The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has given seven transit projects around the country some welcome news, allocating a total of $554.3 million to help finance them.
The funding, which FTA announced on Dec. 17, comes from the agency’s Capital Investment Grants, or CIG, program. The group includes a mix of heavy rail, light rail, streetcar and bus rapid transit (BRT) projects.
Two of the seven have Full Funding Grant Agreements in place with FTA, the critical step needed for the construction phase.
The agency says the other five projects “are advancing toward readiness” for the construction grant agreement but still must meet other statutory requirements before FTA can award grants to them.
The largest of the seven allotments is $250.7 million to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system’s Transbay Corridor capacity project. FTA signed its full-funding agreement with BART in September for the project, whose cost is estimated at $2.7 billion.
The other project with a full-funding agreement is a $2-billion Minneapolis Southwest light rail extension, to which FTA allocated $100 million. The project is a 4.5-mile, 16-station spur for the METRO Green Line.
Also on the FTA list is the Gary, Ind., double-track Northwest Indiana project. It calls for constructing 26.6 miles of new second track on the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District’s South Shore commuter rail line. FTA is designating $49.4 million for the project, which s in the engineering phase of the CIG program, according to the agency.
Also in the engineering stage is a 3.5-mi. extension of the existing Kansas City, Mo., downtown streetcar line. FTA is allotting $49.2 million for the project.
The agency is allocating $35 million to the Wake Bus Rapid Transit New Bern Avenue project in Raleigh, N.C. Plans call for a five-mile line linking the downtown with communities to the east.
The Ogden, Utah-Weber State University BRT project is in line for $10.6 million in CIG funds. The 5.3-mi. line is to connect a commuter rail station in Ogden with the university and a hospital.
FTA has put the five projects without full-funding pacts on its list of projects for which the funding agreements are “anticipated.”
The five join seven other projects in the same category. The largest of those is the Portal North Bridge in Hudson County, N.J. The FTA funding commitment for that project would be $776.5 million. The Portal Bridge project’s total cost is about $1.7 billion.
The total federal commitment for the 12 projects on the “anticipated” list is $2.3 billion.
In calendar 2020 so far, FTA has signed 13 full-funding agreements, for $4.9 billion in federal funds. That compares with four such agreements in 2019 and 10 in 2018.
