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


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration


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

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

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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Successful applicants should contact 
the appropriate FTA Regional Office for information regarding applying 
for the funds or program-specific information. A list of Regional 
Offices can be found at www.transit.dot.gov/. Unsuccessful applicants 
may contact Tom Wilson, Office of Program Management at (202) 366-5279, 
email: [email protected] within 30 days of this announcement to 
arrange a proposal debriefing. A TDD is available at 1-800-877-8339 
(TDD/FIRS).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C. 
5339(b)) authorizes FTA to make competitive grants for buses and bus 
facilities. Federal public law (49 U.S.C. 5338(a)(2)(M)) authorized 
$289,044,179 in FY 2021 funds for the Grants for Buses and Bus 
Facilities Program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, 
appropriated an additional $125,000,000 for the Grants for Buses and 
Bus Facilities Program. After the oversight takedown of $4,455,331, FTA 
is announcing the availability of $409,588,848 for the Grants for Buses 
and Bus Facilities Program.
    On September 20, 2021, FTA published a Notice of Funding 
Opportunity (NOFO) (86 FR 52291) announcing the availability of 
$409,588,848 in competitive funding under the Buses and Bus Facilities 
Program. These funds will provide financial assistance to states and 
eligible public agencies to replace, rehabilitate, purchase, or lease 
buses, vans, and related equipment, and for capital projects to 
rehabilitate, purchase, construct, or lease bus-related facilities. In 
response to the NOFO, FTA received 303 eligible project proposals 
totaling approximately $2.56 billion in Federal funds. Project 
proposals were evaluated based on each applicant's responsiveness to 
the program evaluation criteria outlined in the NOFO.
    Based on the criteria in the NOFO, FTA is funding 70 projects, as 
shown in Table 1, for a total of $409,274,220. Recipients selected for 
competitive funding are required to work with their FTA Regional Office 
to submit a grant application in FTA's Transit Award Management System 
(TrAMS) for the projects identified in the attached table to quickly 
obligate funds. Grant applications must only include eligible 
activities applied for in the original project application. Funds must 
be used consistent with the competitive proposal and for the eligible 
capital purposes described in the NOFO.
    In cases where the allocation amount is less than the proposer's 
total requested amount, recipients are required to fund the scalable 
project option as described in the application. If the award amount 
does not correspond to the scalable option, the recipient should work 
with the Regional Office to reduce scope or scale the project such that 
a complete phase or project is accomplished. Recipients may also 
provide additional local funds to complete a proposed project. A 
discretionary project identification number has been assigned to each 
project for tracking purposes and must be used in the TrAMS 
application.
    Selected projects are eligible to incur costs under pre-award 
authority no earlier than the date projects were publicly announced. 
Pre-award authority does not guarantee that project expenses incurred 
prior to the award of a grant will be eligible for reimbursement, as 
eligibility for reimbursement is contingent upon other requirements, 
such as planning and environmental requirements, having been met. For 
more about FTA's policy on pre-award authority, please see the current 
FTA Apportionments, Allocations, and Program Information and Interim 
Guidance at https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/apportionments. Post-
award reporting requirements include submission of Federal Financial 
Reports and Milestone Progress Reports in TrAMS (see FTA Circular 
5010.1E). Recipients must comply with all applicable Federal statutes, 
regulations, executive orders, FTA circulars, and other Federal 
requirements in carrying out the project supported by the FTA grant. 
FTA emphasizes that recipients must follow all third-party procurement 
requirements set forth in Federal public

[[Page 15490]]

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

1. Demonstration of Need
2. Demonstration of Benefits
3. Planning/Local Prioritization
4. Local Financial Commitment
5. Project Implementation Strategy
6. Technical, Legal, and Financial Capacity

    For each project, a technical review panel assigned a rating of 
Highly Recommended, Recommended, or Not Recommended for each of the six 
criteria. The technical review panel then assigned an overall rating of 
Highly Recommended, Recommended, Not Recommended, or Ineligible to the 
project proposal.
    Projects were assigned a final overall rating of Highly Recommended 
if they were rated Highly Recommended in at least four categories 
overall, with no Not Recommended ratings. Projects were assigned a 
final overall rating of Recommended if the projects had three or more 
Recommended ratings and no Not Recommended ratings. Projects were 
assigned a rating of Not Recommended if they received a Not Recommended 
rating in any criteria. A summary of the final overall ratings for all 
303 eligible project proposals is shown in the table below.

                         Overall Project Ratings
                         [Eligible submissions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highly Recommended...........................................        166
Recommended..................................................         95
Not Recommended..............................................         42
                                                              ----------
  Total......................................................        303
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As outlined in the NOFO, FTA made the final selections based on the 
technical ratings as well as geographic diversity, diversity in the 
size of transit systems receiving funding, Administration priorities 
including climate change, and/or receipt of other recent competitive 
awards.
    As further outlined in the NOFO, in some cases, due to funding 
limitations, proposers that were selected for funding received less 
than the amount originally requested.

Nuria I. Fernandez,
Administrator.

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

[[Page 15491]]

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

[FR Doc. 2022-05734 Filed 3-17-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P