DOT Draft Proposal Prioritizes Broadband Infrastructure Deployment
A draft legislative text proposed by the Department of Transportation included several provisions designed to accelerate broadband deployment. Department officials sent a copy of the Generating Renewal, Opportunity, and Work with Accelerated Mobility, Efficiency, and Rebuilding of Infrastructure and Communities…
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throughout America Act -- a six-year funding proposal known as the Grow America Act -- to Congress Monday. “It is in the national interest for the Department of Transportation and State departments of transportation to expand the use of rights-of-way on Federal-aid highways to accommodate broadband infrastructure; to ensure the safe and efficient accommodation of broadband infrastructure in the public right-of-way; to identify areas where additional broadband infrastructure is most needed; to include broadband stakeholders in the transportation planning process; to coordinate highway construction plans with other statewide telecommunications and broadband plans; and to improve broadband connectivity to rural communities and improve broadband services in urban areas,” said the bill text in a section on broadband infrastructure deployment. The bill text calls for broadband coordination and best practices that would compel state departments of transportation to include a broadband utility coordinator and to “provide for online registration of broadband infrastructure entities that seek to be included in such broadband infrastructure coordination efforts within the State.” It also would call for coordination involving the FirstNet public safety network. The department also would offer grants, and applicants would be assessed in part on best practices involving “integration of transportation planning and investment decisions with other land-use and economic development decisions, including water infrastructure and broadband deployment,” it said. Another section of the draft proposal on rail policy would dictate that no later than 120 days after enactment, the Department of Transportation and the FCC would have to “coordinate to assess spectrum needs and availability for implementing positive train control systems,” which “may include conversations with external stakeholders,” the text said. “During these next two months, though, all of us who work in Washington need to be relentless in trying to get to ‘yes’ on a bill that is truly transformative and that brings the country together,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.