DATE: February 6, 2018
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Steven E. White, Director
Department of Public Works and Planning
SUBJECT: Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality and Surface Transportation Block Grant Project Applications
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
TITLE
1. Retroactively authorize the previous submittal of recommended projects to the Fresno Council of Governments as candidate projects for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality and Surface Transportation Block Grant Federal funding.
2. Adopt a resolution supporting and implementing timely use of funding.
REPORT
Recommended action 1 will authorize the Director of Public Works and Planning to apply to the Fresno Council of Governments (Fresno COG) for Federal funding of Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) and Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG). A recommended list of projects is shown on Attachment A. Recommended action 2 will approve a resolution supporting and implementing timely use of Federal funds, as required by Fresno COG.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
The CMAQ and STBG applications have been submitted to Fresno COG. Your Board can withdraw the applications for funding consideration.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. Both the CMAQ and STBG programs provide 88.53% reimbursement of project costs. Project costs will be incurred and reimbursed in future fiscal years. Sufficient appropriations to cover the 11.47% local match for any funded projects will be included in the Public Works and Planning - Roads Org 4510 requested budget.
DISCUSSION:
The CMAQ program was created under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. Congress has reaffirmed their commitment to air quality/transportation funding in each Surface Transportation Act reauthorization since 1991, and the program is currently authorized in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). Funding can be expended on projects to reduce ozone precursor emissions, including nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter emissions or particulate matter precursor emissions from transportation.
STBG includes both ‘lifeline” and “regional bid” funding approaches. The fundamental difference between lifeline funding and regional bid funding is that lifeline funding is based on a quantitative formula (110% of previous Federal Aid Urban and Federal Aid Secondary programs) and is the member agency’s money in perpetuity. This level of lifeline funding was established under Senate Bill 1435. Regional bid funding, on the other hand, is tied to a project rather than to a member agency. Acquisition of regional bid funds is based on a project’s ability to compete well against other projects submitted for programming within the region.
The Fresno COG announced the CMAQ and STBG 2017-18 Call-for-Projects on September 28, 2017 and, acting in its role as a Metropolitan Planning Organization, is in the process of programming the future Federal transportation revenues that will come to the Fresno region. Approximately $29.7 million in CMAQ funding is available for the 2017-18 Call-for-Projects. The project application due date for CMAQ was November 30, 2017 and the application due date for STBG was November 16, 2017, respectively.
It is the practice of the Department of Public Works and Planning to inform the Board of various funding grants that the Department is actively pursuing to maximize the use of Road funds. All of the candidate projects were included in the Department’s Road Improvement Program (RIP) approved by the Board on August 22, 2017 with the exception of one project whose scope of work increased. (The McCall - Ashlan to Shaw shoulder widening project was listed as an overlay project in the RIP.)
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Attachment A
On file with Clerk - Resolution
CAO ANALYST:
John Hays