A new Transportation Department initiative would allow private companies to build transmission lines and other utilities along existing highway and railroad corridors, potentially reducing infrastructure costs and pressure on household electric rates, although no projects have been selected and actual consumer savings would depend on how individual projects are financed and regulated.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Thousands of miles of American highways and railroad tracks could become routes for new electric transmission lines under a Transportation Department initiative designed to reduce the cost and permitting burden of expanding the power grid.
Whether those savings ultimately reach household electric bills, however, remains an open question.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced America’s Great Corridors of Commerce on Aug. 26, proposing that existing transportation rights-of-way be opened for transmission lines, fiber-optic cables, water infrastructure, pipelines and other utilities.
Rather than forcing developers to assemble entirely new routes across multiple parcels of land, the program would encourage private companies to use strips of property already controlled by state transportation departments and railroads.
DOT argues that combining transportation and utility infrastructure could lower construction costs, accelerate permitting, generate lease revenue for transportation projects and put “downward pressure on residential user rates.”
“By working with the private sector to combine our existing transportation network with transmission lines, fiber optic cables, and other critical infrastructure, we can make energy more affordable and fuel American industry for generations to come,” Duffy said.
The initiative, known as AGCC, remains in its formative stage.
No corridors have yet been selected, and no specific reduction in household electricity bills has been promised.
DOT first outlined the proposed structure in an Aug. 18 request for information seeking feedback from states, railroads, utilities, infrastructure developers, investors and other interested parties.
The department intends to follow that process with a competitive solicitation in which transportation right-of-way owners can propose corridors for designation.
A DOT official described the potential savings as project-specific rather than something the government can calculate nationally before individual corridors are developed.
One of the administration’s arguments is that large electricity users such as data centers and manufacturers could be concentrated around corridors where power infrastructure has already been planned.
Instead of utilities repeatedly constructing separate grid upgrades for dispersed facilities, major new customers could connect along common infrastructure.
That approach, the official said, could protect “everyday ratepayers from the rate hikes typically needed to fund scattered upgrades.”
The idea draws on the enormous footprint of the country’s existing transportation network.
Duffy noted this month that the United States has nearly 161,000 miles of highways and approximately 140,000 miles of railroad track that have already undergone transportation permitting.
“Why not make extra use of the land … as corridors for energy, fiber, other technologies of the future?” Duffy wrote.
The land involved is generally known as transportation right-of-way — property running alongside or surrounding highways and railroad tracks that is already controlled for transportation purposes.
AGCC would seek to make portions of that property available to utility infrastructure without interfering with the transportation system itself.
Railroads could become particularly important participants because their networks provide long, continuous routes connecting population centers, industrial areas and other infrastructure.
Freight railroads represented by the Association of American Railroads operate roughly 84% of U.S. freight rail mileage.
The association is still evaluating AGCC and expects to submit comments before the federal docket closes Sept. 12.
NextGen Highways, a coalition that has promoted locating electric transmission infrastructure alongside highways, did not respond to a request for comment.
Under DOT’s proposed model, participation would be voluntary.
State transportation agencies and railroads interested in participating would apply to have particular routes designated as Great Corridors of Commerce.
The right-of-way owner would then choose a private-sector “Corridor Manager,” typically through a public-private partnership.
Those companies could receive concessions lasting approximately 30 to 50 years to finance, construct and operate utility infrastructure along the route.
Depending on the project, that infrastructure could consist of underground utility tunnels and conduits or aboveground systems.
The Corridor Manager could then lease capacity to electric utilities, telecommunications companies and other infrastructure operators.
Lease proceeds would be shared with the government agency or railroad controlling the right-of-way, creating a revenue stream that DOT says could help finance transportation improvements without a new direct taxpayer appropriation for the corridor itself.
The proposal therefore attempts to create value from land governments and railroads already control while reducing one of the largest obstacles facing major linear infrastructure projects: acquiring and permitting a route.
Transmission projects often cross numerous jurisdictions and privately owned parcels, requiring developers to negotiate access, complete environmental reviews and obtain multiple approvals.
AGCC proposes consolidating some of that work along corridors where a transportation route already exists.
Federal officials would provide designated projects with technical support and coordination across agencies to help them navigate permitting and financing.
DOT has emphasized that the model could operate largely through private capital, but the program would not necessarily exclude federal financing.
The department’s more detailed financing framework identifies several existing federal loan programs that may be available to qualifying projects.
Utility tunnels and conduits, for example, could potentially obtain financing through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program or Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program.
Both programs use federal lending authority to finance infrastructure.
Certain equipment could potentially qualify for financing offered through the Department of Energy or Environmental Protection Agency as well.
That creates an important distinction in DOT’s assertion that AGCC does not require additional taxpayer spending.
The department is not proposing a new appropriation specifically to construct the corridors, but individual projects could still seek loans or financing through federal programs that already exist.
Developers would also have the option of relying entirely on private financing.
The RFI says private companies could fund utility infrastructure themselves “to avoid requiring compliance with certain federal regulations” associated with federal financing.
The notice does not identify which specific regulations that provision is intended to avoid.
Environmental review is another area where DOT expects existing transportation corridors to provide an advantage.
The department says proposed projects “will most likely” qualify for one or more categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act.
A categorical exclusion represents the least intensive level of federal environmental review and is generally used for projects agencies determine do not individually or cumulatively have significant environmental effects.
Qualification would not be automatic.
The responsible federal agency would still have to evaluate each project and determine whether a categorical exclusion legally applies.
The administration also envisions the corridors doing more than simply carrying electricity from existing power plants to consumers.
DOT wants them to become magnets for new industrial development.
Under the proposal, nearby sites could offer “plug and play” access to electricity, fiber and other infrastructure, potentially making them more attractive to data centers, factories and technology companies that otherwise might face years of work securing utility connections.
The department says the corridor structure could also allow utilities leasing space within the system to avoid repeating separate procurement, environmental and permitting procedures for independent stand-alone lines.
That feature could become particularly significant as data-center construction drives rapid increases in electricity demand in several parts of the country.
But the same growth that creates demand for new transmission infrastructure also complicates the claim that new corridors will necessarily reduce household bills.
Electricity rates reflect numerous costs, including fuel, power generation, transmission, local distribution, grid construction, financing and regulatory decisions.
The Energy Information Administration reported that transmission and distribution — the systems responsible for moving electricity from generators to homes and businesses — accounted for a substantial portion of electricity costs in 2025.
Reducing the expense of building transmission could therefore place downward pressure on one component of electric bills.
It does not automatically mean a customer’s final bill will decline.
State utility commissions determine how many transmission and distribution expenses are allocated among customers, utilities and large new users.
If a new transmission project costs less because it uses an existing highway corridor, regulators would still determine whether and how those savings are reflected in rates.
Lease revenue generated by a corridor could also affect the calculation.
The unanswered question is whether those savings and revenues would be large enough to outweigh growing demand, new generation costs and other expenses affecting the grid.
PJM Interconnection illustrates the scale of that challenge.
The regional grid operator serves more than 67 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
PJM operates a capacity market in which power suppliers are paid to guarantee that generating resources will be available when electricity demand reaches its highest levels.
Those capacity costs ultimately affect the utilities serving customers within the region.
The value produced by PJM’s capacity auction has risen dramatically.
The total was approximately $2.2 billion for the 2023-24 delivery year but climbed to $16.1 billion for 2026-27, according to PJM’s auction report.
PJM cautions that the $16.1 billion figure should not be interpreted as the exact amount ultimately paid by retail customers because some electricity demand is supplied or financially hedged outside the auction.
Still, the increase illustrates the mounting cost of maintaining adequate power supplies as electricity demand grows.
PJM’s independent market monitor has pointed particularly to data centers.
Monitoring Analytics identified actual and projected data-center demand as the principal cause of increasingly tight supply conditions and elevated capacity prices in an Aug. 13 assessment.
That makes data centers both part of the problem AGCC is designed to address and potentially one of the largest users of the infrastructure it would build.
DOT’s argument is that planning their power needs through larger coordinated corridors could prevent existing households from being forced to finance a series of scattered grid expansions.
Whether that happens will depend heavily on the contracts negotiated with data-center developers, utilities and corridor operators and on how regulators divide costs.
The administration is also presenting the proposal as a response to what it sees as a widening infrastructure gap between the United States and China.
DOT said China has constructed more high-voltage transmission infrastructure during the past 15 years than the United States has built throughout its history.
Using transportation corridors for utilities is not an entirely new federal concept.
The Federal Highway Administration issued guidance in 2021, during the Biden administration, encouraging states to consider renewable-energy projects, electric transmission facilities and other nontraditional uses within highway rights-of-way.
That guidance cited objectives including climate policy, energy reliability and expanded communications access.
The Trump administration’s AGCC proposal goes considerably further by seeking to establish a national public-private development model built specifically around co-locating multiple types of infrastructure.
Railroads already accommodate utility infrastructure on a smaller scale.
CSX, for example, processes more than 3,000 permanent right-of-way applications each year across 26 states, company corridor-services director Alex Saar said in 2024.
AGCC would attempt to transform that type of access from individual utility crossings and agreements into planned, long-distance infrastructure corridors.
The program is not yet at the construction stage.
DOT will accept public comments through Sept. 12, after which it plans to request formal expressions of interest from state transportation departments, railroads and other eligible right-of-way owners.
The department expects to designate up to five corridors during the first round.
Those projects would then serve as early tests of whether the concept can reduce permitting time, attract private investment, generate transportation revenue and lower the cost of expanding utility infrastructure.
The effect on an individual homeowner’s electric bill would come later — and is far less certain.
AGCC could reduce the cost of building some transmission infrastructure by using land that has already been assembled into continuous transportation corridors. Coordinating major industrial customers around that infrastructure could also reduce the need for separate grid expansions.
But electricity bills are determined by much more than the cost of transmission construction.
Generation costs, fuel prices, demand growth, utility investments, capacity markets and decisions by state regulators will continue to influence what customers pay.
For that reason, DOT describes lower residential rates as a potential benefit rather than a guaranteed outcome.
The first five corridors, if ultimately developed, will provide the earliest real-world evidence of whether turning highways and railroads into multipurpose infrastructure routes can translate lower construction costs into something consumers can see on their monthly electric bills.
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