Announcement of Fiscal Year 2016 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program Project Selections

Announcement of Fiscal Year 2016 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program Project Selections

Announcement of Fiscal Year 2016 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program Project Selections

Carolyn Flowers
Federal Transit Administration
12 October 2016

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 197 (Wednesday, October 12, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70482-70486]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-24524]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.

Announcement of Fiscal Year 2016 Grants for Buses and Bus
Facilities Competitive Program Project Selections

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) announces the selection of projects with Fiscal
Year (FY) 2016 appropriations for the Grants for Buses and Bus
Facilities Competitive Program (Bus Program), as authorized by Federal
transit law. A total of $210,990,000 is available for competitive
allocations in FY 2016. On March 29, 2016, FTA published a Notice of
Funding Opportunity (NOFO) (81 FR 17553) announcing the availability of
Federal funding for the Bus Program. These program funds will provide
financial assistance to states and eligible public agencies to replace,
rehabilitate and purchase buses and related equipment and to construct
bus-related facilities, including technological changes or innovations
to modify low or no emission vehicles or facilities.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Successful applicants should contact
the appropriate FTA Regional Office for information regarding applying
for the funds or program-specific information. A list of Regional
Offices can be found at www.fta.dot.gov. Unsuccessful applicants may
contact Sam Snead, Office of Program Management at (202) 366-1089,
email: Samuel.Snead@dot.gov, to arrange a proposal debriefing within 30
days of this announcement. A TDD is available at 1-800-877-8339 (TDD/
FIRS).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In response to the NOFO, FTA received 284
project proposals from 47 states requesting $1.64 billion in Federal
funds, or nearly eight dollars requested for each dollar available,
indicating

[[Page 70483]]

significant demand for funding for buses and bus facility projects.
Project proposals were evaluated based on each applicant's
responsiveness to the program evaluation criteria outlined in the NOFO.
FTA is funding 61 projects, as shown in Table 1, for a total of
$210,990,000. Recipients selected for competitive funding should work
with their FTA Regional Office to submit a grant application in FTA's
Transit Award Management System (TrAMs) for the projects identified in
the attached table. Funds must be used consistent with the competitive
proposal and for the eligible capital purposes established in the NOFO
and described in the FTA Circular 9030.1E.
In cases where the allocation amount is less than the proposer's
total requested amount, recipients are required to fund the scalable
project option as described in the application. If the award amount
does not correspond to the scalable option, for example due to a cap on
the award amount, the recipient should work with the Regional Office to
reduce scope or scale the project such that a complete phase or project
is accomplished. Recipients are reminded that program requirements such
as cost sharing or local match can be found in the NOFO. A
discretionary project identification number has been assigned to each
project for tracking purposes and must be used in the TrAMs
application.
Selected projects are eligible to incur costs under pre-award
authority no earlier than the date projects were publicly announced,
September 8, 2016. Pre-award authority does not guarantee that project
expenses incurred prior to the award of a grant will be eligible for
reimbursement, as eligibility for reimbursement is contingent upon
other requirements, such as planning and environmental requirements,
having been met. For more about FTA's policy on pre-award authority,
please see the FTA Fiscal Year 2016 Apportionments, Allocations, and
Program Information and Interim Guidance found in 81 FR 7893 (February
16, 2016). Post-award reporting requirements include submission of the
Federal Financial Report and Milestone progress reports in TrAMs as
appropriate (see FTA.C.5010.1D and C9030.1E). Recipients must comply
with all applicable Federal statutes, regulations, executive orders,
FTA circulars, and other Federal requirements in carrying out the
project supported by the FTA grant. FTA emphasizes that recipients must
follow all third-party procurement guidance, as described in
FTA.C.4220.1F. Funds allocated in this announcement must be obligated
in a grant by September 30, 2019.
Technical Review and Evaluation Summary: FTA assessed all project
proposals that were submitted under the FY 2016 Grants for Buses and
Bus Facilities competition according to the following evaluation
criteria. The specific metrics for each criterion were described in the
March 29, 2016 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO):

1. Demonstration of Need
2. Demonstration of Benefits
3. Project Implementation Strategy
4. Planning/Local Prioritization
5. Local Financial Commitment
6. Technical, Legal, and Financial Capacity

For each project, a technical review panel assigned a rating of
Highly Recommended, Recommended or Not Recommended for each of the six
criteria. The technical review panel then assigned an overall rating of
Highly Recommended, Recommended, Not Recommended or Ineligible to the
project proposal.
Projects were assigned a final overall rating of Highly Recommended
if they were rated Highly Recommended in the Demonstration of Need and
Demonstration of Benefits criteria and at least four categories
overall, with no ``Not Recommended'' ratings. Projects were assigned a
final overall rating of Recommended if the project had no more than one
Not Recommended rating among the six criteria and at least Recommended
for Demonstration of Need and Demonstration of Benefits. Projects were
assigned a rating of a Not Recommended if they received Not Recommended
rating in two or more criteria, or received a rating of Not Recommended
for any one among the Demonstration of Need, Demonstration of Benefits,
or Technical/Financial/Legal Capacity criteria. A summary of the
overall scores is shown in the table below.

Overall Project Ratings (All Submissions):

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Highly Recommended...................................... 36 projects
Recommended............................................. 158
Not Recommended......................................... 77
Ineligible.............................................. 13
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Total............................................... 284
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As outlined in the NOFO, FTA made the final selections based on the
technical ratings as well geographic diversity, diversity in the size
of the transit systems, and/or receipt of other recent competitive
awards. As further outlined in the NOFO, in some cases, due to funding
limitations, proposers that were selected for funding received less
than the amount originally requested. FTA was able to fund all the
Highly Recommended projects, excluding applicants that already received
FY 2016 Low and No Emission Grant Funding awarded under this NOFO. None
of the projects that received an overall rating of Not Recommended or
Ineligible were selected for funding.
In the interest of geographic diversity, FTA awarded funding to at
least one project in each state that submitted a project rated at least
recommended. These projects were selected based on their technical
rating, while also considering the amount requested and directing at
least 10% of the program funding to projects in rural areas, as
required by law.

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 5339(b).

Carolyn Flowers,
Acting Administrator.

Table 1--FY 16 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competition Project Selections
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State Recipient Project ID Project description Allocation Project rating
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AK.................... Fairbanks North Star D2016-BUSP-001................. Renovate and expand 12,800,000 Highly Recommended.
Borough. bus maintenance and
storage facility.
AL.................... Birmingham-Jefferson D2016-BUSP-002................. Purchase compressed 405,000 Recommended.
County Transit natural gas (CNG)
Authority. bus.
AR.................... Central Arkansas D2016-BUSP-003................. Purchase CNG buses.. 1,653,498 Recommended.
Transit Authority
dba Rock Region
METRO.
AZ.................... N. Arizona D2016-BUSP-004................. Purchase hybrid 2,202,522 Highly Recommended.
Intergovernmental diesel-electric
Public buses.
Transportation
Authority.

[[Page 70484]]

AZ.................... Yavapai-Apache D2016-BUSP-005................. Purchase 15- 105,000 Highly Recommended.
Nation. passenger van;
construct bus stop
shelters.
CA.................... California D2016-BUSP-006................. Construct new bus 4,280,512 Highly Recommended.
Department of maintenance
Transportation. facility.
CA.................... Foothill Transit.... D2016-BUSP-007................. Design and construct 7,240,000 Highly Recommended.
transit center at
Mount San Antonio
College.
CA.................... Los Angeles County D2016-BUSP-008................. Purchase CNG 10,500,000 Highly Recommended.
Metropolitan replacement buses,
Transportation install related CNG
Authority. infrastructure,
workforce
development.
CA.................... Marin County Transit D2016-BUSP-009................. Design and construct 4,400,000 Highly Recommended.
District. vehicle maintenance
and storage
facility; workforce
development.
CA.................... Monterey-Salinas D2016-BUSP-010................. Purchase replacement 3,687,100 Highly Recommended.
Transit. buses; workforce
development and
training.
CA.................... Sacramento Regional D2016-BUSP-011................. Purchase CNG fueled 695,088 Highly Recommended.
Transit District. replacement buses.
CA.................... Sacramento Regional D2016-BUSP-012................. Replace CNG fueling 400,000 Highly Recommended.
Transit District. equipment at bus
maintenance
facility.
CA.................... San Joaquin Regional D2016-BUSP-013................. Purchase replacement 8,284,000 Highly Recommended.
Transit District. hybrid diesel-
electric buses.
CA.................... San Luis Obispo D2016-BUSP-014................. Design and construct 4,000,000 Highly Recommended.
Regional Transit new downtown
Authority. transit center to
replace current
facility.
CA.................... Santa Barbara D2016-BUSP-015................. Purchase replacement 5,680,905 Highly Recommended.
Metropolitan buses.
Transit District.
CO.................... Mesa County......... D2016-BUSP-016................. Purchase replacement 208,000 Highly Recommended.
buses.
FL.................... Hillsborough Transit D2016-BUSP-017................. Purchase CNG buses.. 4,273,771 Recommended.
Authority.
GA.................... Chatham Area Transit D2016-BUSP-018................. Purchase paratransit 1,608,880 Highly Recommended.
Authority. vehicles.
HI.................... State of Hawaii, D2016-BUSP-019................. Purchase replacement 960,000 Recommended.
Department of transit vehicles.
Transportation.
IA.................... Iowa Department of D2016-BUSP-020................. Purchase transit 4,273,771 Recommended.
Transportation. vehicles for rural
operators.
IL.................... Rock Island Co. D2016-BUSP-021................. Purchase CNG buses.. 391,000 Recommended.
Metropolitan Mass
Transit District.
IN.................... City of Columbus.... D2016-BUSP-022................. Purchase of small 728,000 Recommended.
heavy duty transit
vehicles.
KY.................... Kentucky D2016-BUSP-023................. Purchase transit 5,823,974 Highly Recommended.
Transportation vehicles for rural
Cabinet. service.
MA.................... Massachusetts Bay D2016-BUSP-024................. Construct New Quincy 4,273,771 Recommended.
Transportation Center bus terminal
Authority. and intermodal
enhancements.
MD.................... Maryland Department D2016-BUSP-025................. Rehabilitate transit 533,575 Recommended.
of Transportation. buses; workforce
training.
ME.................... Maine Department of D2016-BUSP-026................. Purchase replacement 1,441,600 Recommended.
Transportation. buses.
MI.................... Mass Transportation D2016-BUSP-027................. Purchase CNG transit 12,800,000 Highly Recommended.
Authority (Flint, buses; workforce
MI). development.
MN.................... Metropolitan Council D2016-BUSP-028................. Purchase low floor 103,515 Recommended.
Metro Transit. buses.
MO.................... City Utilities of D2016-BUSP-029................. Purchase buses; 3,870,960 Highly Recommended.
Springfield, workforce
Missouri. development.
MO.................... Kansas City Area D2016-BUSP-030................. Purchase buses...... 8,986,350 Highly Recommended.
Transportation
Authority.
MT.................... Confederated Salish D2016-BUSP-031................. Purchase buses and 681,450 Highly Recommended.
and Kootenai Tribes. vans; workforce
development.
NC.................... City of Greensboro.. D2016-BUSP-032................. Renovate ticketing, 960,000 Recommended.
call center, and
waiting areas at
the J. Douglas
Galyon Depot.
ND.................... North Dakota D2016-BUSP-033................. Purchase replacement 844,000 Recommended.
Department of rural transit
Transportation. vehicles and two
intercity bus
vehicles.

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NE.................... Transit Authority of D2016-BUSP-034................. Purchase low floor, 2,424,240 Recommended.
the City of Omaha. CNG buses and
maintenance
equipment;
workforce
development.
NH.................... New Hampshire D2016-BUSP-035................. Purchase heavy-duty 382,500 Recommended.
Department of transit bus.
Transportation.
NJ.................... New Jersey Transit D2016-BUSP-036................. Construct new bus 2,656,452 Recommended.
Corporation. terminal.
NM.................... City of Las Cruces.. D2016-BUSP-037................. Purchase buses for 1,134,750 Recommended.
vehicle replacement
and service
expansion.
NY.................... New York City D2016-BUSP-038................. Construct a 4,273,771 Recommended.
Department of combination of bus
Transportation. lanes, stations,
refurbished bus
stops and transfer
points, safety
improvements, and
transit signal
priority and signal
timing changes.
OH.................... Ohio Department of D2016-BUSP-039................. Purchase replacement 6,691,634 Highly Recommended.
Transportation. transit vehicles
for rural service.
OK.................... Central Oklahoma D2016-BUSP-040................. Purchase CNG 1,932,000 Highly Recommended.
Transportation and replacement buses.
Parking Authority.
OK.................... Oklahoma Department D2016-BUSP-041................. Purchase replacement 3,590,154 Highly Recommended.
of Transportation. ADA transit
vehicles.
OR.................... City of Wilsonville-- D2016-BUSP-042................. Purchase low-floor 320,000 Highly Recommended.
SMART Transit. 30-foot replacement
bus.
PA.................... River Valley Transit D2016-BUSP-043................. Purchase CNG 2,040,000 Highly Recommended.
(Williamsport, AA). replacement buses.
PA.................... Southeastern D2016-BUSP-044................. Rehabilitate 4,000,000 Highly Recommended.
Pennsylvania Wissahickon Transit
Transportation Center.
Authority (SEPTA).
PA.................... Transportation and D2016-BUSP-045................. Purchase replacement 864,000 Highly Recommended.
Motor Buses for transit buses.
Public Use
Authority (Altoona,
PA).
RI.................... Rhode Island Public D2016-BUSP-046................. Construct New Goff 5,636,745 Highly Recommended.
Transit Authority. Avenue bus hub and
passenger facility
and transit
corridor
improvements.
SC.................... Berkeley-Charleston- D2016-BUSP-047................. Purchase 40ft low- 6,153,600 Highly Recommended.
Dorchester Council floor commuter
of Governments. style coaches and
related equipment.
SD.................... City of Sioux Falls. D2016-BUSP-048................. Rehabilitate 1,145,850 Highly Recommended.
downtown transit
station.
TN.................... Memphis Area Transit D2016-BUSP-049................. Purchase replacement 4,273,771 Recommended.
Authority. transit buses.
TX.................... Capital Metropolitan D2016-BUSP-050................. Purchase replacement 11,249,240 Highly Recommended.
Transportation transit vehicles.
Authority.
TX.................... City of Laredo & D2016-BUSP-051................. Rehabilitate El 9,875,083 Highly Recommended.
Laredo Transit Metro
Management Inc. Administration
Facility.
TX.................... City of Wichita D2016-BUSP-052................. Purchase replacement 1,376,000 Highly Recommended.
Falls. buses.
UT.................... Utah Transit D2016-BUSP-053................. Purchase replacement 4,273,770 Recommended.
Authority. buses.
VA.................... Transportation D2016-BUSP-054................. Purchase heavy duty 1,257,393 Recommended.
District Commission transit buses.
of Hampton Roads.
VI.................... Virgin Islands D2016-BUSP-055................. Rehabilitate La 1,696,405 Recommended.
Department of Reine Bus Facility.
Public Works.
VT.................... Vermont Agency of D2016-BUSP-056................. Purchase heavy-duty 3,924,000 Recommended.
Transportation. transit buses.
WA.................... City of Longview.... D2016-BUSP-057................. Construct expansion 2,784,000 Highly Recommended.
of downtown transit
center.
WA.................... City of Longview.... D2016-BUSP-058................. Purchase low-floor 832,000 Highly Recommended.
biodiesel buses.
WA.................... Clark County Public D2016-BUSP-059................. Purchase low floor 6,080,000 Highly Recommended.
Transportation hybrid diesel-
Benefit Area. electric
replacement buses.
WA.................... Spokane Transit D2016-BUSP-060................. Construct multimodal 1,000,000 Highly Recommended.
Authority. transit center.

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WI.................... Wisconsin Department D2016-BUSP-061................. Purchase replacement 26,400 Recommended.
of Transportation. for side loading
accessible mini-van.
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Total............. .................... ............................... .................... * 210,990,000
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[FR Doc. 2016-24524 Filed 10-11-16; 8:45 am]
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