House Infra Committee appoints Florida transport chief as senior adviser

Stephanie Kopelousos, outgoing Florida Department of Transportation secretary who facilitated major public-private partnerships over the past four years, has joined the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as a senior adviser.

Florida Republican John Mica, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Kopelousos will give “a unique and valuable perspective to the Committee’s development of a long-term reauthorisation of surface transportation programmes”.

Kopelousos has been an advocate of private sector involvement in infrastructure projects in her home state.  Since her appointment as Florida Secretary of Transportation in April 2007, she has overseen the $1.68 billion I-595 corridor improvement project in Broward County and the challenging $903 million Port of Miami Tunnel, which closed in October 2009.

Kopelousos previously told Infrastructure Investor that public-private partnerships were not panacea, “but the private sector not only has capital but they have expertise that government should be tapping into”.

In her role as senior adviser to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Kopelousos will be responsible for working with state and local governments.  Mica emphasised her role in speeding up projects.

“She will help the Committee identify and reduce the substantial red tape, mandates and regulatory burdens that bog down state and local officials when trying to carry out federal transportation programs,” Mica said in a statement.

She has already accepted position as a Florida County Manager, and will remain with the Committee until she takes up that job, according to the statement.