The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published its proposed funding for Capital Investment Grant (CIG) projects and updated the results of FTA evaluations and ratings of the projects.
FTA is required by law to evaluate projects on a set of statutorily defined project justification and local financial commitment criteria. To maintain eligibility for federal funding in the CIG Program, projects require an overall rating of Medium or above to qualify for federal funding. The five-point scale ranges from Low – Medium – High or a combination of the two.
The CIG Program currently has three Core Capacity projects, 15 New Starts projects and 33 Small Starts projects in 24 states. Of the projects evaluated, five received an overall project rating below Medium, making them ineligible for federal funding.
Projects below the Medium threshold (all were ranked Medium-Low):
- New Starts – Metro Gold Line Bus Rapid Transit in St. Paul, Minn.
- New Starts – Hudson Tunnel in Secaucus, N.J., which is part of the Gateway Program
- Small Starts – Restoration of historic streetcar in downtown Los Angeles, Calif.
- Small Starts – Capital Area Transportation Authority Bus Rapid Transit Project in Lansing, Mich.
- Small Starts – Swift Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit in Everett, Wash.
There was also good news for several CIG program projects including the two Valley Metro light-rail projects, the South Central Light-Rail Extension/Downtown Hub and Northwest Extension Phase II, which saw both of their ratings increase from a Medium in FY20 to Medium-High in FY21.
Additionally, the second Gateway Program project that has entered the CIG program, the Portal North Bridge in Hudson County, N.J., saw both its local financial commitment rating and its overall project rating rise to Medium-High, which makes the project eligible for funds through the CIG Program.
FTA’s FY21 funding proposals and project ratings coincided with the release of President Trump’s FY21 budget request.
