Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority could join the Expedited Project Delivery Program
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced it will begin discussions with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) regarding participating in the Expedited Project Delivery Program, a program that helps increase innovation, efficiency and timeliness of project delivery.
"Cutting red tape and delivering infrastructure projects more rapidly is a key priority for the Trump Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation," said K. Jane Williams, FTA acting administrator. "We are happy to announce that FTA is pursuing an agreement with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Phase II project."
The pilot program encourages new revenue streams and is aimed at expediting delivery of new fixed guideway capital projects, small starts projects, or core capacity improvement projects that utilize public-private partnerships, are planned to be operated and maintained by employees of an existing public transportation provider, and have a federal share not exceeding 25 percent of the project cost.
In September 2018, the FTA announced it was accepting expressions of interest from transit project sponsors for the program. The FTA stated in its Federal Register Notice that it would evaluate submissions and work with sponsors of selected projects to further define the steps in law required before a construction grant agreement could be awarded.
The law allows the award of up to eight grant agreements under the program. The FTA received expressions of interest from four agencies for seven projects.
"While FTA is initiating more detailed discussions with VTA, we are continuing to work with the other project sponsors as their projects’ may become ready for an agreement under the program," Williams said.
Through Fiscal Year 2019, Congress has appropriated $125 million for the Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program.
