic model that is used by our legislature to look at not only transportation but other economic analyses, they used that model to come up with that number. But it's proven to be somewhat true that for every dollar you spend about $5.00 in benefit comes back to that area. The benefit, as you can imagine, here is direct, indirect and induced."

In addition to providing an immediate bounce to the stricken economy, this new round of investment has to prove its worth over time. There would undoubtedly be repercussions if resources were funneled to projects only providing a short-term sticking plaster to a much more persistent problem. "The projects that we've selected are longer term projects," Thibault confirms. "They're not like a resurfacing project that may last nine months. A lot of them are two to three year durations so the employment that's being provided for those individuals are for that duration. The other thing too is it's always with the hope that at the end of that term, the economy will be turned around and so that those people getting off those projects will be able to continue to work with that company on the next one because the economy will have improved."

The projects themselves will also bring major gains for the residents of Florida not directly involved in their construction Thibault is conscious of the need to avoid building 'white elephants' that have no purpose other than keeping people employed for a few years. "A long term benefit of the projects that have been selected is that they provide congestion relief to the areas that are getting them," he says. "So Tampa will see congestion relief, Orlando will see congestion relief, as will Miami. So when the project gets done in three years, not only did I provide the longer, hopefully, job opportunity, but then the people who drive those facilities will be happy that they now have six lanes of highway."

Transportation planning decisions are also taken with environmental considerations in mind. Key to protecting both protecting the state's natural bounty and ensuring i9ts transport systems are fit for purpose as been a strategy called Efficient Transportation Decision Making or ETDM. "We worked with both our federal and our other state agency partners in identifying the environmental issues associated with the projects earlier rather than later," says Thibault. "When the project is then developed these agencies are not surprised that you're widening this road, for example. They've already been involved in the early planning stages of what the proposed project is, what its needs are, what it's trying to accomplish. Almost every step of the way they're in lockstep with us in that development of the project so there are no surprises.  That's given us a leg up in that we've had, I don't think any hiccups with any environmental permitting or anything with these projects in general. Not only the stimulus, but just in our projects in general in our program, because of that Efficient Transportation Decision Making project that we have in place already."

Florida's government backed investment in high-speed rail also offers clear environmental benefits, provided it can provide a viable alternative to road travel as supporters claim. "I think there's general recognition that you can only widen a certain highway so many lanes. At some point you've got to do something else," Thibault continues. "Here in Florida, we're recognizing now that we can't rely only on the personal vehicle to be our only means to move people, that we've got to look at these other modes to be able to do that. I think there is the environmental benefit because there is the recognition of less air pollution and so on, but there's also the realization that you just can't do it by the highway mode. Interstate 95 in Miami and Fort Lauderdale is as wide as it's going to be."

One of the key factors in Florida's selection as one of the America's high-speed rail priority zones was the state's existing commitment to rail. The fact that the state has already invested millions of dollars of its own money in rail transit put it in pole position once government started handing out funds. "We have a commuter rail facility that runs from West Palm Beach down through Fort Lauderdale and Miami called Tri-Rail which has been in existence for about 20 years, explains Thibault. "It's really grown in the last two years because of the demand and the people recognizing its value now, and we're looking to do the same in Orlando and Tampa and Jacksonville because there's a recognition that this rail, especially in the dedicated corridor, can get on time performance for people to get to work or to school."

Despite rising ridership figures and a growing acceptance of the value of public transit, the challenge of getting people out of their cars ands onto trains remains very real. America is the land of the motor vehicle and changing such ingrained attitudes will be a vital if initiatives such as high-speed rail are to prove effective, both in Florida and throughout the United States. "It's a cultural challenge," Thibault confirms. "Americans like their vehicle more than, let's say, the Europeans. It's even more of a cultural challenge here in Florida where we have a higher percentage of single occupant vehicles than the national average. So it kind of shows you that people just like to be in their own car."

Now that government investment in high-speed rail is confirmed, the state faces a battle to educate its population on the many benefits public transit has over the private vehicle. Technology is helping. Developments such as the iPod and public Wi-Fi make journeys both more pleasurable and more productive. With headphones in, travelers on public transit are insulated in much they way they would be were they in a car, while also having the opportunity to use their travel time more effectively. By contrast the car, such a potent symbol of freedom for Americans, begins to lose some of its luster when road congestion regularly makes it a prison for so many drivers. Thibault agrees; "People are tired of waiting in traffic and they're looking for a more efficient way for them to get around," he says. "It's education and it's experience. You can show them all you want about what they do in London and Paris and so on, but until they experience they're never going to get it."

Big numbers

$1.25 billion: amount Florida receives in first round of high-speed rail funding

$1.5 billion: additional funding over next few years

84 miles: length of Tampa Orlando high-speed line

168 mph: line's maximum speed

2014: scheduled completion date

Kevin Thibault is Assistant Secretary for Engineering and Operations for Florida DOT. In this position he is responsible for the Design, Construction, Maintenance and Motor Carrier Compliance areas of the Department. He is also the Governor's Highway Safety Representative.