Answer:

Heavy maintenance generally refers to occasional or periodic maintenance on facilities, such as track work, or cleaning a station and making minor repairs to that station after the storm, as opposed to restoring vehicles to operable status. Repairing vehicles seriously damaged in the storm to an operable status is an eligible expense.

Answer:

Funds made available for the FTA Emergency Relief Program are available until expended, and thus do not have a lapse date. Once obligated, funds must be expended within 24 months. FTA is working to resolve questions and concerns regarding this issue and will post information as it becomes available.

Answer:

The FHWA and FTA joint planning rule (23 CFR 450.324) provides that "emergency relief projects" that do not involve substantial functional, locational, or capacity changes are not required to be included in the TIP/STIP. For purposes of FTA's Emergency Relief Program (ERP), "emergency relief projects" may include recovery funded projects, and if applicable, integral resiliency-elements for the said specific recovery projects. Generally, it does not apply to stand-alone or auxiliary resiliency projects funded out of a project sponsor's local priority resiliency allocation or future competitive resiliency allocations. For these category of projects and others that would not qualify under the exception, grantees must ensure the projects funded under this program are included in the TIP and STIP prior to incurring costs.To qualify for this exception, the grantee must certify in writing that the project funded under FTA’s ERP does not involve substantial functional, locational or capacity changes and that the local share is available. The Grantee must submit this documentation to FTA in order for the project to be considered eligible for federal participation. If a Grantee is unsure whether a project qualifies as one of the exceptions, it should contact the FTA. If during the grant award process the FTA determines that the exception does not apply to a specific project that the Grantee certified, then that project must be programmed on the TIP/STIP. Absent a certification stating that the project qualifies as one of the exceptions or a previously issued waiver, the FTA expects projects funded under FTA’s ERP be included in the TIP/STIP prior to incurring costs.

Answer:

FTA does not require a stand-alone EJ analysis for the S/TIP. Chapter IV of the Circular describes how environmental justice considerations at the planning level, which extend to the S/TIP, are addressed primarily through data collection and comparative analysis, and public engagement.
As projects are prioritized from the plan into the S/TIP, and then selected from the S/TIP for implementation, it is assumed that a S/TIP would be equally reflective of EJ considerations as the plan from which it is derived. FTA expects that projects that primarily benefit an EJ community would be equally likely to move forward into implementation as any other project.

Answer:

Labor costs that can be directly allocated to emergency operations are eligible. This includes straight-time and over-time. Stand-by time is eligible as long as the stand-by time expenses were incurred for an eligible activity, for example operators placed on stand-by for evacuations or temporary service. Leave (administrative or personal) taken during the emergency is not an eligible expense. Accrued leave and other fringe benefits earned by hourly employees are eligible if the expenses can be allocated to an eligible ER activity and an indirect cost rate is not applied to the grant. Fringe benefits for all salaried employees, as well as straight-time labor for salaried management are not eligible as a direct cost. Over-time for salaried management may be eligible as reimbursement for emergency operations if the over-time can be allocated to eligible activities.

Indirect costs, which may include non-allocable fringe benefits, are an eligible expense and may be applied to the grant if the applicant has an approved Cost Allocation Plan or Indirect Cost Rate Proposal, or the applicant may use the de minimis rate if eligible. Please see section 4.1.3 “Eligible Projects and Costs” of FTA’s Emergency Relief Manual for more information.

Answer:

Generally if the facility was in transit use at the time of the disaster and the facility sustained damage, ER funds will be made available to bring the aspects of the facility that were damaged by the storm up to a state of good repair.
 
For example, if an administrative building was in use by the transit agency and in poor condition but was flooded with 6 inches of water during a the storm, ER funds could be used to repair or replace damaged flooring, drywall, office equipment, etc. at current standards.

If a facility was not in transit use at the time of the damage, whether due to age, condition or other reasons, the damage would not be eligible for repair.  However, ER funds may be available to reimburse for debris removal and other expenses that return the property to a safe status as long as the facility is still owned by the transit agency.

Answer:

For the FTA Employment Practice Assessment for veteran hiring and promotions (Circular Section 2.2.6), use the Department of Labor definition for "eligible veteran" found at 38 U.S.C. Section 4211(4). It reads:

(4) The term ‘‘eligible veteran’’ means a person who—

(A) served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days and was discharged or released therefrom with other than a dishonorable discharge;

(B) was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability;

(C) as a member of a reserve component under an order to active duty pursuant to section 12301(a), (d), or (g), 12302, or 12304 of title 10, served on active duty during a period of war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge is authorized and was discharged or released from such duty with other than a dishonorable discharge; or

(D) was discharged or released from active duty by reason of a sole survivorship discharge (as that term is defined in section 1174(i) of title 10).

Answer:

FTA decided to set aside $50 million of the overall $330 million appropriation for latent damages and other emergency-related expenses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria that may arise in the future.

Answer:

Project-specific EJ analysis is conducted as part of a NEPA document. Therefore, if the NEPA document needs to be updated (e.g., when there are project changes that have the potential for significant environmental impacts, or a significant project change which was not analyzed previously), the EJ analysis should be reviewed to confirm that there are no new impacts to the EJ population that would be considered disproportionately high and adverse. FTA will re-evaluate the EJ analysis to determine whether additional EJ analysis is required.

Answer:

If an applicant believes the FTA HMCE analysis tool does not capture all of the resilience benefits of a proposed project, the applicant should provide additional information in the qualitative benefits section of the HMCE tool, which is located beneath the projects apparent benefit cost ratio (BCR). Other benefits may also be quantified by an applicant and submitted separately, however, in such a case the applicant must submit a highly detailed explanation of how and why the alternative analysis differs from the HMCE tool. FTA will carefully scrutinize the justification, as well as the procedures and methodology provided together with the results of the HMCE tool.

Answer:

Automated rail fixed-guideway systems are excluded from the research plan because automation is a fairly mature technology in those systems, use different technologies, and operate under a different set of parameters from bus transit (i.e. dedicated rail lines). There is a greater need for transit bus automation research because it lags behind rail transit automation in deployment readiness. Public transit using rubber-tired vehicles covers a larger set of operational service types (e.g., circulator, feeder, local, express, bus rapid transit, demand response, etc.), serves a wider population and geographic area than rail, and requires less infrastructure. The purpose of the strategic research plan is to establish a path forward for developing automation in a shared environment, which has a higher degree of complexity as well as a larger area for growth. Automating bus transit can greatly improve mobility across the population, but also has challenges that need to be addressed prior to widespread implementation. The strategic research plan aims to address these challenges and facilitate adoption of automation technology by transit providers.

Answer:

The bulk of the appropriation, $277.525 million, is being allocated today to Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for response, recovery, rebuilding, and resiliency projects. It is standard practice for FTA Emergency Relief Program funds to be delivered in multiple allocations, to allow affected grantees appropriate time to evaluate their needs and to assess damages.

As authorized by the appropriating legislation, a small amount of the funding ($2.475 million) will go toward administrative and oversight expenses.

Answer:

FTA has the discretion to permit a recipient to use Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program funds to support a limited competition procurement.Pursuant to FTA’s authorizing statute at 49 U.S.C. § 5325(a), an FTA recipient is required to use FTA funds to support project activities using full and open competition. A recipient may conduct a sole source procurement in very limited circumstances under the Common Grant Rule at 49 C.F.R. Part 18.36. A recipient does not have explicit authority, by law, to conduct a limited competition procurement.Notwithstanding this framework, FTA has the discretionary authority under 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D to waive its requirements through the Emergency Relief Docket in cases involving national or regional emergencies and disasters. Given this authority, FTA will entertain requests for emergency relief waivers from FTA’s full and open competition requirement, and FTA will consider requests to approve limited competition procurements. To be clear, a request for a waiver is not a guarantee of a waiver. FTA maintains the discretion to grant or deny a waiver request.If a recipient is interested in pursuing a limited competition procurement, then it must obtain an emergency relief waiver of FTA’s full and open competition requirement pursuant to 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D and FTA’s Federal Register Notice of Establishment of Emergency Relief Docket for Calendar Year 2013 dated February 15, 2013 (available at www.regulations.gov, docket number FTA-2013-0001). A request for a waiver should be addressed to the Administrator, and it should contain a compelling justification and any relevant supporting documentation as to why a waiver should be granted. The recipient should upload its request into the Emergency Relief Docket. FTA will process the request in accordance with 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D. A recipient may not award a limited competition contract supported by Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program funds prior to FTA’s written approval.FTA strongly recommends that recipients submit requests for waivers as early as practicable in the procurement process. A recipient should submit such a request at the time it determines the best strategy is a limited competition procurement. Recipients should not assume that waiver requests will be granted.