The City of Billings submitted to the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) a Community Transportation Enhancement Project (CTEP) grant application for the Main Street Underpass project in November, 2006, for $292,883.00. Since that time, the project was bid and the cost of the entire project inflated to $2,909,963. By combining the available City and County CTEP funding for the past two years, generous donations from private organizations, and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds of $1,000,000, the project is funded in its entirety. The Main Street Underpass project consists of planning, designing, boring and placement of 200 lineal feet of bicycle and pedestrian tunnel and 1,114 lineal feet of hard-surfaced, shared-use path. The project is located under Main Street adjacent to the Alkali Creek Drainage and includes a trail section through Earl Gus Park connecting the underpass with the Kiwanis Trail. This project was approved by the Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC) on August 27, 2009. The Project Specific Agreement represents the formal agreement between the City and MDT for the project’s scope, funding and federal aid compliance. Council must authorize the Mayor to execute a Project Specific Agreement for the Main Street Underpass project to begin project development.  In addition, the 2007 - 2011 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) must be amended to include the use of ARRA funds for this project.  This action must be presented in the form of a recommendation to the Policy Coordinating Committee.  The PCC is meeting January 12, to act on the TIP amendment.

The Council may:

• Approve the CTEP/ARRA Project Specific Agreement.
• Not approve the CTEP/ARRA Project Specific Agreement. This would result in the loss of CTEP and ARRA funding for this project.

The funding breakdown for this project is as follows:

                                    Total Project            CTEP              Local Match              ARRA             TCSP
Direct Costs                 $ 2,909,963      $ 1,279,062         $ 198,256      $ 1,000,000      $ 432,645


The funding sources for this project are CTEP, ARRA, Transportation, Community and System Preservation (TCSP) grant, and numerous local sources listed below:

BikeNet                                               $ 33,000.00
Dowl/HKM                                           $ 8,000.00
St. Vincent’s Hospital                          $ 10,000.00
Sample Foundation                             $ 10,000.00
Recreation Trails Program grant          $ 42,000.00
City Public Works                                 $ 20,000.00
GO Bond                                              $ 77,000.00

Staff recommends that Council authorize the Mayor to execute the CTEP/ARRA Project Specific Agreement for the Main Street Underpass project and recommend to the Policy Coordinating Committee the 2007-2011 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) be amended to include the use of ARRA funds for this project.