Announcement of Fiscal Year 2021 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program Project Selections

Announcement of Fiscal Year 2021 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program Project Selections

Publication: Federal Register
Agency: Federal Transit Administration
Byline: Nuria I. Fernandez
Date: 18 March 2022
Subjects: American Government

, Buses

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 53 (Friday, March 18, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15489-15491]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-05734]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

Announcement of Fiscal Year 2021 Grants for Buses and Bus
Facilities Program Project Selections

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice; announcement of project selections. Grants for Buses
and Bus Facilities Program.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) announces the allocation of $409,274,220 to
projects under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Grants for Buses and Bus
Facilities Program (Buses and Bus Facilities Program) and provides
administrative guidance on project implementation.

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.transit.dot.gov/. Unsuccessful applicants
may contact Tom Wilson, Office of Program Management at (202) 366-5279,
email: Thomas.Wilson@dot.gov within 30 days of this announcement to
arrange a proposal debriefing. A TDD is available at 1-800-877-8339
(TDD/FIRS).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C.
5339(b)) authorizes FTA to make competitive grants for buses and bus
facilities. Federal public law (49 U.S.C. 5338(a)(2)(M)) authorized
$289,044,179 in FY 2021 funds for the Grants for Buses and Bus
Facilities Program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,
appropriated an additional $125,000,000 for the Grants for Buses and
Bus Facilities Program. After the oversight takedown of $4,455,331, FTA
is announcing the availability of $409,588,848 for the Grants for Buses
and Bus Facilities Program.
On September 20, 2021, FTA published a Notice of Funding
Opportunity (NOFO) (86 FR 52291) announcing the availability of
$409,588,848 in competitive funding under the Buses and Bus Facilities
Program. These funds will provide financial assistance to states and
eligible public agencies to replace, rehabilitate, purchase, or lease
buses, vans, and related equipment, and for capital projects to
rehabilitate, purchase, construct, or lease bus-related facilities. In
response to the NOFO, FTA received 303 eligible project proposals
totaling approximately $2.56 billion in Federal funds. Project
proposals were evaluated based on each applicant's responsiveness to
the program evaluation criteria outlined in the NOFO.
Based on the criteria in the NOFO, FTA is funding 70 projects, as
shown in Table 1, for a total of $409,274,220. Recipients selected for
competitive funding are required to 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 to quickly
obligate funds. Grant applications must only include eligible
activities applied for in the original project application. Funds must
be used consistent with the competitive proposal and for the eligible
capital purposes described in the NOFO.
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, 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 may also
provide additional local funds to complete a proposed project. 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.
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 current
FTA Apportionments, Allocations, and Program Information and Interim
Guidance at https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/apportionments. Post-
award reporting requirements include submission of Federal Financial
Reports and Milestone Progress Reports in TrAMS (see FTA Circular
5010.1E). 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
requirements set forth in Federal public

[[Page 15490]]

transportation law (49 U.S.C. 5325(a)) and described in the FTA Third
Party Contracting Guidance Circular (FTA Circular 4220.1). Funds
allocated in this announcement must be obligated in a grant by
September 30, 2025.
Technical Review and Evaluation Summary: The FTA assessed all
project proposals that were submitted under the FY 2021 Buses and Bus
Facilities Program competition according to the following evaluation
criteria. The specific metrics for each criterion were described in the
September 20, 2021, NOFO:

1. Demonstration of Need
2. Demonstration of Benefits
3. Planning/Local Prioritization
4. Local Financial Commitment
5. Project Implementation Strategy
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 at least four categories
overall, with no Not Recommended ratings. Projects were assigned a
final overall rating of Recommended if the projects had three or more
Recommended ratings and no Not Recommended ratings. Projects were
assigned a rating of Not Recommended if they received a Not Recommended
rating in any criteria. A summary of the final overall ratings for all
303 eligible project proposals is shown in the table below.

Overall Project Ratings
[Eligible submissions]
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Highly Recommended........................................... 166
Recommended.................................................. 95
Not Recommended.............................................. 42
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Total...................................................... 303
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As outlined in the NOFO, FTA made the final selections based on the
technical ratings as well as geographic diversity, diversity in the
size of transit systems receiving funding, Administration priorities
including climate change, 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.

Nuria I. Fernandez,
Administrator.

Table 1--FY 2021 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Project Selections
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State Recipient Project ID Project description Allocation
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AK............................. City and Borough of D2022-BUSC-001... On-route electric bus $1,446,827
Juneau, Capital charging
Transit. infrastructure.
AL............................. City of Mobile......... D2022-BUSC-002... Bus replacement....... 4,850,535
AR............................. City of Jonesboro...... D2022-BUSC-003... Bus stop technology 752,000
upgrades.
AZ............................. Northern Arizona D2022-BUSC-004... Electric buses and 1,292,118
Intergovernmental charging equipment
Transportation procurement; bus
Authority. storage facility
construction.
CA............................. Eastern Contra Costa D2022-BUSC-005... Zero-emission bus 3,998,543
Transit Authority. infrastructure.
CA............................. Sacramento Regional D2022-BUSC-006... Bus replacement....... 5,250,000
Transit District.
CA............................. City of Torrance D2022-BUSC-007... Transit fleet 6,280,000
Transit Department. modernization.
CA............................. Napa Valley D2022-BUSC-008... Zero-emission bus 8,455,856
Transportation electrification.
Authority.
CA............................. Riverside Transit D2022-BUSC-009... Construction of 8,787,846
Agency. hydrogen fueling
stations and
workforce training.
CA............................. San Luis Obispo D2022-BUSC-010... Zero-emission bus 8,799,979
Regional Transit replacement.
Authority.
CA............................. SunLine Transit Agency. D2022-BUSC-011... Zero-emission bus 8,409,070
procurement and bus
refurbishment for the
Coachella Valley.
CA............................. City of Norwalk: D2022-BUSC-012... Zero-emission battery 3,530,822
Norwalk Transit System. electric bus
replacement.
CA............................. City of Santa Rosa..... D2022-BUSC-013... Replacing diesel buses 4,288,300
with battery electric
and supporting
infrastructure.
CA............................. North County Transit D2022-BUSC-014... Hydrogen electric bus 4,800,000
District (NCTD). replacement.
CA............................. City of Cerritos....... D2022-BUSC-015... Electric bus 4,378,140
procurement and fleet
replacement.
CA............................. Foothill Transit....... D2022-BUSC-016... Zero-emission double 7,942,200
deck bus procurement.
CA............................. California DOT on D2022-BUSC-017... Rural battery electric 2,922,550
behalf of the City of bus replacement.
Arvin.
CA............................. California DOT on D2022-BUSC-018... Improving bus system 4,600,625
behalf of Yosemite inter-modal
Area Regional connectivity to
Transportation System Yosemite National
(YARTS). Park.
CO............................. State of Colorado, D2022-BUSC-019... Snowmass Multimodal 13,500,000
Department of Transit Station.
Transportation (CDOT).
CO............................. State of Colorado, D2022-BUSC-020... Rural regional transit 9,350,000
Department of center renovations
Transportation (CDOT). and expansion.
CT............................. Connecticut Department D2022-BUSC-021... Zero-emission bus 11,446,538
of Transportation. procurement.
DE............................. Delaware Transit D2022-BUSC-022... Rehoboth Transit 5,400,000
Corporation. Center modernization.
FL............................. City of Gainesville D2022-BUSC-023... Bus replacement and 10,660,817
Dept of Transportation East Gainesville
& Mobility, Regional transfer station
Transit System. construction.
FL............................. Pinellas Suncoast D2022-BUSC-024... Electric bus and 18,399,000
Transit Authority. charging expansion.
GA............................. Metropolitan Atlanta D2022-BUSC-025... Clayton County 15,000,000
Rapid Transit Multipurpose
Authority (MARTA). Operations and
Maintenance Facility.
HI............................. Honolulu, City and D2022-BUSC-026... Battery electric bus 4,711,900
County of. acquisition and
service expansion.
IA............................. Ames Transit Agency, d/ D2022-BUSC-027... Articulated electric 3,185,374
b/a CyRide. bus procurement.
ID............................. Valley Regional Transit D2022-BUSC-028... Transit vehicle 1,920,000
replacement and
electrification.
IL............................. Madison County Mass D2022-BUSC-029... Bus replacement....... 2,700,000
Transit District.
IN............................. South Bend Public D2022-BUSC-030... Bus replacement....... 4,327,304
Transportation
Corporation.
IN............................. Indianapolis Public D2022-BUSC-031... Enhanced bus stops.... 2,346,658
Transportation
Corporation.
KS............................. Prairie Band Potawatomi D2022-BUSC-032... Rural accessible van 52,972
Nation. procurement.
KY............................. Transit Authority of D2022-BUSC-033... Bus replacement....... 4,107,642
the Lexington-Fayette
Urban County
Government.
LA............................. City of Shreveport..... D2022-BUSC-034... City-wide bus shelter 1,948,000
improvements.
MA............................. Massachusetts Bay D2022-BUSC-035... Maintenance facility 5,000,000
Transportation replacement and
Authority. electrification.
MD............................. MDOT--MTA on Behalf of D2022-BUSC-036... Bus replacement....... 1,498,000
Harford County.
ME............................. Greater Portland D2022-BUSC-037... Bus replacement....... 1,887,000
Transit District.

[[Page 15491]]

MI............................. Michigan Department of D2022-BUSC-038... Bus replacement and 6,199,631
Transportation. fleet expansion in
the State of Michigan.
MI............................. Michigan Department of D2022-BUSC-039... Bus facility 7,391,200
Transportation. replacement,
expansion, and
rehabilitation for
four rural transit
systems.
MN............................. Minnesota Valley D2022-BUSC-040... Burnsville bus garage 4,960,000
Transit Authority. modernization.
MN............................. City of Rochester...... D2022-BUSC-041... Bus Stop improvement 4,339,344
and 75th St. Park and
Ride construction.
MO............................. Bi-State Development D2022-BUSC-042... Battery electric bus 4,098,410
Agency of the Missouri- deployment in
Illinois Metropolitan DeBaliviere.
District.
MT............................. City of Billings, MET D2022-BUSC-043... Bus replacement and 3,028,000
Transit Division. facility
refurbishment.
NC............................. City of Greensboro..... D2022-BUSC-044... Replacing diesel buses 3,008,800
with zero-emission
buses and
infrastructure in the
City of Greensboro.
NC............................. City of Concord........ D2022-BUSC-045... Bus replacement....... 3,966,318
NC............................. City of Durham......... D2022-BUSC-046... Durham Station 10,800,000
renovation.
NM............................. City of Albuquerque.... D2022-BUSC-047... Bus wash system....... 1,161,100
NV............................. Regional Transportation D2022-BUSC-048... Hydrogen fuel cell bus 4,870,000
Commission of Southern procurement and solar
Nevada. lighting for bus
stops.
NY............................. Niagara Frontier D2022-BUSC-049... Battery electric bus 4,844,000
Transportation deployment.
Authority.
NY............................. Metropolitan D2022-BUSC-050... Bus depot renovation.. 12,337,280
Transportation
Authority.
OH............................. Laketran............... D2022-BUSC-051 & Bus facility 7,233,149 &
D2022-BUSC-052. renovation and 7,448,832
expansion.
OH............................. Portage Area Regional D2022-BUSC-053... Bus replacement....... 1,514,888
Transportation
Authority.
OH............................. Toledo Area Regional D2022-BUSC-054... Bus facility 2,307,200
Transit Authority. renovation and safety
improvements.
OH............................. Southwest Ohio Regional D2022-BUSC-055... Bus replacement with 10,134,960
Transit Authority new green diesel and
(SORTA). electric buses.
OH............................. Greater Cleveland D2022-BUSC-056... Bus facility roofing 4,000,000
Regional Transit improvement.
Authority (GCRTA).
OK............................. Oklahoma Department of D2022-BUSC-057... Rural bus facility 914,725
Transportation. rehabilitation.
OR............................. Rogue Valley D2022-BUSC-058... Bus facility expansion 12,552,523
Transportation
District.
OR............................. Lane Transit District.. D2022-BUSC-059... Zero-emission bus 4,891,676
replacement.
OR............................. Oregon Department of D2022-BUSC-060... Bus fleet expansion... 244,800
Transportation, Public
Transportation
Division.
PA............................. Southeastern D2022-BUSC-061... South Philadelphia 9,800,000
Pennsylvania Transportation Center.
Transportation
Authority.
SC............................. City of Rock Hill...... D2022-BUSC-062... Transit fleet and 2,832,848
facilities expansion.
TX............................. Galveston, City of..... D2022-BUSC-063... Low-emission fleet 1,060,000
replacement.
TX............................. Fort Worth D2022-BUSC-064... Bus facility 6,484,320
Transportation improvements.
Authority.
TX............................. Texas Department of D2022-BUSC-065... Rural transit asset 22,850,000
Transportation. replacement &
modernization.
UT............................. Utah Department of D2022-BUSC-066... Rural bus transit 2,389,699
Transportation. expansion project.
VA............................. Central Shenandoah D2022-BUSC-067... Bus transit hub 916,500
Planning District rehabilitation.
Commission.
WA............................. Clark County Public D2022-BUSC-068... Bus replacement....... 2,742,600
Transportation Benefit
Area.
WA............................. Kitsap Transit......... D2022-BUSC-069... Battery-electric buses 10,400,000
and charging
infrastructure
procurement.
WA............................. Central Puget Sound D2022-BUSC-070... Bus procurement and 12,924,801
Regional Transit station construction
Authority. for I-405 Bus Rapid
Transit Service.
WI............................. City of Madison........ D2022-BUSC-071... Bus maintenance and 6,400,000
administrative
facility improvements.
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Total...................... ....................... ................. ...................... 409,274,220
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[FR Doc. 2022-05734 Filed 3-17-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P