The Infrastructure Work Pipeline

Now, as Chief Program Officer for Nashville’s “Choose How You Move” initiative, Sussman oversees a $3.1 billion, 15-year, voter-approved program to overhaul sidewalks, bus service, corridors and traffic signals across one of the fastest growing metros in the country. The work is infrastructure on paper, but in practice, it is a massive pipeline of projects that will require the skills of sheet metal and HVAC contractors in transit facilities, control centers and dense urban corridors for years to come.

From Accidental Transport Nerd to Nashville CPO
Sussman never planned a career in transportation. She moved to Washington, D.C., wanting to work in government on health or education policy and took a position at USDOT, telling herself, “government’s government, you can always pivot.” Instead, she stayed — twice. Early roles at USDOT, a stint in New York City Hall and time at Zipcar gave her a front row seat to how cities and the private sector share responsibility for how people move.

Most recently, she served as chief of staff and deputy to U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg, and as a senior adviser to then Secretary Pete Buttigieg, working on the rollout of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and a wave of federal investments in roads, bridges, airports and transit. “You go where the money is when it comes to infrastructure,” she says, noting that the law marked a “generational investment” after decades of underfunding. For contractors, that shift at the federal level is now being echoed — and in some ways amplified — by cities and regions that are self-taxing to build their own projects.

Inside “Choose How You Move”
Nashville’s turning point came in 2024, when 66% of voters approved a half-penny sales tax dedicated solely to transportation. Under Tennessee law, localities that want big infrastructure must largely “self fund,” so the city put a detailed Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) on the ballot, promising specific projects in exchange for that tax.

“It was a $3.1-billion program over 15 years,” Sussman says. “It includes 86 miles of sidewalk, nearly 600 traffic intersection signals and 10 all access corridors” — the heaviest, most congested corridors in the region — with safety improvements woven throughout. Every block and intersection is identified on a public map, giving contractors an atypical level of certainty about where work will be and what will be built.

One year after the referendum passed, Sussman cut the first ribbon, marking the completion of an early “quick win” project: a transit signal upgrade called a queue jump that lets buses enter the intersection a few seconds before cars, so routes move faster. At the same time, her team is launching short-, medium- and long-term work: signal replacements and fiber in the near term, and full corridor redesigns and large sidewalk packages in later phases. For mechanical and sheet metal firms, those “all access corridors” and transit enhancements mean future work tied to stations, shelters, operations centers and high performance systems in buildings along those routes.

If there is a theme to Sussman’s message, it is that transportation is fundamentally local and fundamentally bipartisan. She jokes that one of her favorite conference ribbons reads “potholes are nonpartisan,” because “when people drive down the street or are at the airport, it doesn’t matter who’s in power; what matters is that their infrastructure needs help and support.”

She believes that local leaders are now wrestling with the same questions Washington faced during the infrastructure law debate: “How do we fund infrastructure investments?” and “Have those networks that supported our prosperity kept up with the growth?” Cities like Nashville, Charlotte, Columbus and Austin are answering by asking voters directly to approve transportation referendums, and they’re often succeeding. For SMACNA contractors, that means the next boom in work may not just follow federal megaprojects; it will track these local “self-subscribed” programs where the money and project lists are set for a decade or more.

Where contractors come in is to fill the capacity gap. “Nashville and Middle Tennessee don’t have all the people that we need to pull this off,” Sussman says. She calls “Choose How You Move” not just a transportation program but “also a workforce development program,” adding that the city needs contractors to “be welcoming and inventive and encourage new folks to come to town” to help deliver the work.

Why This Matters for HVAC and Sheet Metal Pros

While much of Sussman’s story centers on sidewalks and signals, she stresses that transportation projects are not one-and-done; they are systems that must be built, operated, maintained and continuously upgraded. “Transportation and infrastructure are not about build it once and move on,” she says. “You have to build it, operate it and maintain it. Those investments take work over many years.”

For HVAC and sheet metal companies, Sussman’s message is both a challenge and an invitation. Transportation is becoming more local, more voter driven, more tech heavy and more dependent on contractors who can deliver complex work quickly while protecting public trust. 

“Cities are doing some tough work,” she says. “Go to them and ask them if you can help be a part of that.”