Fourth Allocation of Public Transportation Emergency Relief Funds in Response to Hurricane Sandy

SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the allocation of $834,612,566 through the Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program (Emergency Relief Program, Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance #20.527) for recovery projects to three FTA recipients with estimated damages that exceed the amounts of funding previously made available: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, the New Jersey Transit Corporation, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Funds allocated in this notice are in addition to funds allocated on March 29, 2013 (78 FR 19357), May 29, 2013 (78 FR 32296), and November 5, 2014 (79 FR 65762), and brings the total amount of Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief funds allocated by FTA to date to $10.088 billion. Of that amount, $5,196,184,125 has been allocated for emergency response, recovery, and rebuilding projects and $4,891,883,625 has been allocated for resilience projects, which are designed to protect transit systems in the Hurricane Sandy disaster area from damages associated with future storms. With this notice, FTA has now fully allocated all of the funding made available under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (Appropriations Act, Pub. L. 113-2). FTA is allocating funds consistent with the requirements of the Appropriations Act, the FTA Emergency Relief Program 49 U.S.C. 5324, the Final Rule for the Emergency Relief Program, 49 CFR part 602, published in the Federal Register on October 7, 2014 (78 FR 23806), and all previously announced FTA policies and procedures for Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief funding.

In addition, this notice establishes a procedure for recipients to request the reallocation of funding previously allocated for resilience projects to fund eligible disaster recovery expenses in excess of the total amount of funding available from previous allocations, insurance payments, and the expected local cost share. Funds reallocated under this procedure must be used for disaster recovery expenses or be returned to FTA upon completion of the recovery effort. Reallocation requests are subject to the terms and conditions specified in this notice and must be approved by FTA.

Unless specifically revised by this notice, all previously published program policies and requirements associated with Hurricane Sandy recovery and rebuilding funding remain in effect.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact the appropriate FTA Regional Office found at http://www.fta.dot.gov for application-specific information and other assistance needed in preparing an FTA grant application. For program-specific questions, please contact Adam Schildge, Office of Program Management, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Washington, DC 20590, phone: (202) 366-0778, or email, [email protected]. For legal questions, contact Helen Serassio, Office of Chief Counsel, same address, phone: (202) 366-1974, or email, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Allocation of Hurricane Sandy Recovery Funding

II. Procedure for Reallocation of Resilience Funds for Disaster Recovery

III. Award Administration

I. Allocation of Hurricane Sandy Recovery Funding

The FTA Emergency Relief (ER) Program provides FTA with the authority to reimburse emergency response and recovery costs for public transportation systems, including costs for projects to protect systems in danger of future damage (resilience projects), after an emergency or major disaster. The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act provides $10.9 billion for FTA's Emergency Relief Program for recovery, relief, and resilience efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. However, as a result of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 2011 (Pub. L. 112-25) for fiscal year (FY) 2013, approximately five percent, or almost $545 million of the $10.9 billion, was subject to sequestration and is unavailable for Hurricane Sandy disaster relief, leaving approximately $10.349 billion available. In addition, $185 million was transferred to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) leaving a balance of $10.164 billion. FTA has allocated the available funding in multiple tiers for emergency response, recovery and rebuilding, locally-prioritized resilience projects, competitively selected resilience projects, and through direct transfers to other DOT offices.

Purpose of allocation........................ Amount allocated

Response, Recovery and Rebuilding (including.. $5,196,184,125

$834 million in this notice)

Locally-Prioritized Resilience................1,300,000,000

Competitive Resilience........................3,591,883,625

Total Allocations..............................*1 10,088,067,750

....*1 An additional..$76,232,250 is available for oversight/administrative expenses for a total of..$10,164,300,000.

With this notice, FTA is allocating the remaining $834.6 million in available recovery funding on a proportional basis, based on previous FTA recovery allocations and detailed damage assessments submitted by the affected agencies that were prepared in cooperation with FTA and Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) staff, including recently validated updates to these estimates. The damage assessments completed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy estimated a recovery and rebuilding cost of $5.83 billion. During the summer of 2015, FTA was notified by three of the affected transit agencies that the estimated cost of recovery and rebuilding has increased due to previously unknown latent damages, refinement of the cost estimates for recovery capital projects, and changes in the construction market since the original damage estimates were submitted. FTA required submission of the revised cost estimates by August 14, 2015. Based on those submittals, FTA independently verified the validity of proposed increases, and has determined that the estimated total cost of repairing the damage has increased by approximately $2.1 billion to a revised total estimated $7.9 billion.

As this is the final allocation of funds, FTA is allocating these funds proportionally based on the current estimated unfunded recovery need for each agency, which takes into account the current revised estimated damage assessments as well as funds that have previously been allocated. Consistent with previous allocations and program policies, recovery funding allocated in this notice can be used for eligible recovery expenses in accordance with the Emergency Relief program requirements. This includes the recovery costs of transportation assets owned by other entities, to the extent those assets are used for public transportation purposes, and in a proportion consistent with written agreement(s) between the public transit agency and the owner of the asset.

The approximately $834.6 million allocated in this notice includes approximately $817 million that was reserved for future allocation and a remaining balance of $17.473 million from the approximately $28 million that FTA set aside in the March 29, 2013, Federal Register Notice of Allocation. Prior to determining the allocation amounts in this notice, FTA solicited requests for outstanding Hurricane Sandy disaster relief needs from other affected transit agencies. Based on the responses received, FTA has determined that there are no remaining disaster recovery needs beyond the three agencies included in this notice.

.... Federal Transit Administration FTA Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program

.... [Allocations for Hurricane Sandy recovery, by agency *]

State(s)..........Agency........................Discretionary funding ID

................................................(current allocation)

NY................New York Metropolitan........ D2016-SAND-003

..................Transportation Authority

NY, NJ............Port Authority of New York....D2016-SAND-004

..................and New Jersey

NJ................New Jersey Transit............D2016-SAND-005

..................Corporation

Mult..............Other affected agencies

Grand total

.... Federal Transit Administration FTA Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program

.... [Allocations for Hurricane Sandy recovery, by agency *]

State(s)..........Previous recovery.. Additional..........Total allocations

..................allocations........ recovery and

......................................restoration

NY................ $2,896,771,774......$432,019,737........$3,328,791,511

NY, NJ............1,073,024,652...... 299,760,847........ 1,372,785,499

NJ................341,990,757........ 102,831,982........ 444,822,739

Mult..............49,784,376..........0.................. 49,784,376

Grand total...... 4,361,571,559...... 834,612,566........ 5,196,184,125

.. * Allocation amounts reflect reductions due to sequestration. Recovery funds include capital and operating assistance

II. Procedure for Reallocation of Resilience Funds for Disaster Recovery

A. Policy

FTA has determined that certain transit agencies have estimated total recovery and rebuilding costs that exceed the amount of funding made available for disaster recovery under the FTA ER Program. These damage estimates have increased due to the discovery of latent damages, refinement to project cost estimates, and changes in the construction market since the original estimates were submitted. The need for Federal assistance has also increased due to the use by recipients of statutory alternatives to local cost sharing and the undetermined status of insurance proceeds. Additionally, FTA has previously allocated funding to these agencies for resilience projects designed to protect the transit systems from damages associated with future natural disasters; however, a portion of this resilience funding has not yet been obligated or disbursed.

Based on a review of the remaining unfunded disaster recovery needs, FTA will allow recipients the option to request a reallocation of unliquidated resilience funding for their remaining unfunded disaster recovery expenses.

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Notice.

Citation: "81 FR 43705"

Federal Register Page Number: "43705"

"Notices"