Title
Apply for U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Opportunity for Federal Fiscal Years 2022-23 and 2023-24 - Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding (Ordinance S-51062)
Description
Request to retroactively authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to apply for, accept and, if awarded, enter into agreements for disbursement of Federal funding from U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) through the Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2022-23 and 2023-24 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant opportunity. Further request to authorize the City Treasurer to accept, and the City Controller to disburse, all funds related to this item. Funding for this grant opportunity is available through the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The total grant funds applied for will not exceed $146,627,854, and no City of Phoenix local match is required.
Report
Summary
The purpose of the CRISI Program to invest in projects to: improve railroad safety, efficiency and reliability; mitigate congestion; enhance multi-modal connections; and lead to new or substantially improved railway corridors. In March 2024, FRA issued a $2,478,391,050 notice of funding opportunity for the FFYs 2022-23 and 2023-24 CRISI grant program.
The Street Transportation Department partnered with, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway to submit an application by the May 28, 2024 submittal deadline.
The proposed project is located at the U.S. 60 (Grand Avenue), 35th Avenue and Indian School Road intersection and plans to eliminate two at-grade railroad crossings at the existing six-legged intersection by creating an elevated 4-legged intersection for 35th Avenue and Indian School Road. The project will help mitigate the complex issues around the six-legged highway/arterial intersection that also includes two at-grade railroad crossings. The regional project is currently in design with the environmental efforts slated to wrap up in the spring/summer of 2024.
Major benefits for this project include:
- Increased safety through the elimination of railroad conflicts at a major arterial intersection;
- Increased safety through the elimination of pedestrian/bicycle conflicts;
- Reduction in traffic delay;
- Improvement of rail operations;
- Improvement of travel time reliability;
- Improvement of traffic signal operations; and
- Facilitation of future high-capacity transit along 35th Avenue and Indian School Road.
If awarded, the City will delegate ADOT to manage the project and will elect to be an indirect recipient, so all project contracts and costs will be managed through ADOT.
Financial Impact
In addition to CRISI funding, the proposed multi-agency project will also be funded through a combination of other Federal funding from the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP), regional funding from the Maricopa County Regional Area Road Fund (RARF), and private funding from BNSF Railway.
The estimated total cost of the project is approximately $356,643,491. The maximum Federal participation rate is 80 percent, with a minimum local match of 20 percent of the total eligible project cost. If awarded, the Federal match will not exceed $146,627,854 (41 percent), the non-Federal match will be approximately $153,696,462 (43 percent) and the match from other Federal sources will be approximately $56,319,175 (16 percent). The City of Phoenix has no direct local match requirement.
Project costs are provided by source below:
FFYs 2022-23 and 2023-24 CRISI request - $146,627,854
Non-Federal match (RARF) - $148,696,462
Non-Federal match (BNSF) - $5,000,000
Other Federal sources (NHPP) - $56,319,175
Total - $356,643,491
Location
At the intersection of US 60 (Grand Avenue), 35th Avenue and Indian School Road.
Council Districts: 4 and 5
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Managers Inger Erickson and Mario Paniagua and the Street Transportation Department.