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Item 1.F.
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| City Council Regular | |
| Date: | 05/09/2022 |
| Title: | Grant Agreement with Federal Highway Administration for Execution of the FY20 BUILD Grant |
| Presented by: | Lora Mattox |
| Department: | Planning & Community Services |
| Presentation: | No |
| Legal Review | Yes |
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council authorize the Mayor to sign the FY20 BUILD Grant Agreement.
BACKGROUND (Consistency with Adopted Plans and Policies, if applicable)
The City was awarded a FY20 BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) Grant from the US Department of Transportation to complete the Inner Belt Loop (Northwest Billings Connector) and Skyline Trail (Marathon Trail). At the federal level, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) administers the grant and is the party that the City enters into the grant agreement with. The total amount of funds granted to the City are $11,656,765. In addition to the Federal funds, the City and Billings TrailNet is contributing up to $7,085,000 to the project.
After numerous steps in the process over this last year, the City is now in position to sign the grant agreement and move the project toward bidding and construction. A summary of the activities that have occurred leading up to execution of the grant agreement is noted below.
The City completed the required NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) with a submittal and review by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) Environmental Service Bureau. Using the NEPA process, the City evaluated over 16 environmental and social/economic elements and how the proposed project could or would affect those elements. If any part of the project potentially could affect any one of the elements, the City would be required to identify mitigating measures. With the project occurring on vacant, undeveloped property, there were no mitigating construction projects for the City to undertake. The City was able to submit a Categorical Exclusion for this project, a much more streamlined process than that of a full environmental review. This review occurred throughout most of summer/fall of 2021. On October 27, 2021, the City received concurrence by MDT.
Once the NEPA documentation was completed, this allowed the City to actively initiate right-of-way activities. It is a FHWA requirement to have final NEPA concurrence prior to being able to begin right-of-way activities. This included ensuring all appraisal and appraisal review was completed per FHWA requirements. Staff is actively engaged with the right-of-way process and landowners and is making progress. Staff anticipates completing right-of-way activities by late May.
The City received approval of a White Paper on March 23, 2022. The White Paper was required by FHWA to update the project scope of work, schedule, and budget.
In addition to these activities, the final construction engineering is complete, including the various park interpretive and directional signage along the Skyline Trail (Marathon Trail). With the final design information, the City and design consultant were able to develop current project cost estimates.
All the procedures listed above are required prior to the City signing a grant agreement. The goal is to have the grant agreement executed in June 2022. Once the agreement is finalized, final review of construction and contract documents will be conducted by FHWA. Once concurrence is reached on the documents, the City can bid the construction project. Staff is estimating a date of August 2022 to begin the bidding process.
After numerous steps in the process over this last year, the City is now in position to sign the grant agreement and move the project toward bidding and construction. A summary of the activities that have occurred leading up to execution of the grant agreement is noted below.
The City completed the required NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) with a submittal and review by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) Environmental Service Bureau. Using the NEPA process, the City evaluated over 16 environmental and social/economic elements and how the proposed project could or would affect those elements. If any part of the project potentially could affect any one of the elements, the City would be required to identify mitigating measures. With the project occurring on vacant, undeveloped property, there were no mitigating construction projects for the City to undertake. The City was able to submit a Categorical Exclusion for this project, a much more streamlined process than that of a full environmental review. This review occurred throughout most of summer/fall of 2021. On October 27, 2021, the City received concurrence by MDT.
Once the NEPA documentation was completed, this allowed the City to actively initiate right-of-way activities. It is a FHWA requirement to have final NEPA concurrence prior to being able to begin right-of-way activities. This included ensuring all appraisal and appraisal review was completed per FHWA requirements. Staff is actively engaged with the right-of-way process and landowners and is making progress. Staff anticipates completing right-of-way activities by late May.
The City received approval of a White Paper on March 23, 2022. The White Paper was required by FHWA to update the project scope of work, schedule, and budget.
In addition to these activities, the final construction engineering is complete, including the various park interpretive and directional signage along the Skyline Trail (Marathon Trail). With the final design information, the City and design consultant were able to develop current project cost estimates.
All the procedures listed above are required prior to the City signing a grant agreement. The goal is to have the grant agreement executed in June 2022. Once the agreement is finalized, final review of construction and contract documents will be conducted by FHWA. Once concurrence is reached on the documents, the City can bid the construction project. Staff is estimating a date of August 2022 to begin the bidding process.
ALTERNATIVES
City Council may:
- Approve the grant agreement with FHWA and authorize the Mayor to sign the agreement; or,
- Not Approve the grant agreement with FHWA. If the agreement is not approved, the City would forego $11,656,965 in BUILD funds which could delay the construction of the Inner Belt Loop (Northwest Billings Connector) and Skyline Trail (Marathon Trail), and require the use of all local funds or other funding sources that are not secured at this time.
FISCAL EFFECTS
The City has committed $7,000,000 for these projects, consisting of gas tax and arterial fees in local funding toward the 2020 BUILD Grant as specified in the FY 2022 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The funding was approved by the City Council as part of the annual budgeting process. In addition to City funding, Billings TrailNet has donated $85,000 towards the Skyline Trail portion of the project.