Title
Apply for U.S. Department of Transportation Reconnecting Communities Pilot Discretionary Grant Opportunity for Federal Fiscal Years 2023-24 through 2025-26 - Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding (Ordinance S-51345) - District 4
Description
Request to retroactively authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to apply for, accept and, if awarded, enter into agreement(s) for disbursement of Federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) through the Federal Fiscal Years (FFYs) 2023-24 through 2025-26 Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Program grant opportunity. If awarded, the funding will be used to initiate a planning grant. 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 $1.44 million, and the City's local match would not exceed $360,000.
Report
Summary
The RCP grant is a funding program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed into law on November 15, 2021. The USDOT issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity on July 10, 2024, offering $150 million in planning funds, $50 million annually. The RCP grant is a discretionary grant program that aims to connect communities that have been separated from economic opportunities due to transportation infrastructure. The specific goals and objectives of the grant include:
- Prioritize disadvantaged communities.
- Aim to improve access to daily needs such as jobs, education, health care, food, and recreation.
- Foster equitable development and restoration.
- Reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity, including mobility, access or economic development.
The City's application is for a planning grant to analyze possible crossing solutions, plan a continuous pathway, and prepare environmental documentation for the Grand Canalscape Phase IV project, a multiuse path that would stretch from 47th to 23rd avenues. The Grand Canalscape Phase IV will create a nearly four-mile-long continuous path that would complete and close the gap for improvements along the Grand Canalscape traversing three large transportation barriers including Interstate 17, US 60/Grand Avenue and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad crossing. The grant if awarded would be the initial planning step to connect the larger improved sections stretching over 12 miles along the canal from Glendale through Phoenix to Tempe.
The RCP grant submittal deadline was September 30, 2024.
Financial Impact
The estimated total cost for the planning project is approximately $1.8 million. The maximum Federal participation rate is 80 percent, with a minimum local match of 20 percent of the total eligible project costs. If awarded, the Federal match would not exceed $1.44 million (80 percent) and the City’s costs would be approximately $360,000 (20 percent) for the local match.
Funding for the local match is available in the Street Transportation Department's Capital Improvement Program budget. Potential grant funding received is available through the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from USDOT through the FFYs 2023-24 through 2025-26 RCP grant opportunity.
Location
Grand Canal from 47th to 23rd avenues.
Council District: 4
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Managers Inger Erickson and Mario Paniagua, and the Street Transportation Department.