Pilot Program for Expedited Project Delivery, 38801-38802 [2015-16515]
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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 129 / Tuesday, July 7, 2015 / Notices
Total Estimated Annual Burden:
2,217 hours.
Status: Emergency Review.
Pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 3507(a) and 5
CFR 320.5(b), 1320.8(b)(3)(vi), FRA
informs all interested parties that it may
not conduct or sponsor, and a
respondent is not required to respond
to, a collection of information unless it
displays a currently valid OMB control
number.
Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520.
Rebecca Pennington,
Chief Financial Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015–16607 Filed 7–6–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–06–P
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Pilot Program for Expedited Project
Delivery
AGENCY:
Federal Transit Administration,
DOT.
Request for Expressions of
Interest to Participate.
ACTION:
The Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) announces
establishment of the Pilot Program for
Expedited Project Delivery (Pilot
Program) authorized by Section 20008
of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the
21st Century Act (MAP–21), Public Law
112–141, July 6, 2012, and solicits
expressions of interest to participate.
The Pilot Program is aimed at increasing
innovation, improving efficiency and
timeliness of project implementation,
and encouraging new revenue streams
for new fixed guideway projects and
core capacity improvement projects.
FTA plans to use the lessons learned
from the Pilot Program to assist other
project sponsors to develop more
effective approaches to project planning,
project development, finance, design,
and construction. Additionally, FTA
anticipates that the Pilot Program will
help to identify impediments in current
laws, regulations, and practices to the
greater use of innovative project
development and delivery methods or
innovative financing arrangements.
Participants selected for the Pilot
Program may receive enhanced
technical assistance and expedited FTA
reviews to speed up planning,
development, and delivery of eligible
Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program
projects and ultimately receive Full
Funding Grant Agreements under that
program. Should legislation be enacted
for the Pilot Program that would allow
projects to proceed outside of the
normal CIG program processes and
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:31 Jul 06, 2015
Jkt 235001
criteria, participants also may be able to
receive a Full Funding Grant Agreement
under the terms of that legislation.
Lastly, participants selected for the Pilot
Program also may benefit from technical
assistance provided by the Department
of Transportation’s Build America
Transportation Investment Center
(BATIC). This announcement is
available on the FTA’s Web site at:
www.fta.dot.gov.
DATES: Expressions of interest to become
one of the three selected participants in
the Pilot Program for Expedited Project
Delivery must be submitted to FTA by
mail, email or facsimile by August 1,
2015. Mail submission must be
addressed to the Office of Planning and
Environment, Federal Transit
Administration, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue SE, Room E45–119,
Washington, DC 20590 and postmarked
no later than August 1, 2015. Email
submissions must be sent to
ExpeditedProjectDevliery@fta.dot.gov by
11:59 p.m. EDT on August 1, 2015.
Facsimile submissions must be
submitted to the attention of Expedited
Project Delivery Pilot Program at 202–
493–2478 by 11:59 p.m. EDT on August
1, 2015. If there are insufficient
candidate projects that are able to meet
the requirements of the Pilot Program,
FTA may conduct additional
application rounds in the future.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Brian Jackson, FTA Office of Planning
and Environment, telephone (202) 366–
8520 or email Brian.Jackson@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Background
Each year FTA, together with its
transit industry partners, invests
billions of dollars in capital projects
designed to improve public
transportation by reinvesting in existing
assets to expand capacity or by
increasing the extent and quality of
public transportation service by making
new investments. These projects take
considerable time to plan, develop,
design, approve and deploy. While it is
important for FTA to ensure that it
selects only well-conceived projects for
funding and that they are implemented
in the most efficient and effective
manner, too long a process delays the
delivery of the intended benefits to the
riding public.
2. Pilot Program
Section 20008(b) of MAP–21
establishes a Pilot Program for new
fixed guideway or core capacity projects
as defined under the Section 5309
Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program
that demonstrate innovative project
PO 00000
Frm 00141
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
38801
development and delivery methods or
innovative financing arrangements.
Section 20008(b) specifies that FTA
must select three eligible projects for the
Pilot Program: (1) at least one project
must request greater than $100 million
in Section 5309 CIG funds; (2) at least
one project must request less than $100
million in CIG funds; and (3) a project
that requests any amount of CIG funds.
Section 20008(b) requires that the CIG
share of the total cost of selected
projects must not exceed 50 percent. It
also specifies that projects already in
receipt of an FFGA are not eligible.
Section 20008(b) requires that project
sponsors applying to participate must
submit: (1) information identifying the
proposed eligible project; (2) a schedule
and finance plan for the construction
and operation of the project; (3) an
analysis of the efficiencies of the
proposed project development and
delivery methods or innovative
financing arrangements for the project;
and (4) a certification that the project
sponsor’s existing public transportation
system is in a state of good repair. FTA
may not award a full funding grant
agreement until after the project sponsor
has completed necessary planning
activities and the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
process, and the recipient has
demonstrated the necessary legal,
technical, and financial capacity to
successfully complete the project.
The law requires participants in the
program to develop a Before and After
Study Report that describes and
analyzes the impacts of the project on
public transportation services and
ridership, describes and analyzes the
consistency of predicted and actual
benefits and costs of the innovative
project development and delivery or
innovative financing, and identifies
reasons for any differences between the
predicted and actual outcomes. The law
requires the project sponsor submit the
Before and After Study Report to FTA
not later than nine months after the
initiation of revenue service of the
project.
FTA recently issued Proposed CIG
Interim Policy Guidance to fully
implement the changes made by MAP–
21 to the program, and expects to
finalize this guidance shortly, thereby
facilitating the implementation of this
Pilot Program. At present, there is no
separate funding for the Pilot Program.
Instead, the projects in the Pilot
Program must compete for CIG funding.
In addition, the provisions of Section
20008(b) also do not provide for any
exemption from the requirements of the
CIG program, including the rating and
evaluation of projects under the project
E:\FR\FM\07JYN1.SGM
07JYN1
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
38802
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 129 / Tuesday, July 7, 2015 / Notices
justification and local financial
commitment criteria specified in law. In
the absence of such an exemption,
projects selected for the Pilot Program
must meet the requirements of Section
5309 to be eligible for funding. If in the
future, legislation is enacted that
exempts projects in the Pilot Program
from procedural and/or project
evaluation requirements of the CIG
program, participants in the Pilot
Program could be eligible to receive a
Full Funding Grant Agreement under
the terms of the exemption.
FTA believes there may be alternative
approaches sponsors could propose to
expedite the delivery of CIG projects.
Accordingly, FTA is soliciting
expressions of interest to participate in
the Pilot Program. Specifically, CIG
project sponsors who are considering
becoming a candidate for CIG funding
by requesting entry into the Project
Development phase or who are already
in the Project Development or
Engineering phases of the CIG process
may request to be selected for the Pilot
Program. Selected projects may: (1)
receive enhanced technical assistance
on aspects of developing and delivering
CIG projects; and/or (2) be allowed
alternative, expedited ways of
proceeding through the steps required
by law in the CIG project development
process.
For example, the Department of
Transportation has established the Build
America Transportation Investment
Center to provide technical assistance
on innovative financing approaches,
and participants selected for the Pilot
Program may receive assistance from the
Center. With respect to expediting ways
projects selected for the Pilot Program
may proceed through steps in the CIG
process, FTA may be able to better tailor
the requirements for Project
Management Oversight to the scope of
the project, its delivery method, and/or
the characteristics of the project
sponsor.
Project sponsors submitting
information to FTA for consideration for
the Pilot Program are invited to propose
alternative ways that FTA might satisfy
the requirements established by law for
CIG projects. For example, FTA expects
that it will be necessary to establish the
cost, scope, and schedule for CIG
projects to a reasonable level of
confidence, which is now accomplished
in a number of ways, such as risk
assessments and other oversight
reviews, at several steps in the process.
However, there may be ways to achieve
the same goals in a manner which may
take less time and effort. Project
sponsors submitting expressions of
interest to the Pilot Program also may
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:31 Jul 06, 2015
Jkt 235001
suggest alternate approaches to any
other aspect of the CIG evaluation
process that the sponsor believes will
save time and effort, while still assuring
compliance with the CIG program
requirements outlined in law. FTA is
particularly interested in receiving
expressions of interest from project
sponsors who are considering pursuing
Value Capture techniques as part of
their innovative project financing
arrangements. FTA would like to
explore what Value Capture
mechanisms might be used, and how
FTA could facilitate such arrangements.
3. Expression of Interest Submission
Process
Project sponsors must submit the
required information by mail, email or
facsimile by August 1, 2015, as specified
in the DATES section of this Notice
above. FTA reserves the right to request
additional clarifying information from
any and all project sponsors before
making a selection to participate in the
Pilot Program.
Project sponsors wishing to
participate in the Pilot Program must
submit an expression of interest to FTA
no longer than 20 pages in length
including any supporting
documentation. While there is no
specific format that must be followed for
the expression of interest, the narrative
provided by the project sponsor to FTA
should include the following
information:
a. A description of the proposed
project that provides sufficient
information to demonstrate its eligibility
for the CIG program;
b. The proposed project schedule and
an outline of the proposed financing
plan for the project, including the
amount of CIG funding sought;
c. The proposed innovative project
development and delivery method or
innovative financing technique for the
proposed project and an explanation of
the efficiencies intended to be achieved
by the proposed methods or techniques;
d. How the project sponsor intends to
analyze the efficiencies of the proposed
project development or delivery
methods or innovative financing
arrangements, in order to complete the
Before and After Study required by
Section 20008(b);
e. Evidence in support of the required
certification that the project sponsor’s
existing public transportation system is
in a state of good repair, including an
explanation of how the sponsor expects
to reach that conclusion;
f. Documentation that the project has
completed the steps required by the
Metropolitan Planning process to be
included in the Metropolitan
PO 00000
Frm 00142
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
Transportation Plan and Transportation
Improvement Program, or a schedule
demonstrating the project will complete
the process in the foreseeable future;
g. Documentation that the project has
completed the NEPA process or a
schedule demonstrating the project will
complete the NEPA process in the
foreseeable future.
4. Candidate Project Evaluation and
Selection
FTA will evaluate the proposals to
determine which proposed projects best
meet the intent of Section 20008(b).
FTA will select three projects from the
submitted expressions of interest to be
part of the Pilot Program: one seeking
less than $100 million in CIG funds, one
seeking more than $100 million in CIG
funds, and one additional project.
Before awarding a Full Funding Grant
Agreement, planning and NEPA
requirements must be completed, and
FTA will evaluate the legal, technical,
and financial capacity of the project
sponsor to ensure that the project will
be carried out successfully. Unless
legislation is enacted that provides for
an exemption from the other
requirements of Section 5309 CIG
program in the future, projects in the
Pilot Program will be subject to the
procedural and evaluation and rating
requirements of the CIG program. FTA
may announce final selections on its
Web site and in the Federal Register.
Therese W. McMillan,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2015–16515 Filed 7–6–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary of
Transportation
Notice of Funding Availability for the
Small Business Transportation
Resource Center Program
Office of Small and
Disadvantaged Business Utilization
(OSDBU), Office of the Secretary of
Transportation (OST), Department of
Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of Funding Availability
for the Mid-Atlantic Region SBTRC.
AGENCY:
The Department of
Transportation (DOT), Office of the
Secretary (OST), Office of Small and
Disadvantaged Business Utilization
(OSDBU) announces the opportunity
for; business centered community-based
organizations; transportation-related
trade associations; colleges and
universities; community colleges or;
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\07JYN1.SGM
07JYN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 7, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38801-38802]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-16515]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Pilot Program for Expedited Project Delivery
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Request for Expressions of Interest to Participate.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces
establishment of the Pilot Program for Expedited Project Delivery
(Pilot Program) authorized by Section 20008 of the Moving Ahead for
Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), Public Law 112-141, July 6,
2012, and solicits expressions of interest to participate. The Pilot
Program is aimed at increasing innovation, improving efficiency and
timeliness of project implementation, and encouraging new revenue
streams for new fixed guideway projects and core capacity improvement
projects. FTA plans to use the lessons learned from the Pilot Program
to assist other project sponsors to develop more effective approaches
to project planning, project development, finance, design, and
construction. Additionally, FTA anticipates that the Pilot Program will
help to identify impediments in current laws, regulations, and
practices to the greater use of innovative project development and
delivery methods or innovative financing arrangements.
Participants selected for the Pilot Program may receive enhanced
technical assistance and expedited FTA reviews to speed up planning,
development, and delivery of eligible Capital Investment Grant (CIG)
program projects and ultimately receive Full Funding Grant Agreements
under that program. Should legislation be enacted for the Pilot Program
that would allow projects to proceed outside of the normal CIG program
processes and criteria, participants also may be able to receive a Full
Funding Grant Agreement under the terms of that legislation. Lastly,
participants selected for the Pilot Program also may benefit from
technical assistance provided by the Department of Transportation's
Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC). This
announcement is available on the FTA's Web site at: www.fta.dot.gov.
DATES: Expressions of interest to become one of the three selected
participants in the Pilot Program for Expedited Project Delivery must
be submitted to FTA by mail, email or facsimile by August 1, 2015. Mail
submission must be addressed to the Office of Planning and Environment,
Federal Transit Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Room E45-
119, Washington, DC 20590 and postmarked no later than August 1, 2015.
Email submissions must be sent to ExpeditedProjectDevliery@fta.dot.gov
by 11:59 p.m. EDT on August 1, 2015. Facsimile submissions must be
submitted to the attention of Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program
at 202-493-2478 by 11:59 p.m. EDT on August 1, 2015. If there are
insufficient candidate projects that are able to meet the requirements
of the Pilot Program, FTA may conduct additional application rounds in
the future.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brian Jackson, FTA Office of Planning
and Environment, telephone (202) 366-8520 or email
Brian.Jackson@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Background
Each year FTA, together with its transit industry partners, invests
billions of dollars in capital projects designed to improve public
transportation by reinvesting in existing assets to expand capacity or
by increasing the extent and quality of public transportation service
by making new investments. These projects take considerable time to
plan, develop, design, approve and deploy. While it is important for
FTA to ensure that it selects only well-conceived projects for funding
and that they are implemented in the most efficient and effective
manner, too long a process delays the delivery of the intended benefits
to the riding public.
2. Pilot Program
Section 20008(b) of MAP-21 establishes a Pilot Program for new
fixed guideway or core capacity projects as defined under the Section
5309 Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program that demonstrate innovative
project development and delivery methods or innovative financing
arrangements. Section 20008(b) specifies that FTA must select three
eligible projects for the Pilot Program: (1) at least one project must
request greater than $100 million in Section 5309 CIG funds; (2) at
least one project must request less than $100 million in CIG funds; and
(3) a project that requests any amount of CIG funds. Section 20008(b)
requires that the CIG share of the total cost of selected projects must
not exceed 50 percent. It also specifies that projects already in
receipt of an FFGA are not eligible.
Section 20008(b) requires that project sponsors applying to
participate must submit: (1) information identifying the proposed
eligible project; (2) a schedule and finance plan for the construction
and operation of the project; (3) an analysis of the efficiencies of
the proposed project development and delivery methods or innovative
financing arrangements for the project; and (4) a certification that
the project sponsor's existing public transportation system is in a
state of good repair. FTA may not award a full funding grant agreement
until after the project sponsor has completed necessary planning
activities and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process,
and the recipient has demonstrated the necessary legal, technical, and
financial capacity to successfully complete the project.
The law requires participants in the program to develop a Before
and After Study Report that describes and analyzes the impacts of the
project on public transportation services and ridership, describes and
analyzes the consistency of predicted and actual benefits and costs of
the innovative project development and delivery or innovative
financing, and identifies reasons for any differences between the
predicted and actual outcomes. The law requires the project sponsor
submit the Before and After Study Report to FTA not later than nine
months after the initiation of revenue service of the project.
FTA recently issued Proposed CIG Interim Policy Guidance to fully
implement the changes made by MAP-21 to the program, and expects to
finalize this guidance shortly, thereby facilitating the implementation
of this Pilot Program. At present, there is no separate funding for the
Pilot Program. Instead, the projects in the Pilot Program must compete
for CIG funding. In addition, the provisions of Section 20008(b) also
do not provide for any exemption from the requirements of the CIG
program, including the rating and evaluation of projects under the
project
[[Page 38802]]
justification and local financial commitment criteria specified in law.
In the absence of such an exemption, projects selected for the Pilot
Program must meet the requirements of Section 5309 to be eligible for
funding. If in the future, legislation is enacted that exempts projects
in the Pilot Program from procedural and/or project evaluation
requirements of the CIG program, participants in the Pilot Program
could be eligible to receive a Full Funding Grant Agreement under the
terms of the exemption.
FTA believes there may be alternative approaches sponsors could
propose to expedite the delivery of CIG projects. Accordingly, FTA is
soliciting expressions of interest to participate in the Pilot Program.
Specifically, CIG project sponsors who are considering becoming a
candidate for CIG funding by requesting entry into the Project
Development phase or who are already in the Project Development or
Engineering phases of the CIG process may request to be selected for
the Pilot Program. Selected projects may: (1) receive enhanced
technical assistance on aspects of developing and delivering CIG
projects; and/or (2) be allowed alternative, expedited ways of
proceeding through the steps required by law in the CIG project
development process.
For example, the Department of Transportation has established the
Build America Transportation Investment Center to provide technical
assistance on innovative financing approaches, and participants
selected for the Pilot Program may receive assistance from the Center.
With respect to expediting ways projects selected for the Pilot Program
may proceed through steps in the CIG process, FTA may be able to better
tailor the requirements for Project Management Oversight to the scope
of the project, its delivery method, and/or the characteristics of the
project sponsor.
Project sponsors submitting information to FTA for consideration
for the Pilot Program are invited to propose alternative ways that FTA
might satisfy the requirements established by law for CIG projects. For
example, FTA expects that it will be necessary to establish the cost,
scope, and schedule for CIG projects to a reasonable level of
confidence, which is now accomplished in a number of ways, such as risk
assessments and other oversight reviews, at several steps in the
process. However, there may be ways to achieve the same goals in a
manner which may take less time and effort. Project sponsors submitting
expressions of interest to the Pilot Program also may suggest alternate
approaches to any other aspect of the CIG evaluation process that the
sponsor believes will save time and effort, while still assuring
compliance with the CIG program requirements outlined in law. FTA is
particularly interested in receiving expressions of interest from
project sponsors who are considering pursuing Value Capture techniques
as part of their innovative project financing arrangements. FTA would
like to explore what Value Capture mechanisms might be used, and how
FTA could facilitate such arrangements.
3. Expression of Interest Submission Process
Project sponsors must submit the required information by mail,
email or facsimile by August 1, 2015, as specified in the DATES section
of this Notice above. FTA reserves the right to request additional
clarifying information from any and all project sponsors before making
a selection to participate in the Pilot Program.
Project sponsors wishing to participate in the Pilot Program must
submit an expression of interest to FTA no longer than 20 pages in
length including any supporting documentation. While there is no
specific format that must be followed for the expression of interest,
the narrative provided by the project sponsor to FTA should include the
following information:
a. A description of the proposed project that provides sufficient
information to demonstrate its eligibility for the CIG program;
b. The proposed project schedule and an outline of the proposed
financing plan for the project, including the amount of CIG funding
sought;
c. The proposed innovative project development and delivery method
or innovative financing technique for the proposed project and an
explanation of the efficiencies intended to be achieved by the proposed
methods or techniques;
d. How the project sponsor intends to analyze the efficiencies of
the proposed project development or delivery methods or innovative
financing arrangements, in order to complete the Before and After Study
required by Section 20008(b);
e. Evidence in support of the required certification that the
project sponsor's existing public transportation system is in a state
of good repair, including an explanation of how the sponsor expects to
reach that conclusion;
f. Documentation that the project has completed the steps required
by the Metropolitan Planning process to be included in the Metropolitan
Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program, or a
schedule demonstrating the project will complete the process in the
foreseeable future;
g. Documentation that the project has completed the NEPA process or
a schedule demonstrating the project will complete the NEPA process in
the foreseeable future.
4. Candidate Project Evaluation and Selection
FTA will evaluate the proposals to determine which proposed
projects best meet the intent of Section 20008(b). FTA will select
three projects from the submitted expressions of interest to be part of
the Pilot Program: one seeking less than $100 million in CIG funds, one
seeking more than $100 million in CIG funds, and one additional
project. Before awarding a Full Funding Grant Agreement, planning and
NEPA requirements must be completed, and FTA will evaluate the legal,
technical, and financial capacity of the project sponsor to ensure that
the project will be carried out successfully. Unless legislation is
enacted that provides for an exemption from the other requirements of
Section 5309 CIG program in the future, projects in the Pilot Program
will be subject to the procedural and evaluation and rating
requirements of the CIG program. FTA may announce final selections on
its Web site and in the Federal Register.
Therese W. McMillan,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2015-16515 Filed 7-6-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P