[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 31, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4863-4880]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-1996]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary of Transportation
[Docket No. DOT-OST-2012-0012]
Notice of Funding Availability for the Department of
Transportation's National Infrastructure Investments Under the Full-
Year Continuing Appropriations, 2012; and Request for Comments
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary of Transportation, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Funding Availability, Request for Comments.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of funding and requests
proposals for the Department of Transportation's National
Infrastructure Investments. In addition, this notice announces
selection criteria and pre-application and application requirements for
the National Infrastructure Investments.
The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012
(Pub. L. 112-055, Nov. 18, 2011) (``FY 2012 Appropriations Act'')
appropriated $500 million to be awarded by the Department of
Transportation (``DOT'') for National Infrastructure Investments. This
appropriation is similar, but not identical to the appropriation for
the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or ``TIGER
Discretionary Grant'', program authorized and implemented pursuant to
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the ``Recovery
Act''). Because of the similarity in program structure, DOT will
continue to refer to the program as ``TIGER Discretionary Grants.'' As
with previous rounds of TIGER, funds for the FY 2012 TIGER program are
to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a
significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area or a region.
Through this notice, DOT is soliciting applications for TIGER
Discretionary Grants. In the event that this solicitation does not
result in the award and obligation of all available funds, DOT may
decide to publish an additional solicitation(s).
DATES: Pre-applications must be submitted by February 20, 2012, at 5
p.m. EST (the ``Pre-Application Deadline''). Final applications must be
submitted through Grants.gov by March 19, 2012, at 5 p.m. EDT (the
``Application Deadline''). The DOT pre-application system will open on
or before February 13, 2012, to allow prospective applicants to submit
pre-applications. Subsequently, the Grants.gov ``Apply'' function will
open on February 22, 2012, allowing applicants to submit applications.
Applicants are encouraged to submit pre-applications and applications
in advance of the deadlines.
ADDRESSES: Pre-applications must be submitted electronically to DOT and
applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Only
pre-applications received by DOT and applications received
electronically through Grants.gov will be deemed properly filed.
Instructions for submitting pre-applications to DOT and applications
through Grants.gov are included in Section VII (Pre-Application and
Application Cycle).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information concerning
this notice please contact the TIGER Discretionary Grant program staff
via
[[Page 4864]]
email at [email protected], or call Howard Hill at (202) 366-0301. A
TDD is available for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing at
(202) 366-3993. In addition, DOT will regularly post answers to
questions and requests for clarifications on DOT's Web site at
www.dot.gov/TIGER. Applicants are encouraged to contact DOT directly
and rather than rely on third parties to receive information about
TIGER Discretionary Grants.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is substantially similar to the
Final notice published for the TIGER Discretionary Grant program in the
Federal Register on August 12, 2011. However, there are a few
significant differences:
1. To ensure applicants receive the most accurate information
possible, Eligible Applicants must contact DOT directly, rather than
through intermediaries, to get questions answered, set up briefings on
the TIGER Discretionary Grants selection and award process, or receive
other assistance.
2. As in previous rounds of TIGER, high speed and intercity
passenger rail projects remain eligible for funding under this program
and a high priority of this Administration. DOT would like to encourage
those seeking funding for passenger rail projects to consider TIGER and
will, therefore, make up to $100 million in TIGER funds available to
high speed and intercity passenger rail projects.
3. Applications must include a detailed statement of work, detailed
project schedule, and detailed project budget in the project narrative.
Due to the shorter timeframe allowed for the obligation of TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds in this round of funding in comparison to
previous rounds, applicants must include this detailed information in
their application in order to demonstrate that their projects are ready
to proceed within this shortened timeframe.
4. The discussion on Benefit-Cost Analysis (Appendix A: Additional
Information on Benefit-Cost Analysis) has been streamlined and includes
tools to aid applicants in preparing their analyses.
Other than these differences, and minor edits for clarification and
those made to conform the notice to the statutory circumstances of this
round of TIGER Discretionary Grants funding, there have been no
material changes made to the notice. Each section of this notice
contains information and instructions relevant to the application
process for these TIGER Discretionary Grants and prospective applicants
should read this notice in its entirety so that they have the
information they need to submit eligible and competitive applications.
Table of Contents
I. Background
TIGER Discretionary Grants
II. Selection Criteria and Guidance on Application of Selection
Criteria
III. Evaluation and Selection Process
IV. Grant Administration
V. Projects in Rural Areas
VI. TIGER TIFIA Payments
Application Requirements
VII. Pre-Application and Application Cycle
VIII. Project Benefits
IX. Questions and Clarifications
Appendix A: Additional Information on Benefit-Cost Analysis
Appendix B: Additional Information on Applying Through Grants.gov
Appendix C: Additional Information on Guidelines for Project
Readiness
I. Background
On November 18, 2011, the President signed the FY 2012
Appropriations Act. This Act appropriated $500 million to DOT for
National Infrastructure Investments, using language that is similar,
but not identical to the language in appropriations bills from FY 2010
and FY 2011 and the Recovery Act.
This program was first created in the 2009 Recovery Act, since
which time DOT has referred to these grants as Transportation
Investment Generating Economic Recovery or ``TIGER Discretionary
Grants.'' Through the Recovery Act and continuing through the FY 2010
and 2011 appropriations processes, Congress has provided DOT with three
rounds of competitive grants totaling just over $2.6 billion for
capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure. See DOT's
Web site at http://www.dot.gov/tiger/index.html for further background
on the disbursement of past rounds of TIGER Discretionary Grants.
DOT's most recent solicitation for TIGER Discretionary Grants
occurred through a notice of funding availability published in the
Federal Register on August 12, 2011 (an interim notice was published on
July 1, 2011). Applications for TIGER Discretionary Grants were due on
October 31, 2011 and 848 applications were received with funding
requests totaling approximately $14.29 billion. Awards for 46 capital
projects totaling $511 million were announced on December 15, 2011.
Grant awards ranged from $1 million to $13.5 million for projects in
rural areas and $10 million to $20 million for projects in urban areas.
Projects were selected for funding based on their alignment with the
selection criteria specified in the August 12, 2011, Federal Register
notice.
FY 2012 TIGER Discretionary Grants
Like the previous rounds, this year's TIGER Discretionary Grants
are for capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure
and are to be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will
have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a
region.
``Eligible Applicants'' for TIGER Discretionary Grants are State,
local, and tribal governments, including U.S. territories, transit
agencies, port authorities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs),
other political subdivisions of State or local governments, and multi-
State or multi-jurisdictional groups applying through a single lead
applicant (for multi-jurisdictional groups, each member of the group,
including the lead applicant, must be an otherwise Eligible Applicant
as defined in this paragraph).
To ensure applicants receive the most accurate information
possible, Eligible Applicants must contact DOT directly, rather than
through intermediaries, to get questions answered, set up briefings on
the TIGER Discretionary Grants selection and award process, or receive
other assistance. Assistance can be obtained by simply calling or
emailing the TIGER Discretionary Grant program staff via email at
[email protected], or by calling Howard Hill at (202) 366-0301.
Projects that are eligible for TIGER Discretionary Grants
(``Eligible Projects'') include, but are not limited to: (1) Highway or
bridge projects eligible under title 23, United States Code; (2) public
transportation projects eligible under chapter 53 of title 49, United
States Code; (3) passenger and freight rail transportation projects;
and (4) marine port infrastructure investments. Federal wage rate
requirements included in subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40,
United States Code, apply to all projects receiving funds, and apply to
all parts of the project, whether funded with TIGER Discretionary Grant
funds, other federal funds, or non-federal funds. This description of
Eligible Projects is identical to the description of eligible projects
under earlier rounds of the TIGER Discretionary Grant program.\1\
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\1\ Consistent with the FY 2012 Appropriations Act, DOT will
apply the following principles in determining whether a project is
eligible as a capital investment in surface transportation: (1)
surface transportation facilities generally include roads, highways
and bridges, marine ports, freight and passenger railroads, transit
systems, and projects that connect transportation facilities to
other modes of transportation; and (2) surface transportation
facilities also include any highway or bridge project eligible under
title 23, U.S.C., or public transportation project eligible under
chapter 53 of title 49, U.S.C. Please note that the Department may
use a TIGER Discretionary Grant to pay for the surface
transportation components of a broader project that has non-surface
transportation components, and applicants are encouraged to apply
for TIGER Discretionary Grants to pay for the surface transportation
components of these projects.
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[[Page 4865]]
As was the case in earlier rounds of the TIGER Discretionary Grant
program, Eligible Projects do not include research, demonstration, or
pilot projects that do not result in publically accessible surface
transportation infrastructure. To be funded, projects or elements of a
project must demonstrate independent utility, which means that the
project provides transportation benefits and is ready for broad public
use upon completion of project construction.
Each applicant may submit no more than three applications for
consideration to the TIGER Discretionary Grant Program to focus
submissions on those applications that are most likely to align well
with DOT's selection criteria. While applications may include requests
to fund more than one project, applicants may not bundle together
unrelated projects in the same application for purposes of avoiding the
three application limit that applies to each applicant. Please note
that the three application limit applies only to applications where the
applicant is the lead applicant, and there is no limit on applications
for which an applicant can be listed as a partnering agency. Also, DOT
will not count any application for a multistate project against the
three application limit to the extent multiple states are partnering to
submit the application. Furthermore, jurisdictions that collaborate
with regional partners on a priority application are more likely to be
successful than those that choose separate priorities and apply
separately because DOT will give priority to applications that
demonstrate a high degree of Jurisdictional & Stakeholder Collaboration
(see Section II. Selection Criteria and Guidance on Application of
Selection Criteria). If any lead applicant submits more than three
applications, only the first three received will be considered.
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act requires a new solicitation of
applications and, therefore, any unsuccessful applicant for earlier
rounds of TIGER Discretionary Grants that wishes to be considered for a
TIGER Discretionary Grant this year must reapply according to the
procedures in this notice.
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act specifies that TIGER Discretionary
Grants may be not less than $10 million (except in rural areas) and not
greater than $200 million. The FY 2012 Appropriations Act does not
provide authority to waive the minimum $10 million grant size for
projects located in urbanized areas. For projects located in rural
areas (as defined in Section V (Projects in Rural Areas)), the minimum
TIGER Discretionary Grant size is $1 million. The term ``grant'' in the
provision of the FY 2012 Appropriations Act specifying a minimum grant
size does not include TIGER TIFIA Payments, as described below.
DOT reserves the right to award funds for a part of the project,
not the full project, if a part of the project has independent utility
and aligns well with the selection criteria specified in this notice.
Pursuant to the FY 2012 Appropriations Act, no more than 25 percent
of the funds made available for TIGER Discretionary Grants (or $125
million) may be awarded to projects in a single State.
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act directs that not less than $120
million of the funds provided for TIGER Discretionary Grants be used
for projects located in rural areas. Further, in awarding TIGER
Discretionary Grants pursuant to the FY 2012 Appropriations Act, DOT
must take measures to ensure an equitable geographic distribution of
grant funds, an appropriate balance in addressing the needs of urban
and rural areas and the investment in a variety of transportation
modes. As in previous rounds of TIGER, high speed and intercity
passenger rail projects remain eligible for funding under this program
and a high priority of this Administration. DOT would like to encourage
those seeking funding for passenger rail projects to consider TIGER and
will, therefore, make up to $100 million in TIGER funds available to
high speed and intercity passenger rail projects.
TIGER Discretionary Grants may be used for up to 80 percent of the
costs of a project, but priority must be given to projects for which
Federal funding is required to complete an overall financing package
and projects can increase their competitiveness by demonstrating
significant non-Federal contributions. DOT may increase the Federal
share above 80 percent only for projects located in rural areas, in
which case DOT may fund up to 100 percent of the costs of a project.
Therefore, for projects located in urban areas, based on the statutory
requirements of at least 20 percent non-Federal cost share and a
minimum grant size of $10 million, the minimum total project size for
an eligible project is $12.5 million (where the minimum $10 million
TIGER Discretionary Grant request represents 80 percent of the total
project cost). The minimum total project size for an eligible project
in a rural area is $1 million (where the entire project cost is funded
with a TIGER Discretionary Grant). However, the statutory requirement
to give priority to projects that use Federal funds to complete an
overall financing package applies to projects located in rural areas as
well, and projects located in rural areas can increase their
competitiveness for purposes of the TIGER program by demonstrating
significant non-Federal financial contributions. In the FY2011
competition, on average, urban projects pledged 65% non-Federal funds
while rural projects featured more than 46% non-Federal funds. Three
TIGER-TIFIA projects will use only 2% TIGER funds but leverage more
than $1.8 billion in non-Federal investment. DOT will consider any non-
Federal funds as well as funds from the Indian Reservation Roads
Program as a local match for purposes of this program, whether such
funds are contributed by the public sector (State or local) or the
private sector. However, DOT cannot consider funds already expended as
a local match.
The 2012 Appropriations Act requires that TIGER funds are only
available for obligation through September 30, 2013. The limited amount
of time for which the funds will be made available means that DOT will
focus on the extent to which a project is ready to proceed with
obligation of grant funds when evaluating applications, and give
priority to those projects that are ready to proceed sooner than other
competitive projects.
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act allows for an amount not to exceed
$175 million of the $500 million to be used to pay the subsidy and
administrative costs for a project receiving credit assistance under
the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998
(``TIFIA'') program, if it would further the purposes of the TIGER
Discretionary Grant program. DOT is referring to these payments as
``TIGER TIFIA Payments.'' The amount of budget authority required to
support TIFIA credit assistance is calculated on a project-by-project
basis. Applicants for TIGER TIFIA Payments should submit an application
pursuant to this notice and a separate TIFIA letter of interest, as
described below in Section VI (TIGER TIFIA Payments). Unless otherwise
[[Page 4866]]
noted, or the context requires otherwise, references in this notice to
TIGER Discretionary Grants include TIGER TIFIA Payments.
Due to the limited funding available under this program, applicants
that require a substantial amount of funds to complete a financing
package should consider whether a TIGER TIFIA Payment may provide more
value for their project than a comparable award of grant funds. DOT
reserves the right to offer a TIGER TIFIA Payment to an applicant that
applied for a TIGER Discretionary Grant even if DOT does not choose to
fund the requested TIGER Discretionary Grant and the applicant did not
specifically request a TIGER TIFIA Payment.
While TIFIA support has most often been sought for road and bridge
projects (including multiple TIGER TIFIA payments for managed lanes
projects), TIFIA is a multimodal program. DOT encourages applicants
seeking support for large multimodal projects that meet TIFIA
eligibility criteria, including major transit projects, to consider
TIGER TIFIA Payments as a means for federal support of these projects.
In the past two rounds of TIGER Discretionary Grants, two TIGER TIFIA
Payments were awarded to transit agencies for the expansion of fixed
guideway transit systems.
TIGER grant recipients may apply for funding to support additional
phases of a project awarded funds in earlier rounds of this program.
However, to be competitive, any phase awarded funding in the past
should be at or near completion, and the applicant should provide data
about how the project is performing based on the benefits expected in
the original application.
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act provides that the Secretary of
Transportation may retain up to $20 million of the $500 million to fund
the award and oversight of TIGER Discretionary Grants. Portions of the
$20 million may be transferred for these purposes to the Administrators
of the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit
Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Federal
Maritime Administration.
The purpose of this notice is to solicit applications for TIGER
Discretionary Grants. This is a final notice.
TIGER Discretionary Grants
II. Selection Criteria and Guidance on Application of Selection
Criteria
This section specifies the criteria that DOT will use to evaluate
applications for TIGER Discretionary Grants. The criteria incorporate
the statutory eligibility requirements for this program, which are
specified in this notice as relevant. This section is divided into two
parts. Part A (Selection Criteria) specifies the criteria that DOT will
use to rate projects. Additional guidance about how DOT will apply
these criteria, including illustrative metrics and examples, is
provided in Part B (Additional Guidance on Selection Criteria).
A. Selection Criteria
TIGER Discretionary Grants will be awarded based on the selection
criteria as outlined below. There are two categories of selection
criteria, ``Primary Selection Criteria'' and ``Secondary Selection
Criteria.''
1. Primary Selection Criteria
(a) Long-Term Outcomes
DOT will give priority to projects that have a significant impact
on desirable long-term outcomes for the Nation, a metropolitan area, or
a region. Applications that do not demonstrate a likelihood of
significant long-term benefits in this criterion will not proceed in
the evaluation process. The following types of long-term outcomes will
be given priority:
(i) State of Good Repair: Improving the condition of existing
transportation facilities and systems, with particular emphasis on
projects that minimize life-cycle costs.
(ii) Economic Competitiveness: Contributing to the economic
competitiveness of the United States over the medium- to long-term.
(iii) Livability: Fostering livable communities through policies
and investments that increase transportation choices and access to
transportation services for people in communities across the United
States.
(iv) Environmental Sustainability: Improving energy efficiency,
reducing dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
benefitting the environment.
(v) Safety: Improving the safety of U.S. transportation facilities
and systems.
(b) Job Creation and Near-Term Economic Activity
Job creation and near-term economic activity remain a top priority
of this Administration; therefore, DOT will give priority to projects
that are expected to quickly create and preserve jobs and promote rapid
increases in economic activity, particularly jobs and activity that
benefit economically distressed areas as defined by section 301 of the
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, as amended (42
U.S.C. 3161) (``Economically Distressed Areas'').\2\
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\2\ While Economically Distressed Areas are typically identified
under the Public Works and Economic Development Act at the county
level, for the purposes of this program DOT will consider regions,
municipalities, smaller areas within larger communities, or other
geographic areas to be Economically Distressed Areas if an applicant
can demonstrate that any such area otherwise meets the requirements
of an Economically Distressed Area as defined in section 301 of the
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965.
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2. Secondary Selection Criteria
(a) Innovation
DOT will give priority to projects that use innovative strategies
to pursue the long-term outcomes outlined above.
(b) Partnership
DOT will give priority to projects that demonstrate strong
collaboration among a broad range of participants, integration of
transportation with other public service efforts, and/or are the
product of a robust planning process.
B. Additional Guidance on Selection Criteria
The following additional guidance explains how DOT will evaluate
each of the selection criteria identified above in Section II(A)
(Selection Criteria). Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate the
responsiveness of a project to any and all of the selection criteria
with the most relevant information that applicants can provide,
regardless of whether such information has been specifically requested,
or identified, in this notice. Any such information shall be considered
part of the application, not supplemental, for purposes of the
application size limits specified below in Section VII(D) (Length of
Application).
1. Primary Selection Criteria
(a) Long-Term Outcomes
In order to measure a project's alignment with this criterion, DOT
will assess the public benefits generated by the project, as measured
by the extent to which a project produces one or more of the following
outcomes.
(i) State of Good Repair: In order to determine whether the project
will improve the condition of existing transportation facilities or
systems, including whether life-cycle costs will be minimized, DOT will
assess (i) whether the project is part of, or consistent with, relevant
State, local or regional efforts and plans to maintain transportation
facilities or systems in a state of good repair, (ii) whether an
important aim of the project is to rehabilitate, reconstruct or upgrade
[[Page 4867]]
surface transportation assets that, if left unimproved, threaten future
transportation network efficiency, mobility of goods or accessibility
of people, or economic growth due to their poor condition, (iii)
whether the project is appropriately capitalized up front and uses
asset management approaches that optimize its long-term cost structure,
and (iv) the extent to which a sustainable source of revenue is
available for long-term operations and maintenance of the project. The
application should include any quantifiable metrics of the facility or
system's current condition and performance and, to the extent possible,
projected condition and performance, with an explanation of how the
project will improve the facility or system's condition, performance
and/or long-term cost structure, including calculations of avoided
operations and maintenance costs and associated delays.
(ii) Economic Competitiveness: In order to determine whether a
project promotes the economic competitiveness of the United States, DOT
will assess whether the project will measurably contribute over the
long term to growth in the productivity of the American economy. For
purposes of aligning a project with this outcome, applicants should
provide evidence of how improvements in transportation outcomes (such
as time savings and operating cost savings) translate into long-term
economic productivity benefits. These long-term economic benefits that
are provided by the completed project are different from the near-term
economic benefits of construction that are captured in the Job Creation
& Near-Term Economic Activity criterion. In weighing long-term economic
competitiveness benefits, applicants should describe how the project
supports increased long-term efficiency and productivity.
Priority consideration will be given to projects that: (i) Improve
long-term efficiency, reliability or cost-competitiveness in the
movement of workers or goods, with a particular focus on projects that
have a significant effect on reducing the costs of transporting export
cargoes, or (ii) make improvements that increase the economic
productivity of land, capital or labor at specific locations,
particularly Economically Distressed Areas. Applicants may propose
other methods of demonstrating a project's contribution to the economic
competitiveness of the country and such methods will be reviewed on a
case-by-case basis.
Economic competitiveness may be demonstrated by the project's
ability to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the
transportation system through integration or better use of all existing
transportation infrastructure. This may be evidenced by the project's
involvement with or benefits to more than one mode and/or its
compatibility with and its connection to other modes and facilities.
Applications that demonstrate increases in efficiency for exports will
be given priority in the evaluation process.
For purposes of demonstrating economic benefits, applicants should
estimate National-level or region-wide economic benefits on
productivity and production (e.g., reduced shipping costs or travel
times for U.S. exports originating both inside and outside of the
region), and should take care not to include economic benefits that are
being shifted from one location in the United States to another
location. Highly localized benefits will receive the most consideration
under circumstances where such benefits are most likely to improve an
Economically Distressed Area (as defined herein) or otherwise improve
access to more productive employment opportunities for under-employed
and disadvantaged populations.
(iii) Livability: Livability investments are projects that not only
deliver transportation benefits, but are also designed and planned in
such a way that they have a positive impact on qualitative measures of
community life. This element of long-term outcomes delivers benefits
that are inherently difficult to measure. However, it is implicit to
livability that its benefits are shared and therefore magnified by the
number of potential users in the affected community. Therefore,
descriptions of how projects enhance livability should include a
description of the affected community and the scale of the project's
impact as measured in person-miles traveled or number of trips
affected. In order to determine whether a project improves the quality
of the living and working environment of a community, DOT will consider
whether the project furthers the six livability principles developed by
DOT with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the Partnership for
Sustainable Communities, which are listed fully at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2009/dot8009.htm. For this criterion, the Department will give
particular consideration to the first principle, which prioritizes the
creation of affordable and convenient transportation choices.\3\
Specifically, DOT will qualitatively assess whether the project:
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\3\ In full, this principle reads: ``Provide more transportation
choices. Develop safe, reliable and economical transportation
choices to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our
nations' dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and promote public health.''
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(1) Will significantly enhance or reduce the average cost of user
mobility through the creation of more convenient transportation options
for travelers;
(2) Will improve existing transportation choices by enhancing
points of modal connectivity, increasing the number of modes
accommodated on existing assets, or reducing congestion on existing
modal assets;
(3) Will improve accessibility and transport services for
economically disadvantaged populations, non-drivers, senior citizens,
and persons with disabilities, or will make goods, commodities, and
services more readily available to these groups; and/or
(4) Is the result of a planning process which coordinated
transportation and land-use planning decisions and encouraged community
participation in the process, such as planning conducted with TIGER II
Planning Grants, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's
Regional Planning Grants, or the Environmental Protection Agency's
Brownfield Area-Wide Planning Pilot Program as well as technical
assistance programs focused on livability or economic development
planning.
Livability improvements may include projects for new or improved
biking and walking infrastructure. However, particular attention will
be paid to the degree to which such projects contribute significantly
to broader traveler mobility, including for people with disabilities,
through intermodal connections, enhanced job commuting options, or
improved connections between residential and commercial areas. Projects
that appear designed primarily as recreational facilities and do not
enhance traveler mobility as described above will not be funded.
(iv) Environmental Sustainability: In order to determine whether a
project promotes a more environmentally sustainable transportation
system, DOT will assess the project's ability to:
(1) Improve energy efficiency, reduce dependence on oil and/or
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, (applicants are encouraged to provide
quantitative information regarding expected reductions in emissions of
CO2 or fuel consumption as a result of the project, or
expected use of clean or alternative
[[Page 4868]]
sources of energy; projects that demonstrate a projected decrease in
the movement of people or goods by less energy-efficient vehicles or
systems will be given priority under this factor); and
(2) Maintain, protect or enhance the environment, as evidenced by
its avoidance of adverse environmental impacts (for example, adverse
impacts related to air or water quality, wetlands, and endangered
species) and/or by its environmental benefits (for example, improved
air quality, wetlands creation or improved habitat connectivity).
Applicants are encouraged to provide quantitative information that
validates the existence of substantial transportation-related costs
related to energy consumption and adverse environmental effects and
evidence of the extent to which the project will reduce or mitigate
those costs.
(v) Safety: In order to determine whether the project improves
safety, DOT will assess the project's ability to reduce the number,
rate and consequences of surface transportation-related crashes,
injuries, and fatalities among drivers and/or non-drivers in the United
States or in the affected metropolitan area or region, and/or the
project's contribution to the elimination of highway/rail grade
crossings, the protection of pipelines, or the prevention of unintended
release of hazardous materials.
Evaluation of Expected Project Costs and Benefits: DOT believes
that benefit-cost analysis (``BCA'') is an important discipline. For
BCA to yield useful results, a robust consideration of costs and
benefits is necessary. These include quantified fuel and travel time
savings as well as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, water
quality impacts, and public health effects as well as quantification of
other costs and benefits that are more indirectly related to vehicle-
miles or that are harder to measure. In addition, BCA should attempt to
measure the indirect effects of transportation investments on land use
and on the portions of household budgets spent on transportation. The
systematic process of comparing expected benefits and costs helps
decision-makers organize information about, and evaluate trade-offs
between, alternative transportation investments.\4\
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\4\ DOT has a responsibility under Executive Order 12893,
Principles for Federal Infrastructure Investments, 59 FR 4233, to
base infrastructure investments on systematic analysis of expected
benefits and costs, including both quantitative and qualitative
measures.
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Therefore, applicants for TIGER Discretionary Grants are generally
required to identify, quantify, and compare expected benefits and
costs, subject to the following qualifications:
All applicants will be expected to prepare an analysis of benefits
and costs; however, DOT understands that the detail of analysis that
should be expected (for items such as surveys, travel demand forecasts,
market forecasts, statistical analyses) is less for smaller projects
than for larger projects. The level of resources devoted to preparing
the benefit-cost analysis should be reasonably related to the size of
the overall project and the amount of grant funds requested in the
application. Any subjective estimates of benefits and costs should
still be quantified, and applicants should provide whatever evidence
they have available to lend credence to their subjective estimates.
Estimates of benefits should be presented in monetary terms whenever
possible; if a monetary estimate is not possible, then at least a
quantitative estimate (in physical, non-monetary terms, such as crash
rates, ridership estimates, emissions levels, etc.) should be provided.
The lack of a useful analysis of expected project benefits and
costs may be the basis for not selecting a project for award of a TIGER
Discretionary Grant to an applicant. If it is clear to DOT that the
total benefits of a project are not reasonably likely to justify the
project's costs, DOT will not award a TIGER Discretionary Grant to the
project.
Detailed guidance for the preparation of benefit-cost analyses is
provided in Appendix A. Benefits should be presented, whenever
possible, in a tabular form showing benefits and costs in each year for
the useful life of the project. Benefits and costs should both be
discounted to the year 2012, and present discounted values of both the
stream of benefits and the stream of costs should be calculated. If the
project has multiple parts, each of which has independent utility, the
benefits and costs of each part should be estimated and presented
separately. The results of the benefit-cost analysis should be
summarized in the Project Narrative section of the application itself,
but the details may be presented in an attachment to the application if
the full analysis cannot be included within the page limit for the
project narrative.
Evaluation of Project Performance: Each applicant selected for
TIGER Discretionary Grant funding will be required to work with DOT on
the development and implementation of a plan to collect information and
report on the project's performance with respect to the relevant long-
term outcomes that are expected to be achieved through construction of
the project.
(b) Job Creation and Near-Term Economic Activity
In order to measure a project's alignment with this criterion, DOT
will assess whether the project promotes the short- or long-term
creation or preservation of jobs and whether the project rapidly
promotes new or expanded business opportunities during construction of
the project or thereafter. Applicants are encouraged to provide
information to assist DOT in making these assessments, including the
total amount of funds that will be expended on construction and
construction-related activities by all of the entities participating in
the project and, to the extent measurable, the number and type of jobs
to be created and/or preserved by the project by calendar quarters
during construction and annually thereafter. Applicants should also
identify any business enterprises to be created or benefited by the
project during its construction and once it becomes operational.\5\
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\5\ The Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic
Advisers, (CEA), issued a memorandum in May 2009 on ``Estimates of
Job Creation from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009.'' That memorandum provides a simple rule for estimating job-
years created by government spending, which is that $92,000 of
government spending creates one job-year (or 10,870 job-years per
billion dollars of spending). More recently, in September 2011,
based on further analysis both of actual job-creation experience
from transportation projects under the Recovery Act and on further
macroeconomic analysis, the CEA determined that a job-year is
created by every $76,923 in transportation infrastructure spending
(or 13,000 job-years per billion dollars of transportation
infrastructure spending). This figure can now be used in place of
the earlier $92,000/job-year estimate. Applicants can use this
estimate as an appropriate indicator of direct, indirect and induced
job-years created by TIGER Discretionary Grant spending, but are
encouraged to supplement or modify this estimate to the extent they
can demonstrate that such modifications are justified. However,
since this guidance makes job creation purely a function of the
level of expenditure, applicants should also demonstrate how quickly
jobs will be created under the proposed project. Projects that
generate a given number of jobs more quickly will have a more
favorable impact on economic recovery. A quarter-by-quarter
projection of the number of direct job-hours expected to be created
by the project is useful in assessing the impacts of a project on
economic recovery. Furthermore, applicants should be aware that
certain types of expenditures are less likely to align well with the
Job Creation & Near-Term Economic Activity criterion. These types of
expenditures include, among other things, engineering or design work
and purchasing existing facilities or right-of-way.
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DOT will continue to apply the Updated Implementing Guidance for
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 issued by the Office
of Management and Budget (``OMB'') on April 3, 2009 (the ``OMB
Guidance'') to the TIGER Discretionary Grants program
[[Page 4869]]
as a matter of policy, and consistent with applicable Federal laws.
Applicants are encouraged to provide information to assist DOT in
assessing (1) whether the project will promote the creation of job
opportunities for low-income workers through the use of best practice
hiring programs and apprenticeship (including pre-apprenticeship)
programs; (2) whether the project will provide maximum practicable
opportunities for small businesses and disadvantaged business
enterprises, including veteran-owned small businesses and service
disabled veteran-owned small businesses; (3) whether the project will
make effective use of community-based organizations in connecting
disadvantaged workers with economic opportunities; (4) whether the
project will support entities that have a sound track record on labor
practices and compliance with Federal laws ensuring that American
workers are safe and treated fairly; and (5) whether the project
implements best practices, consistent with our Nation's civil rights
and equal opportunity laws, for ensuring that all individuals--
regardless of race, gender, age, disability, and national origin--
benefit from TIGER grant funding.
To the extent possible, applicants should indicate whether the
populations most likely to benefit from the creation or preservation of
jobs or new or expanded business opportunities are from Economically
Distressed Areas. In addition, to the extent possible, applicants
should indicate whether the project's procurement plan is likely to
create follow-on jobs and near-term economic activity for manufacturers
and suppliers that support the construction industry.
In evaluating a project's alignment with this criterion, DOT will
assess whether a project is ready to proceed rapidly upon receipt of a
TIGER Discretionary Grant (see Appendix C: Additional Information on
Project Readiness Guidelines for further details), as evidenced by:
(i) Project Schedule: Applicants must include a detailed project
schedule in this section of their application, which should include
major and minor project milestones. If the project will be completed
in individual segments or phases, these segments or phases must be
described individually. A feasible and sufficiently detailed project
schedule demonstrating that the project can begin construction
quickly upon receipt of a TIGER Discretionary Grant,\6\ and that the
grant funds will be spent steadily and expeditiously once
construction starts; the schedule should show how many direct, on-
project jobs are expected to be created or sustained during each
calendar quarter after the project is underway. Any applicant that
is applying for a TIGER Discretionary Grant and does not own all of
the property or right-of-way required to complete the project should
provide evidence that the property and/or right-of-way owner whose
permission is required to complete the project supports the
application and will cooperate in carrying out the activities to be
supported by the TIGER Discretionary Grant;
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\6\ Each applicant should demonstrate that any potential grant
funding awarded to their project can be obligated no later than June
30, 2013, in order to give DOT comfort that the TIGER Discretionary
Grant funds are likely to be obligated in advance of the September
30, 2013, statutory deadline, and that any unexpected delays will
not put TIGER Discretionary Grant funds at risk of expiring before
they are obligated.
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(ii) Environmental Approvals: Receipt (or reasonably anticipated
receipt) of all environmental approvals and permits necessary for
the project to proceed to construction on the timeline specified in
the project schedule and necessary to meet the statutory obligation
deadline, including satisfaction of all Federal, State and local
requirements and completion of the National Environmental Policy Act
(``NEPA'') process;
To demonstrate satisfaction of this requirement, applicants will
be asked to provide assurances with their pre-applications and
evidence with their applications that NEPA review is complete or
substantially complete and submit relevant draft or final NEPA
documentation--preferably by way of a Web site link--for DOT review.
DOT is unlikely to select a project for TIGER Discretionary
Grant funding if it involves, or potentially involves, significant
environmental impacts and/or is not clearly likely to complete
required environmental and regulatory reviews in time to meet the
obligation deadline of September 30, 2013.
If an applicant has not substantially completed the NEPA process
the applicant should provide information on the project's current
status in the NEPA process and an estimate of the latest date that
the NEPA process is reasonably expected to be completed. If an
applicant has not initiated the NEPA process, the applicant must
provide a reasonable justification for why the NEPA process has not
yet been initiated as of the date of this notice and an assurance
that the necessary environmental reviews can be completed with
enough time for any post-NEPA, pre-obligation activities to be
completed by June 30, 2013, in order to give DOT comfort that all of
the TIGER Discretionary Grant funds are likely to be obligated in
advance of the September 30, 2013, statutory deadline. An example of
a reasonable justification for why an applicant has not initiated
NEPA review would be if, prior to the availability of TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds, there was no reasonable expectation of
receiving Federal funding for the project. A project selected for
award that has not completed the NEPA process may not be permitted
to use grant funds for construction and related activities until
NEPA is complete and all other necessary environmental approvals
have been received.
An applicant seeking to demonstrate timely environmental review
and permitting should submit the information listed below with its
application:
a. The information required under Sections VII(C)(2)(V) and
VII(F)-(G) (Contents of Applications) of this notice;
b. Environmental studies or other documents--preferably by way
of a Web site link--that describe in detail known potential project
impacts, and possible mitigation for those impacts;
c. A description of completed, or planned and anticipated
coordination with Federal and State regulatory agencies for permits
and approvals;
d. An estimate of the time required for completion of NEPA and
all other required Federal, State or local environmental approvals;
and
e. An identification of the proposed NEPA class of action (i.e.,
Categorical Exclusion, Environmental Assessment, or Environmental
Impact Statement).
(iii) Legislative Approvals: Receipt of all necessary
legislative approvals (for example, legislative authority to charge
user fees or set toll rates), and evidence of support from State and
local elected officials; evidence of support from all relevant State
and local officials is not required, however, the evidence should
demonstrate that the project is broadly supported;
(iv) State and Local Planning: The planning requirements of the
operating administration administering the TIGER project will
apply.\7\ Where required by an operating administration, applicants
should demonstrate that a project that is required to be included in
the relevant State, metropolitan, and local planning documents, has
been or will be included. One way applicants may do this is by
providing a link to a Web site showing the planning documents. If
the project is not included in the relevant planning documents at
the time the application is submitted, applicants should submit a
certification from the appropriate planning agency that actions are
underway at the time of the application to
[[Page 4870]]
include the project in the relevant planning document;
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\7\ All regionally significant projects requiring an action by
the FHWA or the FTA must be in the metropolitan transportation plan,
TIP and STIP. Further, in air quality non-attainment and maintenance
areas, all regionally significant projects, regardless of the
funding source, must be included in the conforming metropolitan
transportation plan and TIP. To the extent a project is required to
be on a metropolitan transportation plan, TIP and/or STIP it will
not receive a TIGER Discretionary Grant until it is included in such
plans. Projects not currently included in these plans can be amended
in by the State and MPO. Projects that are not required to be in
long range transportation plans, STIPs and TIPs will not need to be
included in such plans in order to receive a TIGER Discretionary
Grant. Freight and passenger rail projects are not required to be on
the State Rail Plans called for in the Passenger Rail Investment and
Improvement Act of 2008. This is consistent with the exemption for
high speed and intercity passenger rail projects under the Recovery
Act. However, applicants seeking funding for freight and passenger
rail projects are encouraged to demonstrate that they have done
sufficient planning to ensure that projects fit into a prioritized
list of capital needs and are consistent with long-range goals.
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(v) Technical Feasibility: The technical feasibility of the
project should be demonstrated by previously performed and/or
ongoing engineering and design studies and activities; the
development of design criteria and/or a basis of design; the basis
for the cost estimate presented in the TIGER application, including
the identification of contingency levels appropriate to its level of
design; and any scope, schedule, and budget risk-mitigation
measures. Applicants must include a detailed statement of work that
focuses on the technical and engineering aspects of the project. If
the project will be completed in individual segments or phases,
these segments or phases must be described individually. For
projects generating ongoing operating expenses, an estimate of those
expenses and a basis for the estimate must be included. Technical
feasibility also includes the technical capacity of the project
sponsor, including a staffing and management plan, demonstrated
experience in successfully implementing (on-time and on-budget)
similar capital investments, and other indications of sponsor and
partner technical capacity to construct the project; and
(vi) Financial Feasibility: The viability and completeness of
the project's financing package (assuming the availability of the
requested TIGER Discretionary Grant funds), including evidence of
stable and reliable capital and (as appropriate) operating revenue
commitments sufficient to cover estimated costs; the availability of
contingency reserves should planned capital or operating revenue
sources not materialize; evidence of the financial condition of the
project sponsor; and evidence of the grant recipient's ability to
manage grants. Applicants must demonstrate financial feasibility by
including a detailed project budget in this section of their
application, which should include a detailed breakdown of how the
funds will be spent that provides estimates--both dollar amount and
percentage of cost--of how much each activity would cost--e.g.
preparation, grading, asphalt, etc. If the project will be completed
in individual segments or phases, a budget for each individual
segment or phase must be included.
DOT reserves the right to revoke any award of TIGER Discretionary
Grant funds and to award such funds to another project to the extent
that such funds cannot be timely expended and/or construction does not
begin in accordance with the project schedule. Because projects have
different schedules DOT will consider on a case-by-case basis how much
time after selection for award of a TIGER Discretionary Grant each
project has before funds must be obligated (consistent with law) and
construction started through an executed grant agreement between the
selected applicant and Cognizant Modal Administration. This deadline
will be specified for each TIGER Discretionary Grant in the project-
specific grant agreements signed by the grant recipients and will be
based on critical path items identified by applicants in response to
items (i) through (vi) above. DOT expects that pre-conditions be
complete and TIGER Discretionary Grants funds obligated on or before
June 30, 2013, in order to give DOT comfort that all TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds will be obligated before the statutory
deadline of September 30, 2013. By statute, DOT's ability to obligate
funds for TIGER Discretionary Grants expires on September 30, 2013, and
DOT has no authority to extend the deadline.
2. Secondary Selection Criteria
(a) Innovation
In order to measure a project's alignment with this criterion, DOT
will assess the extent to which the project uses innovative technology
(including, for example, intelligent transportation systems, dynamic
pricing, value capture, rail wayside or on-board energy recovery, smart
cards, real-time dispatching, active traffic management, radio
frequency identification (RFID), or others) to pursue one or more of
the long-term outcomes outlined above and/or to significantly enhance
the operational performance of the transportation system. DOT will also
assess the extent to which the project incorporates innovations that
demonstrate the value of new approaches to, among other things,
transportation funding and finance, contracting, project delivery,
congestion management, safety management, asset management, or long-
term operations and maintenance. The applicant should clearly
demonstrate that the innovation is designed to pursue one or more of
the long-term outcomes outlined above and/or significantly enhance the
transportation system.
DOT will consider the extent to which innovative, multi-modal
projects might be difficult to fund under other programs and will give
priority to projects that align well with the Primary Selection
Criteria but are unlikely to receive funding under traditional
programs.
(b) Partnership
(i) Jurisdictional & Stakeholder Collaboration: In order to measure
a project's alignment with this criterion, DOT will assess the
project's involvement of non-Federal entities and the use of non-
Federal funds, including the scope of involvement and share of total
funding. DOT will give priority to projects that receive financial
commitments from, or otherwise involve, State and local governments,
other public entities, or private or nonprofit entities, including
projects that engage parties that are not traditionally involved in
transportation projects, such as nonprofit community groups. Pursuant
to the OMB Guidance, DOT will give priority to projects that make
effective use of community-based organizations in connecting
disadvantaged people with economic opportunities. Letters of commitment
and other supporting documentation showing existing or confirmed
collaboration, partnerships, etc., should be provided (preferably
through a Web site link) to demonstrate alignment with this criterion.
In compliance with the FY 2012 Appropriations Act, DOT will give
priority to projects for which a TIGER Discretionary Grant will help to
complete an overall financing package. An applicant should clearly
demonstrate in the application the extent to which the project cannot
be readily and efficiently completed without Federal assistance, and
the extent to which other sources of Federal assistance are or are not
readily available for the project. DOT will assess the amount of
private debt and equity to be invested in the project or the amount of
co-investment from State, local or other non-profit sources.
DOT will also assess the extent to which the project application
demonstrates collaboration among neighboring or regional jurisdictions
to achieve National, regional or metropolitan benefits. Multiple States
or jurisdictions may submit a joint application and should identify a
lead State or jurisdiction as the primary point of contact. Where
multiple States or jurisdictions are submitting a joint application,
the application should demonstrate how the project costs are
apportioned between the States or jurisdictions to assist DOT in making
the distributional determinations described below in Section III(C)
(Distribution of Funds).
(ii) Disciplinary Integration: In order to demonstrate the value of
partnerships across government agencies that serve various public
service missions and to promote collaboration on the objectives
outlined in this notice, DOT will give priority to projects that are
supported, financially or otherwise, by non-transportation public
agencies that are pursuing similar objectives. For example, DOT will
give priority to transportation projects that are coordinated with
economic development, housing, water infrastructure and land use plans
and policies; similarly, DOT will give priority to transportation
projects that
[[Page 4871]]
encourage energy efficiency or improve the environment and are
supported by relevant public agencies with energy or environmental
missions. Projects that grow out of a robust planning process--such as
those conducted with TIGER II Planning Grants, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development's Regional Planning Grants, or the
Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfield Area-Wide Planning Pilot
Program as well as technical assistance programs focused on livability
or economic development planning--will also be given priority.
III. Evaluation and Selection Process
A. Evaluation Process
TIGER Discretionary Grant applications will be evaluated in
accordance with the below discussed evaluation process. DOT will
establish a pre-application evaluation team to review each pre-
application that is received by DOT on or prior to the Pre-Application
Deadline. This evaluation team will be organized and led by the Office
of the Secretary and will include members from the relevant modal
administrations in DOT with the most experience and/or expertise in the
relevant project areas (the ``Cognizant Modal Administrations''). This
evaluation team will be responsible for analyzing whether the pre-
application satisfies the following key threshold requirements:
1. The project is an Eligible Project;
2. NEPA has been addressed, as described above in Section
II(B)(2)(b)(ii) (Environmental Approvals);
3. The project is included in the relevant State, metropolitan, and
local planning documents, or will be included, if applicable;
4. The project expects to be ready to obligate all of the TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds no later than June 30, 2013;\8\ and
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\8\ See footnote 7, above.
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5. Local matching funds to support 20 percent or more of the costs
for the project are identified and committed in applications for
projects in urban areas.\9\
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\9\ For FHWA and FTA committed funds are defined as: ``Funds
that have been dedicated or obligated for transportation purposes''
as described in 23 CFR 450.104.
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To the extent the pre-application evaluation team determines that a
pre-application does not satisfy these key threshold requirements, DOT
will inform the project sponsor that an application for the project
will not be reviewed unless the application submitted on or prior to
the Application Deadline can demonstrate that the requirement has been
addressed.
DOT will establish application evaluation teams to review each
application that is received by DOT prior to the Application Deadline.
These evaluation teams will be organized and led by the Office of the
Secretary and will include members from each of the Cognizant Modal
Administrations. These representatives will include technical and
professional staff with relevant experience and/or expertise. The
evaluation teams will be responsible for evaluating and rating all of
the projects and making funding recommendations to the Secretary. The
evaluation process will require team members to evaluate and rate
applications individually before convening with other members to
discuss ratings.
DOT will not assign specific numerical scores to projects based on
the selection criteria outlined above in Section II(A) (Selection
Criteria). Rather, ratings of ``highly recommended,'' ``recommended,''
``acceptable,'' or ``not recommended'' will be assigned to projects for
each of the selection criteria. DOT will award TIGER Discretionary
Grants to projects that are well-aligned with one or more of the
selection criteria. In addition, DOT will consider whether a project
has a negative effect on any of the selection criteria, and any such
negative effect may reduce the likelihood that the project will receive
a TIGER Discretionary Grant. To the extent the initial evaluation
process does not sufficiently differentiate among highly rated
projects, DOT will use a similar rating process to re-assess the
projects that were highly rated and identify those that should be most
highly rated.
DOT will give more weight to the two Primary Selection Criteria
(Long-Term Outcomes and Job Creation & Near-Term Economic Activity),
which will be weighted equally, than to the two Secondary Selection
Criteria (Innovation and Partnership) which will also be weighted
equally. The following table summarizes the weighting of the selection
criteria, as described in the preceding paragraphs:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Selection Criteria
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long-Term Outcomes................ DOT will give more weight to this
criterion than to either of the
Secondary Selection Criteria. In
addition, this criterion has a
minimum threshold requirement.
Projects that are unable to
demonstrate a likelihood of
significant long-term benefits in
any of the five long-term outcomes
identified in this criterion will
not proceed in the evaluation
process.
Job Creation & Near-Term Economic DOT will give more weight to this
Activity. criterion than to either of the
Secondary Selection Criteria. This
criterion will be considered after
it is determined that a project
demonstrates a likelihood of
significant long-term benefits in
at least one of the five long-term
outcomes identified in the long-
term outcomes criterion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secondary Selection Criteria
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Innovation & Partnership.......... DOT will give less weight to these
criteria than to the Primary
Selection Criteria. These criteria
will be weighted equally.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As noted below in Section III(C) (Distribution of Funds), upon
completion of this competitive rating process DOT will analyze the
preliminary list and determine whether the purely competitive ratings
are consistent with the distributional requirements of the FY 2012
Appropriations Act. If necessary, DOT will adjust the list of
recommended projects to satisfy the statutory distributional
requirements while remaining as consistent as possible with the
competitive ratings. The Secretary of Transportation will make the
final project selections.
B. Evaluation of Eligibility
To be selected for a TIGER Discretionary Grant, a project must be
an Eligible Project and the applicant must be an Eligible Applicant.
DOT may consider one or more components of a large project to be an
Eligible Project, but only to the extent that the components have
independent utility,
[[Page 4872]]
meaning the components themselves, not the project of which they are a
part, are Eligible Projects and satisfy the selection criteria
identified above in Section II(A) (Selection Criteria). For these
projects, the benefits described in an application must be related to
the components of the project for which funding is requested, not the
full project of which they are a part. DOT will not fund individual
phases of a project if the benefits of completing only these phases
would not align well with the selection criteria specified in this
Notice because the overall project would still be incomplete.
C. Transparency of Process
In the interest of transparency, DOT will disclose as much of the
information related to its evaluation process as is practical and
consistent with law. DOT expects that the TIGER Discretionary Grant
program may be reviewed and/or audited by Congress, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office, DOT's Inspector General, or others, and has
taken, and will continue to take steps to document its decision-making
process.
IV. Grant Administration
DOT expects that each TIGER Discretionary Grant will be
administered by one of the Cognizant Modal Administration, pursuant to
a grant agreement between the TIGER Discretionary Grant recipient and
the Cognizant Modal Administration. Service Outcome Agreements and
Stakeholder Agreements will be incorporated into the TIGER grant
agreements, where appropriate. In accordance with the FY 2012
Appropriations Act, the Secretary has the discretion to delegate such
responsibilities to the appropriate operating administration.
Applicable Federal laws, rules and regulations of the Cognizant
Modal Administration administering the project will apply to projects
that receive TIGER Discretionary Grants.
V. Projects in Rural Areas
The FY 2012 Appropriations Act directs that not less than $120
million of the funds provided for TIGER Discretionary Grants are to be
used for projects in rural areas. For purposes of this notice, DOT is
defining ``rural area'' as any area not in an Urbanized Area, as such
term is defined by the Census Bureau,\10\ and will consider a project
to be in a rural area if all or the majority of a project (determined
by geographic location(s) where majority of project money is to be
spent) is located in a rural area. Therefore, if all or the majority of
a project is located in a rural area, such a project is eligible to
apply for less than $10 million, but at least $1 million in TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds, and up to 100% of the project's costs may be
paid for with federal funds. To the extent more than a de minimis
portion of a project is located in an Urbanized Area, applicants should
identify the estimated percentage of project costs that will be spent
in Urbanized Areas and the estimated percentage that will be spent in
rural areas.
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\10\ For Census 2000, the Census Bureau defined an Urbanized
Area (UA) as an area that consists of densely settled territory that
contains 50,000 or more people. Updated lists of UAs are available
on the Census Bureau Web site. Urban Clusters (UCs) will be
considered rural areas for purposes of the TIGER Discretionary Grant
program.
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VI. TIGER TIFIA Payments
Up to $175 million of the $500 million available for TIGER
Discretionary Grants may be used for TIGER TIFIA Payments. Applicants
seeking TIGER TIFIA Payments should apply in accordance with all of the
criteria and guidance specified in this notice for TIGER Discretionary
Grant applications and will be evaluated concurrently with all other
applicants. Any applicant seeking a TIGER TIFIA Payment is also
required to submit a TIFIA letter of interest concurrent with the TIGER
TIFIA Payment application. If selected for a TIGER TIFIA Payment, the
applicant must comply with all of the TIFIA program's standard
application and approval requirements including submission of a
complete TIFIA application and $50,000 application fee (the TIFIA
program guide can be downloaded from http://tifia.fhwa.dot.gov/).
Applicants should demonstrate that the TIFIA loan will be ready to
close on or before June 30, 2013, in accordance with the guidance
specified above in Section II(B)(1)(b) (Job Creation & Near-Term
Economic Activity). DOT's TIFIA Joint Program Office will assist DOT in
determining a project's readiness to proceed rapidly upon receipt of a
TIGER TIFIA Payment.
Applicants seeking TIGER TIFIA Payments may also apply for a TIGER
Discretionary Grant for the same project and must indicate the type(s)
of funding for which they are applying clearly on the face of their
applications. An applicant for a TIGER TIFIA Payment must submit an
application pursuant to this notice for a TIGER TIFIA Payment even if
it does not wish to apply for a TIGER Discretionary Grant.
Unless otherwise expressly noted herein, any and all requirements
that apply to TIGER Discretionary Grants pursuant to the FY 2012
Appropriations Act, this notice, or otherwise, apply to TIGER TIFIA
Payments.
Pre-Application and Application Cycle
VII. Pre-Application and Application Cycle
A. Two Stages of Application Cycle
The application cycle for TIGER Discretionary Grants has two
stages:
1. Pre-Application: In Stage 1, applicants must submit a pre-
application form to the DOT. This step qualifies applicants to submit
an application in Stage 2. No application submitted during Stage 2 that
does not correlate with a properly completed Stage 1 pre-application
will be considered.
2. Application: In Stage 2, applicants must submit a complete
application package through Grants.gov. If an applicant is seeking a
TIGER TIFIA payment, applicants must also submit electronically a TIFIA
letter of interest to the TIFIA office at [email protected]. TIFIA
letters of interest must comply with all of the program's standard
requirements (the TIFIA program guide can be downloaded from http://tifia.fhwa.dot.gov/).
Pre-applications must be submitted to DOT by the Pre-Application
Deadline, which is February 20, 2012, at 5 p.m. EST. Final applications
must be submitted through Grants.gov by the Application Deadline, which
is March 19, 2012, at 5 p.m. EDT. The DOT pre-application system will
open on or before February 13, 2012, to allow prospective applicants to
submit pre-applications. Subsequently, the Grants.gov ``Apply''
function will open on February 22, 2012, allowing applicants to submit
applications. While applicants are encouraged to submit pre-
applications in advance of the Pre-Application Deadline, pre-
applications will not be reviewed until after the Pre-Application
Deadline. Similarly, while applicants are encouraged to submit
applications in advance of the Application Deadline, applications will
not be evaluated, and selections for awards will not be made, until
after the Application Deadline.
Pre-applications (stage 1) must be submitted to the DOT. The pre-
application form will be available on the DOT Web site at www.dot.gov/TIGER by January 30, 2012, together with instructions for submitting
the pre-application form electronically to DOT.
[[Page 4873]]
Applications (Stage 2) must be submitted through Grants.gov. To
apply for funding through Grants.gov, applicants must be properly
registered. Complete instructions on how to register and submit
applications can be found at www.grants.gov. Please be aware that the
registration process usually takes 2-4 weeks and must be completed
before an application can be submitted. If interested parties
experience difficulties at any point during the registration or
application process, please call the Grants.gov Customer Support
Hotline at 1-(800) 518-4726, Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.
Additional information on applying through Grants.gov is available in
Appendix B.
B. Contents of Pre-Applications
An applicant for a TIGER Discretionary Grant should provide all of
the information requested below in its pre-application form. DOT
reserves the right to ask any applicant to supplement the data in its
pre-application, but expects pre-applications to be complete upon
submission. Applicants must complete the pre-application form and send
it to DOT electronically on or prior to the Pre-Application Deadline,
in accordance with the instructions specified at www.dot.gov/TIGER. The
pre-application form must include the following information:
i. Name of applicant (if the application is to be submitted by more
than one entity, a lead applicant must be identified);
ii. Applicant's DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number;
iii. Type of applicant (State government, local government, U.S.
territory, Tribal government, transit agency, port authority,
metropolitan planning organization, or other unit of government);
iv. State(s) where the project is located;
v. County(s) where the project is located;
vi. City(s) where the project is located;
vii. Information about the geographic location of the project for
mapping purposes using one of the following methods:
1. A geographic information system (GIS) file that indicates the
location of the project;
2. For locating point specific projects, latitude and longitude in
decimal degrees to an accuracy of 5 decimal places (e.g. 0.12345) using
the WGS 84 datum (the default datum used by Global Positioning System
(GPS) equipment; or
3. For linear projects on existing roads, route number (Interstate,
U.S. Route, or State Route) or road name and the latitude and longitude
in decimal degrees to an accuracy of 5 decimal places (e.g. 0.12345) of
the beginning and ending points of the project;
viii. Project title (descriptive);
ix. Project type: highway, transit, freight rail, intercity
passenger rail, marine port, multimodal, or bicycle and pedestrian
activity (if the project is a multimodal project, the pre-application
form will require that applicants provide additional information
identifying the affected modes);
x. Whether the project is requesting a TIGER TIFIA Payment;
xi. Project description (describe the project in plain English,
using no more than 50 words (e.g. ``the project will replace the
existing bridge over the W river on interstate-X between the cities of
Y and Z'') do not describe the project's benefits, background, or
alignment with the selection criteria here);
xii. Total cost of the project;
xiii. Total amount of TIGER Discretionary Grant funds requested;
xiv. Contact name, phone number, email address, and physical
address for applicant;
xv. Congressional districts affected by the project;
xvi. Type of jurisdiction where the project is located (urban or
rural, as defined above in Section V (Projects in Rural Areas));
xvii. Whether or not the project is in an Economically Distressed
Area, as defined in Section II(A) (Selection Criteria);
xviii. An assurance that the NEPA and/or environmental review
process is complete, substantially complete, or in progress (and the
expected outcome of the process) and is expected to be completed in
time to meet the obligation deadline of September 30, 2013;
xix. The schedule for completing right-of-way acquisition and final
design; approval of plans, specifications, and estimates;
xx. The date that the project is expected to be ready for
obligation of grant funds, which should be no later than June 30, 2013,
in order to give DOT comfort that the funds will be obligated before
they expire on September 30, 2013; and
xxi. An assurance that non-Federal matching funds to support 20
percent or more of the costs of the project are identified and
committed (as noted in Section I (Background), this requirement does
not apply to projects located in rural areas, as defined above in
Section V (Projects in Rural Areas)).
To the extent the pre-application does not provide adequate
assurances for items xvii through xxii, DOT will inform the project
sponsor that an application for the project will not be reviewed unless
the application submitted on or prior to the Application Deadline can
demonstrate that each requirement has been addressed.
C. Contents of Applications
An applicant for a TIGER Discretionary Grant must include all of
the information requested below in its application. DOT reserves the
right to ask any applicant to supplement the data in its application,
but expects applications to be complete upon submission. To the extent
practical, DOT encourages applicants to provide data and evidence of
project merits in a form that is publicly available or verifiable. For
TIGER TIFIA Payments, these requirements apply only to the applications
required under this notice; the standard TIFIA letter of interest and
loan application requirements, including the standard $50,000.00
application fee, are separately described in the Program Guide and
Application Form found at http://tifia.fhwa.dot.gov/.
1. Standard Form 424, Application for Federal Assistance
Please see www07.grants.gov/assets/SF424Instructions.pdf for
instructions on how to complete the SF 424, which is part of the
standard Grants.gov submission. Additional clarifying guidance and FAQs
to assist applicants in completing the SF-424 will be available at
www.dot.gov/TIGER by February 23, 2012, when the ``Apply'' function
within Grants.gov opens to accept applications under this notice.
2. Project Narrative (Attachment to SF 424)
The project narrative must respond to the application requirements
outlined below. DOT recommends that the project narrative be prepared
with standard formatting preferences (e.g. a single-spaced document,
using a standard 12-point font, such as Times New Roman, with 1-inch
margins).
A TIGER Discretionary Grant application must include information
required for DOT to assess each of the criteria specified in Section
II(A) (Selection Criteria), as such criteria are explained in Section
II(B) (Additional Guidance on Selection Criteria). Applicants must
demonstrate the responsiveness of a project to any pertinent selection
criteria with the most relevant information that applicants can
provide, regardless of
[[Page 4874]]
whether such information has been specifically requested, or
identified, in this notice. Applicants should provide concrete evidence
of project milestones, financial capacity and commitment in order to
support project readiness. Any such information shall be considered
part of the application, not supplemental, for purposes of the
application size limits identified below in Part D (Length of
Applications). Information provided pursuant to this paragraph must be
quantified, to the extent possible, to describe the project's benefits
to the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region. Information provided
pursuant to this paragraph should include projections for both the
build and no-build scenarios for the project for a point in time at
least 20 years beyond the project's completion date or the lifespan of
the project, whichever is closest to the present.
All applications should include a detailed description of the
proposed project and geospatial data for the project, including a map
of the project's location and its connections to existing
transportation infrastructure. An application should also include a
description of how the project addresses the needs of an urban and/or
rural area. An application should clearly describe the transportation
challenges that the project aims to address, and how the project will
address these challenges. The description should include relevant data
such as, for example, passenger or freight volumes, congestion levels,
infrastructure condition, or safety experience.
DOT recommends that the project narrative generally adhere to the
following basic outline, and include a table of contents, maps and
graphics that make the information easier to review:
I. Project Description (including information on the expected
users of the project, a description of the transportation challenges
that the project aims to address, and how the project will address
these challenges);
II. Project Parties (information about the grant recipient and
other project parties);
III. Grant Funds and Sources/Uses of Project Funds (information
about the amount of grant funding requested, availability/commitment
of funds sources and uses of all project funds, total project costs,
percentage of project costs that would be paid for with TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds, and the identity and percentage shares of
all parties providing funds for the project (including Federal funds
provided under other programs));
IV. Selection Criteria (information about how the project aligns
with each of the primary and secondary selection criteria and a
description of the results of the benefit-cost analysis):
a. Long-Term Outcomes
i. State of Good Repair
ii. Economic Competitiveness
iii. Livability
iv. Sustainability
v. Safety
b. Job Creation & Near-Term Economic Activity
c. Innovation
d. Partnership
e. Results of Benefit-Cost Analysis
V. Project Readiness and NEPA (information about how ready the
project is to move forward quickly, including information about the
project schedule, environmental approvals, legislative approvals,
state and local planning, technical feasibility, financial
feasibility, and stakeholder partnerships and implementation
agreements);
VI. Federal Wage Rate Certification (an application must include
a certification, signed by the applicant, stating that it will
comply with the requirements of subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title
40, United States Code (Federal wage rate requirements), as required
by the FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations Act); and
VII. To the extent relevant, the final page of the application
should describe (in one page or less) any material changes that were
made to the pre-application form.
The purpose of this recommended format is to ensure that
applications are provided in a format that clearly addresses the
application requirements and makes critical information readily
apparent and easy to locate.
D. Length of Applications
The project narrative may not exceed 30 pages in length.
Documentation supporting the assertions made in the narrative portion
may also be provided, but should be limited to relevant information. If
possible, Web site links to supporting documentation (including a more
detailed discussion of the benefit-cost analysis) should be provided
rather than copies of these materials. At the applicant's discretion,
relevant materials provided previously to a Cognizant Modal
Administration in support of a different DOT discretionary program (for
example, New Starts or TIFIA) may be referenced and described as
unchanged. To the extent referenced, this information need not be
resubmitted for the TIGER Discretionary Grant application (although
provision of a Web site link would facilitate DOT's consideration of
the information). DOT recommends use of appropriately descriptive file
names (e.g., ``Project Narrative,'' ``Maps,'' ``Memoranda of
Understanding and Letters of Support,'' etc.) for all attachments.
Cover pages and tables of contents do not count towards the 30-page
limit for the narrative portion of the application, and the Federal
wage rate certification and one-page update of the pre-application form
(if necessary) may also be outside of the 30-page narrative. Otherwise,
the only substantive portions of the application that should exceed the
30-page limit are any supporting documents (including a more detailed
discussion of the benefit-cost analysis) provided to support assertions
or conclusions made in the 30-page narrative section.
E. Contact Information
Contact information is requested as part of the SF-424. DOT will
use this information to inform parties of DOT's decision regarding
selection of projects, as well as to contact parties in the event that
DOT needs additional information about an application. Contact
information must be provided for a direct employee of the lead
applicant organization. Contact information for a contractor, agent, or
consultant of the lead applicant organization is insufficient for DOT's
purposes.
F. National Environmental Policy Act Requirement
An application for a TIGER Discretionary Grant must detail whether
the project will significantly impact the natural, social and/or
economic environment. If the NEPA process is completed, an applicant
must indicate the date of, and provide a Web site link or other
reference to, the final Categorical Exclusion, Finding of No
Significant Impact or Record of Decision. If the NEPA process is
underway but not complete, the application must detail where the
project is in the process, indicate the anticipated date of completion
and provide a Web site link or other reference to copies of any NEPA
documents prepared.
G. Environmentally Related Federal, State and Local Actions
An application for a TIGER Discretionary Grant must indicate
whether the proposed project requires actions by other agencies (e.g.,
permits), indicate the status of such actions and provide a Web site
link or other reference to materials submitted to the other agencies,
and/or demonstrate compliance with other Federal, State and local
regulations as applicable, including, but not limited to, Section 4(f)
Parklands, Recreation Areas, Refuges, & Historic Properties; Section
106 Historic and Culturally Significant Properties; Clean Water Act
Wetlands and Water; Executive Orders Wetlands, Floodplains,
Environmental Justice; Clean Air Act Air Quality (specifically note if
the project is located in a nonattainment area); Endangered
[[Page 4875]]
Species Act Threatened and Endangered Biological Resources; Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Essential Fish Habitat;
and/or any State and local requirements.
H. Protection of Confidential Business Information
All information submitted as part of or in support of any
application shall use publicly available data or data that can be made
public and methodologies that are accepted by industry practice and
standards, to the extent possible. If the application includes
information that the applicant considers to be a trade secret or
confidential commercial or financial information, the applicant should
do the following: (1) Note on the front cover that the submission
``Contains Confidential Business Information (CBI);'' (2) mark each
affected page ``CBI;'' and (3) highlight or otherwise denote the CBI
portions. DOT protects such information from disclosure to the extent
allowed under applicable law. In the event DOT receives a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request for the information, DOT will follow the
procedures described in its FOIA regulations at 49 CFR Sec. 7.17. Only
information that is ultimately determined to be confidential under that
procedure will be exempt from disclosure under FOIA.
VIII. Project Benefits
DOT expects to identify and report on the benefits of the projects
that it funds with TIGER Discretionary Grants. To this end, DOT will
request that recipients of TIGER Discretionary Grants cooperate in
Departmental efforts to collect and report on information related to
the benefits produced by the projects that receive TIGER Discretionary
Grants.
Because of the limited nature of this program, these benefits are
likely to be reported on a project-by-project basis and trends across
projects that were selected for TIGER Discretionary Grants may not be
readily available. In addition, because many of these benefits are
long-term outcomes, it may be years before the value of the investments
can be quantified and fully reported. DOT is considering the most
appropriate way to collect and report information about these potential
and actual project benefits.
IX. Questions and Clarifications
For further information concerning this notice please contact the
TIGER Discretionary Grant program staff via email at
[email protected], or call Howard Hill at (202) 366-0301. A TDD is
available for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing at (202) 366-
3993. DOT will regularly post answers to these questions and other
important clarifications on DOT's Web site at www.dot.gov/TIGER.
Appendix A: Additional Information on Benefit-Cost Analysis
Each applicant should provide evidence that the expected
benefits of the project justify the costs (recognizing that some
costs and benefits are difficult to quantify). If it is clear that
the benefits do not justify the costs, the Department will not award
a TIGER Discretionary Grant to the project. Benefits include the
extent to which residents of the United States as a whole are made
better off as a result of the project.
The best applications are often prepared by transportation
agencies that have used in-house economic expertise and cost/benefit
analysis to influence the design of the project from the beginning.
All Applicants should also consult the BCA Resource Page available
on the USDOT TIGER Web site (http://www.dot.gov/TIGER) that will
provide supplemental information, standard monetized values (where
available), and updates for preparing a BCA. If after reading this
appendix applicants need additional help, DOT staff are available to
answer questions and offer technical assistance until the final
application deadline has passed.
This appendix provides general information and guidance on
conducting an analysis. In addition to this guidance, applicants
should refer to OMB Circulars A-4 and A-94 in preparing their
analysis (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/). Circular A-4
also cites textbooks on cost-benefit analysis (e.g., Mishan and Quah
\11\) if an applicant wants to review additional background
material.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ E.J. Mishan and Euston Quah, Cost-Benefit Analysis, 5th
edition (New York: Routledge, 2007).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Executive Summary for any benefit-cost analysis,
applicants should provide a project matrix describing the project
and what it changes (see below). This can either be in Word or in
Excel. The first column provides a description of the current
infrastructure baseline (including anticipated changes over the
analysis period) and identifies the problem that the project will
address. The second column describes how the project would change
the current infrastructure baseline. The third and fourth columns
describe the impact of that change and the corresponding population
that it affects. The fifth column identifies the corresponding
societal benefit. The last columns summarize the results and
reference where in the analysis they calculate the benefits. The
matrix below provides an example of a completed matrix.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.000
If an application contains multiple separate projects (but that
are linked together in a common objective), each of which has
independent utility, the applicant should provide a separate matrix
(and analysis) for each project. The Executive Summary should also
include the full cost of a project, including Federal, State, local,
and private funding, as well as expected operations and maintenance
costs, and not simply the requested grant amount or the local
amount.
In addition to the matrix, the applicant should summarize all
pertinent data and quantifiable cost and benefit calculations in a
single spreadsheet tab (or table in Word). It should also summarize
all other benefits that are difficult to quantify, and the applicant
would also present this at the beginning of the BCA. The following
provides a simplified example for expository purposes of discounted
benefits from a road project providing travel time savings to local
travelers only over the course of five years. In practice,
applicants must estimate both benefits and costs for each year after
the project's start date and for a period of time of at least 20
years in the future (or the project's useful life if it is shorter).
If the project will continue to have benefits beyond the end of the
analysis period, applicants can include a residual value of the
project at the end of the analysis period, and treat that as
[[Page 4876]]
an additional benefit, discounted from the end of the analysis
period.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.001
The following sections will help guide applicants through the
matrix. This is useful both to fill out the matrix (and in the
process to adequately scope and outline the analysis) and to
actually carry out the analysis.
Baselines
Applicants should measure costs and benefits of a proposed
project against a baseline (also called a ``base case'' or a ``no
build'' case). The baseline should be an assessment of the way the
world would look if the project did not receive the requested TIGER
Discretionary Grant funding. Sometimes, it is reasonable to forecast
that that baseline world resembles the present state. However, it is
important to factor in any projected changes (e.g., baseline
economic growth, increased traffic volumes, or completion of already
planned and funded projects) that would occur even in the absence of
the requested project.
Baseline assumptions need to incorporate the transportation
options with the highest net benefits that would be available in the
absence of the project. Baselines should incorporate accurate
descriptions of current traffic/shipping patterns. It is also
important that the applicant assume the continuation of reasonable
and sound management practices in establishing a baseline. Assuming
a baseline scenario in which the owner of the facility does no
maintenance on the facility and ignores traffic problems and
maintenance is not realistic and will lead to the overstatement of
project benefits and will affect the rating of the BCA.
Applicants must demonstrate that the proposed project has
independent utility. Sub-components of a larger project may have
little or no transportation value in the absence of the other
components. For example, a ramp to an undeveloped site does not have
much utility if the site does not get developed. The correct
baseline is then the current level of traffic and not the projected
traffic if the site is developed.
Baselines also need to be realistic in the transportation
assumptions that they make. If a project would construct a short
freight rail spur from a railroad mainline to a particular facility,
it is unrealistic to assume that, in the absence of the project,
individuals would ship cargo by truck for thousands of miles,
whereas they would ship the same cargo by rail with the project. A
realistic description of current traffic would have current cargo
traffic going by rail for most of the distance, and then by truck
for the relatively short distance over which rail transportation is
not available.
The applicant must make clear exactly what portions of the
project form the basis of the estimates of benefits and costs. It is
incorrect to claim benefits for the entire project but only count as
costs the costs of the portion of the project funded by the TIGER
Discretionary Grant. Thus, it would be incorrect to attribute all
the benefits from a new port facility to a TIGER Discretionary Grant
when the costs that are counted only cover the portion of the
project funded by the TIGER Discretionary Grant, for example, paving
a loading area.
There are cases where a grant may accelerate completion of the
project that an applicant already was going to build. The benefits
and costs in this case should thus be limited to the marginal
benefits (and marginal costs) of completing the project in a shorter
period of time and including the cost of expending resources on the
project sooner than otherwise planned (i.e., a ``now versus later''
comparison).
Alternatives
An applicant should present and consider reasonable alternatives
in the analysis. Applicants should evaluate smaller-scale and more
focused projects for comparison purposes. For example, if an
applicant is requesting funds to replace a pier, it should also
analyze the alternative of rehabilitating the current pier.
Similarly, if an applicant seeks funds to establish a relatively
large streetcar project, it should also evaluate a more focused
project serving only the more densely populated corridors of an
area. A careful evaluation of the baseline will yield several
alternative actions. The analysis should demonstrate that the
proposed project is the most cost-effective option of all the
alternatives considered.
Affected Population & Types of Impacts
Applicants need to carefully identify the different impacts a
project will have. For example, the rationale for many highway
projects is to relieve peak-hour congestion which in turn reduces
travel times and vehicle emissions. Other highway projects can
improve road safety and in turn reduce accidents and corresponding
property damage, injuries, and fatalities. It is important that
applicants then match the types of impacts to the corresponding
affected population (group and number of affected entities). For
example, for a passenger project applicants should measure the
number of passengers and for a freight project the amount of freight
affected.
Applicants should measure affected passenger and freight traffic
in passenger-miles and freight ton-miles (and possibly value of
freight). If, as is often the case (e.g., projected growth in
highway traffic), the affected population is not the same for all
years, then the applicant needs to break out affected population
annually. Measures of freight traffic might include growing levels
of port calls. In some cases, the relevant population is the volume
of traffic that the project diverts from one mode to another.
Applicants should be realistic as to how the project affects these
populations.
Benefits--Long Term Outcomes
Each application must include in its analysis estimates of the
project's expected benefits with respect to each of the five long-
term outcomes that DOT specified in Section II(A) (Selection
Criteria). We recognize that it may in some cases be unclear in
which of these categories of outcomes an applicant should list a
benefit. In these cases, it is less important in which category an
applicant lists a benefit than to make sure that they list and
measure it (but only once). The following table maps some of the
types of benefits to a long-term outcome. These are some of the
primary benefit categories, but this is not an exhaustive list. We
describe these categories later.
[[Page 4877]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.002
Types of Societal Benefits
Travel time savings can result from transportation improvements
whose purpose is to expand capacity or improve state of good repair.
Where this is the case, applicants should clearly demonstrate the
derivation of the travel time savings to the affected population. If
travel time savings vary over time, the applicant must clearly show
savings by year. The applicant must also be careful to estimate
savings solely from the project funded by the requested grant, and
not from other related projects not funded by the requested grant.
Once the applicant generates its estimate of hours saved, it should
apply the Department's guidance on the value of time to those
estimates (http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/policy/reports.htm) to monetize
them for both business and non-business travelers.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.003
Operating cost savings frequently occur from both freight-
related and passenger-related projects. Freight-related projects
that improve roads, rails, and ports frequently generate savings to
carriers (e.g., fuel savings and other operating cost savings) that
they may pass on in whole or in part to shippers by way of lower
freight rates. Shippers may, in turn, pass on, in whole or in part,
these savings to consumers. Passenger-related projects can also
reduce operating costs for passengers by providing lower-cost
alternatives to the use of private vehicles or by reducing the
operating costs of those vehicles. If applicants are projecting
these savings as benefits, they need to carefully demonstrate how
the proposed project would generate such benefits. However,
applicants must be careful to count the value of the fuel and other
operating cost savings (however allocated among carriers, shippers,
and consumers) only once in the benefit-cost analysis; it cannot be
re-counted in full each time it transfers from one group to the
other as this would entail double-counting of the same benefit.
Transportation can generate environmental costs in the form of
emissions of ``criteria pollutants'' (e.g., SOx,
NOx, and particulates) and from the emission of
greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). Increased
traffic congestion results in increased levels of these emissions.
Transportation projects that reduce congestion can reduce these
emissions and produce Environmental Benefits given reduced idling
and otherwise constant vehicle-miles travelled. Also, transportation
projects that encourage transportation users to shift from more-
polluting modes to less-polluting modes can similarly reduce
emissions. Applicants claiming these types of benefits must clearly
demonstrate and quantify how the project will reduce emissions. Once
an applicant has adequately quantified levels of emission
reductions, it should estimate the dollar value of these benefits.
For sources of information on the social benefits of reducing
criteria pollutant emissions, applicants should refer to the online
BCA Resource Page (http://www.dot.gov/TIGER).
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.004
Many infrastructure projects that improve the state of good
repair of transportation infrastructure can reduce long-term
maintenance and repair costs. These benefits are in addition to the
benefits of reductions in travel time, shipping costs, and crashes
which the applicant should account for separately. Applicants should
include these maintenance and repair savings as benefits. Improving
state of good repair may also reduce operating costs and congestion
by reducing the amount of time that the infrastructure is out of
service due to maintenance and repairs, or may prevent a facility
(such as a bridge) from being removed from service entirely. The
application should also consider differences in maintenance and
repair costs when comparing different project alternatives. For
example, an applicant can compare the maintenance costs that would
be required after rehabilitating an existing pier with those that
would be required after building a new one. As part of the data that
go into estimating the benefits of improving the state of good
repair, applicants should provide accepted measures for assessing an
asset's current condition. For example, applicants can use Present
Serviceability Ratings (PSR) or the International Roughness Index to
discuss pavement condition and bridge sufficiency ratings to discuss
the condition of a bridge. As discussed in the section on costs, the
Department expects applicants to consider the life-cycle costs of
the project when making these comparisons.
[[Page 4878]]
Projects can also improve the Safety of transportation. A well-
designed project can reduce fatalities and injuries as well as
reduce other crash costs. The applicant should clearly demonstrate
how the project will improve safety. For example, to claim a
reduction in fatalities, an applicant must clearly demonstrate how
the existence of the project would have prevented the types of
fatalities that commonly occur in that area. Applicants should use
crash causation factors or similar analyses of causes of crashes to
show the extent to which the type of improvements proposed would
actually reduce the likelihood of the kinds of crashes that actually
had occurred. Alternatively, when only a few cases are involved, the
applicant should provide a description of the incidents and
demonstrate the linkage between the proposed project and crash
reduction. In some cases, safety benefits may occur because of modal
diversion from a less safe mode to a safer mode. When applicants
claim this type of benefit, they should provide a clear analysis of
why the forecasted modal diversion will take place. Once the
applicant has established a reasonable count of the incidents that
the project will likely prevent, it should apply the Department's
guidance on value of life and injuries (http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/policy/reports.htm) to monetize them. This and other relevant
information on Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) are available at the
BCA Resource Page (http://www.dot.gov/TIGER).
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN31JA12.005
Applicants must carefully net out other effects before taking
benefits from Property Value Increases (e.g. from a transit
station). For example, if the property value goes up by the exact
same value as the developer's investment then this is not a benefit.
Property value increases over and above the developer's investment
may potentially be a benefit from the project. The analysis should
also consider to what extent an increase in land values induced by
the project in one area causes a reduction in land values in some
other area. Applicants must also net out any property value
increases that result from time savings or other benefits that have
already been counted. Applicants can only count the net increase in
land value as a benefit. Simply asserting that there is a property
tax increase net of time savings is inadequate. The Department
expects any applicant claiming these types of benefits to provide a
rigorous justification of the benefit. Applicants should note that
any claimed societal benefit from a property value increase is only
a one-time stock benefit. Applicants can not treat it as a stream of
benefits accruing annually. To the extent possible, applicant should
use survey methods to estimate the value of the estimate the value
of the expected property value increase from transit or other
transportation improvements.
Transit and bicycle paths may provide greater accessibility to
alternative transportation modes, but they will not actually enhance
livability unless people use them, and the desire to use them will
depend in part on where these modes go and on the amenities provided
with them. One useful source of guidance on measuring benefits of
bicycle facilities (particularly for understanding demand
estimation) is the Transportation Research Board's National
Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 552, Guidelines for
Analysis of Investments in Bicycle Facilities (Washington: TRB,
2006)
(Available at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_552.pdf). Transit and bicycle paths can also induce land use
changes that result in greater density of development and more
mixed-use development, thus reducing the number of passenger-miles
of transportation needed to access jobs, schools, shopping, and
recreational opportunities.
Other
Transfers are not benefits. Analysis should distinguish between
real benefits and transfer payments. Benefits reflect real resource
usage and overall benefits to society, while transfers represent
payments by one group to another and do not represent a net increase
in societal benefits. In the case of job creation, for example,
every job represents both a cost to the employer (paying a wage) and
a benefit to the employee (receiving a wage), so it is a transfer
payment, rather than a net benefit. While wages are a transfer
payment, increases in the productivity of the labor force, measured
by increases in how much workers produce per hour, can be included
as a benefit of the project, but these benefits must be carefully
measured and justified to be included. With respect to economic
development, providing estimates of capital investments or property
tax revenues are not legitimate benefits in a benefit-cost analysis.
For example, while the tax is a benefit to the tax assessor it is a
cost to the taxpayer. These transfers are commonly included in
``economic impact analyses;'' an economic impact analysis is not
acceptable as a substitute for a benefit-cost analysis. Other
examples of transfers include port/rail projects whose purpose is to
take away business from competitors. However, the transportation
cost savings (if any) and the like from shifting traffic to a more
convenient location would be a benefit. Applicants should not
include employment or output multipliers that purport to measure
secondary effects as societal benefits because these secondary
effects are generally the same (per dollar spent) regardless of what
kind of project is funded.
As noted above, the estimate of Costs must pertain to the same
project as the estimate of benefits. If the TIGER Discretionary
Grant is to pay for only part of the project, but the project is
indivisible (i.e., no one part of the project would have independent
utility), then the applicant should compare the benefits of the
whole project to the costs of the whole project, including costs
paid for by State, local, and private partners other than the
Federal government. In general, applicants should use a life-cycle
cost analysis approach in estimating the costs of the project. The
Department expects applicants to include operating, maintenance, and
other life-cycle costs of the project, along with capital costs. In
addition to construction costs, other direct costs may include
design and land acquisition. If the time period considered in the
analysis is long enough to require the rehabilitation of the
facility during the period of analysis, then the costs of that
rehabilitation should be included. Applicants should consider
external costs, such as noise, increased congestion, and
environmental pollutants resulting from the use of the facility or
related changes in usage on other facilities in the same network in
the analysis. Additionally, applicants should include, to the extent
possible, costs to users during construction, such as delays and
increased vehicle operating costs associated with work zones or
detours. The applicant should correctly discount annual costs to
arrive at a present value of the project's cost.
Applicants should discount future benefits and costs to present
values using a real discount rate (i.e., a discount rate that
reflects the opportunity cost of money net of the rate of inflation)
of 7 percent, following guidance provided by OMB in Circulars A-4
and A-94 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_default/).
Applicants may also provide an alternative analysis using a real
discount rate of 3 percent. They should use the latter approach when
the alternative use of funds currently dedicated to the project
would be for other public expenditures, rather than private
investment. In presenting these year-by-year streams, applicants
should measure them in constant (or ``real'') dollars prior to
discounting. Applicants should not add in the effects of inflation
to the estimates of future benefits and costs prior to discounting.
Benefit-cost analyses of transportation projects almost always
depend on forecasts of projected levels of usage (road traffic, port
calls, etc.). When an applicant is using such forecasts to generate
benefit estimates, it must assess the reliability of these
forecasts. If the applicant is using outside forecasts, it must
provide a citation and an appropriate page number for the forecasts.
Applicants should incorporate indirect effects into their forecasts
where possible (e.g., induced demand). Applicants should also take
great care to match forecasts of usage levels to the corresponding
year. For example, using projected traffic levels for 2030 to
generate
[[Page 4879]]
benefits for all the earlier years is incorrect. For more
information on forecasting, applicants can refer to the forecasting
section of FHWA's Economic Analysis Primer (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/primer06.cfm). While produced for analysis
of highway projects, the primer is a good source of information on
issues related to all transportation forecasting.
Applicants should make every effort to make the results of their
analyses as transparent and reproducible as possible. A Department
reviewer reading the analysis should be able to understand the basic
elements of the analysis and the way in which the applicant derived
the estimates. It is inadequate for the applicant only to provide
links to large documents or spreadsheets as sources. The Department
expects applicants to clearly cite all outside data sources with the
corresponding page number (or cell number, for a spreadsheet). For
more detailed documentation, applicants must include a thorough
verbal description of how they did the calculation. This should
include references to tabs and cells in the spreadsheet. This verbal
description should include specific sources for all the numbers in
the spreadsheet (i.e. those that the spreadsheet itself does not
calculate). If an applicant uses a ``pre-packaged'' economic model
to calculate net benefits, the applicant should provide annual
benefits and costs by benefit and cost type for the entire analysis
period (including forecast year traffic volumes). In any case,
applicants must provide a detailed explanation of the assumptions
used to run the model (e.g., peak traffic hours and traffic volume
during peak hours, mix of traffic by cars, buses, and trucks, etc.).
The applicant must provide enough information so that a Department
reviewer can follow the general logic of the estimates (and, in the
case of spreadsheet models, reproduce them).
Appendix B: Additional Information on Applying Through Grants.gov
Applications (Stage 2) for TIGER Discretionary Grants must be
submitted through Grants.gov. To apply for funding through
Grants.gov, applicants must be properly registered. Complete
instructions on how to register and apply can be found at
www.grants.gov. If interested parties experience difficulties at any
point during registration or application process, please call the
Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 1 (800) 518-4726, Monday-
Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.
Registering with Grants.gov is a one-time process; however,
processing delays may occur and it can take up to several weeks for
first-time registrants to receive confirmation and a user password.
It is highly recommended that applicants start the registration
process as early as possible to prevent delays that may preclude
submitting an application by the deadlines specified. Applications
will not be accepted after the relevant due date; delayed
registration is not an acceptable reason for extensions. In order to
apply for TIGER Discretionary Grant funding under this announcement
and to apply for funding through Grants.gov, all applicants are
required to complete the following:
1. Acquire a DUNS Number. A DUNS number is required for
Grants.gov registration. The Office of Management and Budget
requires that all businesses and nonprofit applicants for Federal
funds include a DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) number in
their applications for a new award or renewal of an existing award.
A DUNS number is a unique nine-digit sequence recognized as the
universal standard for identifying and keeping track of entities
receiving Federal funds. The identifier is used for tracking
purposes and to validate address and point of contact information
for Federal assistance applicants, recipients, and sub-recipients.
The DUNS number will be used throughout the grant life cycle.
Obtaining a DUNS number is a free, one-time activity. Obtain a DUNS
number by calling 1-(866) 705-5711 or by applying online at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.
2. Acquire or Renew Registration with the Central Contractor
Registration (CCR) Database. All applicants for Federal financial
assistance maintain current registrations in the Central Contractor
Registration (CCR) database. An applicant must be registered in the
CCR to successfully register in Grants.gov. The CCR database is the
repository for standard information about Federal financial
assistance applicants, recipients, and sub-recipients. Organizations
that have previously submitted applications via Grants.gov are
already registered with CCR, as it is a requirement for Grants.gov
registration. Please note, however, that applicants must update or
renew their CCR registration at least once per year to maintain an
active status, so it is critical to check registration status well
in advance of relevant application deadlines. Information about CCR
registration procedures can be accessed at www.ccr.gov.
3. Acquire an Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) and a
Grants.gov Username and Password. Complete your AOR profile on
Grants.gov and create your username and password. You will need to
use your organization's DUNS Number to complete this step. For more
information about the registration process, go to www.grants.gov/applicants/get_registered.jsp.
4. Acquire Authorization for your AOR from the E-Business Point
of Contact (E-Biz POC). The E-Biz POC at your organization must log
in to Grants.gov to confirm you as an AOR. Please note that there
can be more than one AOR for your organization.
5. Search for the Funding Opportunity on Grants.gov. Please use
the following identifying information when searching for the TIGER
funding opportunity on Grants.gov. The Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance (CFDA) number for this solicitation is 20.933, titled
National Infrastructure Investments.
6. Submit an Application Addressing All of the Requirements
Outlined in this Funding Availability Announcement. Within 24-48
hours after submitting your electronic application, you should
receive an email validation message from Grants.gov. The validation
message will tell you whether the application has been received and
validated or rejected, with an explanation. You are urged to submit
your application at least 72 hours prior to the due date of the
application to allow time to receive the validation message and to
correct any problems that may have caused a rejection notification.
Note: When uploading attachments please use generally accepted
formats such as .pdf, .doc, and .xls. While you may imbed picture
files such as .jpg, .gif, .bmp, in your files, please do not save
and submit the attachment in these formats. Additionally, the
following formats will not be accepted: .com, .bat, .exe, .vbs,
.cfg, .dat, .db, .dbf, .dll, .ini, .log, .ora, .sys, and .zip.
Experiencing Unforeseen Grants.gov Technical Issues
If you experience unforeseen Grants.gov technical issues beyond
your control that prevent you from submitting your application by
the deadline of March 19, 2012, at 5 p.m. EDT, you must contact
[email protected] or Howard Hill at (202) 366-0301 within the 24
hours following the deadline and request approval to submit your
application after the deadline has passed. At that time, DOT staff
will require you to provide your DUNS number and your Grants.gov
Help Desk tracking number(s). After DOT staff review all of the
information submitted and contact the Grants.gov Help Desk to
validate the technical issues you reported, DOT staff will contact
you to either approve or deny your request to submit a late
application through Grants.gov. If the technical issues you reported
cannot be validated, your application will be rejected as untimely.
To ensure a fair competition for limited discretionary funds,
the following conditions are not valid reasons to permit late
submissions: (1) Failure to complete the registration process before
the deadline date; (2) failure to follow Grants.gov instructions on
how to register and apply as posted on its Web site; (3) failure to
follow all of the instructions in the funding availability notice;
and (4) technical issues experienced with the applicant's computer
or information technology (IT) environment.
Appendix C: Additional Information on Project Readiness Guidelines
As applicants develop their applications, there are some
guidelines on project readiness that they should consider. The TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds are available for a limited period of time
(DOT's ability to obligate the funds expires after September 30,
2013), and DOT may be limited as to when they may obligate the TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds to a project if it is not far enough along
in the project development process. The application package should
provide concrete evidence of project milestones, financial capacity
and commitment in order to support project readiness. Each operating
administration with the responsibility for obligating the TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds has its own regulations, policies, and
procedures that they may apply for projects that have been selected
for TIGER Discretionary Grant funds. In some cases, an operating
administration may obligate a portion of the overall amount of funds
that an applicant has been selected
[[Page 4880]]
to receive so that such an applicant may use that portion of the
TIGER Discretionary Grant funds for eligible pre-construction
activities, delaying the balance of the obligation of funds until
all pre-construction requirements have been completed.
The guidelines below provide additional details about some of
these pre-construction steps if a project element is for pre-
construction activities, or requirements before the total award is
obligated (including, but not limited to, planning requirements,
environmental approvals, right-of-way acquisitions, and design
completion) and suggests milestones each project should aim to
achieve in order to obligate the full amount of awarded TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds, in advance of the obligation deadline of
September 30, 2013. Applicants should demonstrate that they can
reasonably expect to complete all of these pre-construction steps if
a project element is for pre-construction activities, or
requirements before the total award is obligated no later than June
30, 2013, so that all the TIGER Discretionary Grant funds are
obligated in advance of or by the September 30, 2013, statutory
deadline, and that any unexpected delays will not put TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds at risk of expiring before they can be
fully obligated. DOT may reallocate unobligated TIGER Discretionary
Grant funds towards projects that are ready to use TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds if a project is not ready for DOT to
obligate all TIGER Discretionary Grant funds before the September
30, 2013, statutory deadline. Applicants that are unfamiliar with,
or have questions about, the requirements that a proposed project or
projects may need to complete in order for the operating
administration to obligate TIGER Discretionary Grant funds may
contact [email protected] with questions. The below information is
not an exhaustive list of the requirements that a project may need
to comply with in order for TIGER Discretionary Grant funds to be
obligated by the operating administration that is administering the
TIGER Discretionary Grant.
State and Local Planning: Project activities that are focused on
refining scope and completing Federal environmental reviews are
eligible capital expenses under the TIGER Discretionary Grants
Program and are an essential part of project development. A project
that receives TIGER Discretionary Grant funds may be required to be
approved by the Metropolitan Planning Organization or State in the
Long Range Plans and Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)/
Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Applicants
should take steps to ensure that the project will be included in the
relevant plan if the project is required to be included in such
planning documents before an operating administration may obligate
funds to the project.
If the project is not included in the relevant planning
documents at the time the TIGER application is submitted, applicants
should submit a certification from the appropriate planning agency
that actions are underway at the time of application to include the
project in the relevant planning document. If the obligation of
TIGER Discretionary Grant funds for construction or other activities
is contingent on the project being included in the relevant planning
documents, applicants should demonstrate they can reasonably expect
to have the project included in such planning documents by March 30,
2013. DOT is using the March 30 milestone since applicants should
demonstrate in their project schedule that all additional, necessary
pre-construction steps if a project element is for pre-construction
activities, or requirements before the total award is obligated will
be complete on or before June 30, 2013, and planning must be
complete before other pre-construction or other activities can be
completed.. The applicant should provide a schedule demonstrating
when the project will be added to the relevant planning documents.
Environmental Approvals: Projects should have received all
environmental approvals, including satisfaction of all Federal,
State and local requirements and completion of the National
Environmental Policy Act (``NEPA'') process at the time the
application is submitted or should demonstrate, through their
project schedule and narrative, that receipt of NEPA approval, and
all additional, necessary pre-construction steps if a project
element is for pre-construction activities, or other approvals can
occur by June 30, 2013.
If the obligation of TIGER Discretionary Grant funds for
construction or other activities is contingent on completion of
other approvals that can only take place after the environmental
approvals process, the applicant should demonstrate, through their
project schedule and narrative, that they can reasonably expect to
obtain all environmental approvals by March 30, 2013, or other date
sufficiently in advance of June 30, 2013. Like planning, the
environmental approvals must be obtained prior to completing other
pre-construction steps if a project element is for pre-construction
activities, or other activities.
To demonstrate that this suggested milestone is achievable,
applicants should provide information about the anticipated class of
action, the budget for completing NEPA, including hiring a
consultant if necessary, and a schedule that demonstrates when NEPA
will be complete. The schedule should show how the suggested
milestones described in this section will be complied with, and
include any anticipated coordination with Federal and State
regulatory agencies for permits and approvals. The budget should
demonstrate how costs to complete NEPA factor into the overall cost
to complete the project. The budget and schedule for completing NEPA
should be reasonable and be comparable to a budget and schedule of a
typical project of the same type. The applicant should provide
evidence of support based on input during the NEPA process from
State and local elected officials as well as the public.
Additionally, the applicant should provide environmental studies or
other documents (preferably by way of a Web site link) that describe
in detail known potential project impacts and possible mitigation
for these impacts. The applicant should supply sufficient
documentation for DOT to adequately review the project's NEPA
status.
Right-of-Way and Design: If the obligation of TIGER
Discretionary Grant funds for construction or other activities by an
operating administration may be contingent on completion of right-
of-way acquisition and final design approval, and/or additional
approvals contingent on completion of right-of-way acquisition and
design, applicants should demonstrate, through their project
schedule, that they reasonably expect to have right-of-way and
design completed, and completion of any other needed pre-
construction steps if a project element is for pre-construction
activities, or other approvals by June 30, 2013. Applicants should
submit a reasonable schedule of when right-of-way (if applicable),
design, and any other required approvals are expected to be
obtained. Applicants may expect that DOT may obligate TIGER funds
for right-of-way and design completion only after planning and
environmental approvals are obtained.
Completion of Obligation: Applicants should plan to have all
necessary pre-construction or other approvals and activities
completed by June 30, 2013. In some instances, DOT may not obligate
for construction or other activities until all planning and
environmental approvals are obtained and right-of-way and final
design are complete. If a project is selected for a TIGER
Discretionary Grant and the TIGER Discretionary Grant funding will
be used to complete all of these activities, DOT may obligate the
funding in phases, in accordance with the laws, regulations, and
policies of the operating administration that is administering the
grant.
Issued on: January 25, 2012.
Ray LaHood,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2012-1996 Filed 1-30-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P