2016-24524. Announcement of Fiscal Year 2016 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program Project Selections

AGENCY:

Federal Transit Administration.

ACTION:

Notice.

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 [phone], email: [e-mail], 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 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):

Highly Recommended	36 projects
Recommended	158
Not Recommended	77
Ineligible	13
Total	284

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

State	Recipient	Project ID	Project description	Allocation	Project rating
AK	Fairbanks North Star Borough	D2016-BUSP-001	Renovate and expand bus maintenance and storage facility	12,800,000	Highly Recommended.
AL	Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-002	Purchase compressed natural gas (CNG) bus	405,000	Recommended.
AR	Central Arkansas Transit Authority dba Rock Region METRO	D2016-BUSP-003	Purchase CNG buses	1,653,498	Recommended.
AZ	N. Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority	D2016-BUSP-004	Purchase hybrid diesel-electric buses	2,202,522	Highly Recommended.
AZ	Yavapai-Apache Nation	D2016-BUSP-005	Purchase 15-passenger van; construct bus stop shelters	105,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	California Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-006	Construct new bus maintenance facility	4,280,512	Highly Recommended.
CA	Foothill Transit	D2016-BUSP-007	Design and construct transit center at Mount San Antonio College	7,240,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority	D2016-BUSP-008	Purchase CNG replacement buses, install related CNG infrastructure, workforce development	10,500,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	Marin County Transit District	D2016-BUSP-009	Design and construct vehicle maintenance and storage facility; workforce development	4,400,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	Monterey-Salinas Transit	D2016-BUSP-010	Purchase replacement buses; workforce development and training	3,687,100	Highly Recommended.
CA	Sacramento Regional Transit District	D2016-BUSP-011	Purchase CNG fueled replacement buses	695,088	Highly Recommended.
CA	Sacramento Regional Transit District	D2016-BUSP-012	Replace CNG fueling equipment at bus maintenance facility	400,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	San Joaquin Regional Transit District	D2016-BUSP-013	Purchase replacement hybrid diesel-electric buses	8,284,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-014	Design and construct new downtown transit center to replace current facility	4,000,000	Highly Recommended.
CA	Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District	D2016-BUSP-015	Purchase replacement buses	5,680,905	Highly Recommended.
CO	Mesa County	D2016-BUSP-016	Purchase replacement buses	208,000	Highly Recommended.
FL	Hillsborough Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-017	Purchase CNG buses	4,273,771	Recommended.
GA	Chatham Area Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-018	Purchase paratransit vehicles	1,608,880	Highly Recommended.
HI	State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-019	Purchase replacement transit vehicles	960,000	Recommended.
IA	Iowa Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-020	Purchase transit vehicles for rural operators	4,273,771	Recommended.
IL	Rock Island Co. Metropolitan Mass Transit District	D2016-BUSP-021	Purchase CNG buses	391,000	Recommended.
IN	City of Columbus	D2016-BUSP-022	Purchase of small heavy duty transit vehicles	728,000	Recommended.
KY	Kentucky Transportation Cabinet	D2016-BUSP-023	Purchase transit vehicles for rural service	5,823,974	Highly Recommended.
MA	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority	D2016-BUSP-024	Construct New Quincy Center bus terminal and intermodal enhancements	4,273,771	Recommended.
MD	Maryland Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-025	Rehabilitate transit buses; workforce training	533,575	Recommended.
ME	Maine Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-026	Purchase replacement buses	1,441,600	Recommended.
MI	Mass Transportation Authority (Flint, MI)	D2016-BUSP-027	Purchase CNG transit buses; workforce development	12,800,000	Highly Recommended.
MN	Metropolitan Council Metro Transit	D2016-BUSP-028	Purchase low floor buses	103,515	Recommended.
MO	City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri	D2016-BUSP-029	Purchase buses; workforce development	3,870,960	Highly Recommended.
MO	Kansas City Area Transportation Authority	D2016-BUSP-030	Purchase buses	8,986,350	Highly Recommended.
MT	Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes	D2016-BUSP-031	Purchase buses and vans; workforce development	681,450	Highly Recommended.
NC	City of Greensboro	D2016-BUSP-032	Renovate ticketing, call center, and waiting areas at the J. Douglas Galyon Depot	960,000	Recommended.
ND	North Dakota Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-033	Purchase replacement rural transit vehicles and two intercity bus vehicles	844,000	Recommended.
NE	Transit Authority of the City of Omaha	D2016-BUSP-034	Purchase low floor, CNG buses and maintenance equipment; workforce development	2,424,240	Recommended.
NH	New Hampshire Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-035	Purchase heavy-duty transit bus	382,500	Recommended.
NJ	New Jersey Transit Corporation	D2016-BUSP-036	Construct new bus terminal	2,656,452	Recommended.
NM	City of Las Cruces	D2016-BUSP-037	Purchase buses for vehicle replacement and service expansion	1,134,750	Recommended.
NY	New York City Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-038	Construct a combination of bus lanes, stations, refurbished bus stops and transfer points, safety improvements, and transit signal priority and signal timing changes	4,273,771	Recommended.
OH	Ohio Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-039	Purchase replacement transit vehicles for rural service	6,691,634	Highly Recommended.
OK	Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority	D2016-BUSP-040	Purchase CNG replacement buses	1,932,000	Highly Recommended.
OK	Oklahoma Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-041	Purchase replacement ADA transit vehicles	3,590,154	Highly Recommended.
OR	City of Wilsonville—SMART Transit	D2016-BUSP-042	Purchase low-floor 30-foot replacement bus	320,000	Highly Recommended.
PA	River Valley Transit (Williamsport, AA)	D2016-BUSP-043	Purchase CNG replacement buses	2,040,000	Highly Recommended.
PA	Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)	D2016-BUSP-044	Rehabilitate Wissahickon Transit Center	4,000,000	Highly Recommended.
PA	Transportation and Motor Buses for Public Use Authority (Altoona, PA)	D2016-BUSP-045	Purchase replacement transit buses	864,000	Highly Recommended.
RI	Rhode Island Public Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-046	Construct New Goff Avenue bus hub and passenger facility and transit corridor improvements	5,636,745	Highly Recommended.
SC	Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments	D2016-BUSP-047	Purchase 40ft low-floor commuter style coaches and related equipment	6,153,600	Highly Recommended.
SD	City of Sioux Falls	D2016-BUSP-048	Rehabilitate downtown transit station	1,145,850	Highly Recommended.
TN	Memphis Area Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-049	Purchase replacement transit buses	4,273,771	Recommended.
TX	Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority	D2016-BUSP-050	Purchase replacement transit vehicles	11,249,240	Highly Recommended.
TX	City of Laredo & Laredo Transit Management Inc	D2016-BUSP-051	Rehabilitate El Metro Administration Facility	9,875,083	Highly Recommended.
TX	City of Wichita Falls	D2016-BUSP-052	Purchase replacement buses	1,376,000	Highly Recommended.
UT	Utah Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-053	Purchase replacement buses	4,273,770	Recommended.
VA	Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads	D2016-BUSP-054	Purchase heavy duty transit buses	1,257,393	Recommended.
VI	Virgin Islands Department of Public Works	D2016-BUSP-055	Rehabilitate La Reine Bus Facility	1,696,405	Recommended.
VT	Vermont Agency of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-056	Purchase heavy-duty transit buses	3,924,000	Recommended.
WA	City of Longview	D2016-BUSP-057	Construct expansion of downtown transit center	2,784,000	Highly Recommended.
WA	City of Longview	D2016-BUSP-058	Purchase low-floor biodiesel buses	832,000	Highly Recommended.
WA	Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area	D2016-BUSP-059	Purchase low floor hybrid diesel-electric replacement buses	6,080,000	Highly Recommended.
WA	Spokane Transit Authority	D2016-BUSP-060	Construct multimodal transit center	1,000,000	Highly Recommended.
WI	Wisconsin Department of Transportation	D2016-BUSP-061	Purchase replacement for side loading accessible mini-van	26,400	Recommended.
Total				* 210,990,000