Three new earmarked categories have been created. The individual earmarks in this category are mostly larger then those in the HPP program and, as the name of the program suggests, are larger in scope. A second set of earmarks is provided for national corridor infrastructure improvements. The corridor infrastructure program is not new, but was not earmarked in previous authorizing legislation.
The final earmarked category is for transportation improvements. This is a totally new program and there is no explanation in the conference report as to how, or if, the projects in this list are supposed to differ from those in the HPPs program. It should be noted that individual projects may appear in more then one earmarking list and that they may receive different amounts of funding in each instance.
The above does not represent the full extent of earmarking in the act. There are also 32 individually listed earmarks throughout the highway title of the bill Title I. The other largely earmarked program in the act is in the transit title. Much of the discussion about earmarks since passage of the bill has been focused on how earmarking effects the Equity Bonus calculation.
By congressional parlance there are two types of earmarks in the bill for EB purposes, those "below the line," meaning they are part of the annual EB process and those above the line projects, meaning they are not.
This computation significantly affects state shares because some states have received considerably more earmarked funds on a proportional basis than others. The other three earmarked programs are above the line and miscellaneous earmarks in the highway title are above the line. Transit earmarks are not part of the EB calculation. Transportation Enhancements TE program activities Sec. The TE program funds 12 major categories of projects:.
The funding mechanism for TE program activities has been modified. Because STP funding is set to rise under P. The TCSP program, established under TEA and reauthorized under SAFETEA, is designed to assist in planning, developing, and implementing strategies to integrate transportation, community, and system preservation plans and practices, and identify private sector-based initiatives to improve such relationships. TCSP funding was authorized for projects that aimed to improve the efficiency of the transportation system; reduce environmental impacts of transportation; reduce the need for costly future public infrastructure investments; ensure efficient access to jobs, services, and centers of trade; and examine development patterns and identify strategies to encourage compatible private sector development patterns.
State, tribal, regional, and local governments would be eligible to receive TCSP grants. SAFETEA continues to provide a significant level of funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs that encourage a greater number of non-motorized trips, and pedestrian and cyclist safety, health, and education programs.
That program permits states to allocate TE funds for 1 provision of facilities for pedestrians and bicycles, 2 provision of safety and educational activities for pedestrians and bicyclists, and 3 preservation of abandoned railway corridors including the conversion and use thereof for pedestrian or bicycle trails. Provision of pedestrian and bicycle facilities accounted for It requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish and carry out a program to enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school; to make bicycling and walking a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and to facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities.
Funding is to be apportioned among the states based on the ratio of total student enrollment in primary and middle schools in each state relative to the total student enrollment in primary and middle schools in all the states.
Each state's apportionment would be administered by the state's department of transportation. Funds are not transferable and will remain available until expended. Funds apportioned under the program may be used for planning, design, and construction of infrastructure-related projects that will substantially improve the ability of students to walk and bike to school.
Projects include sidewalk improvements, traffic calming and speed reduction improvements, on-street bicycle facilities, off-street bicycle and pedestrian facilities, pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements, secure bicycle parking facilities, secure bicycle parking facilities, and traffic diversion improvements in the vicinity of schools.
Funds allocated to states under this program may also be used for noninfrastructure-related or behavioral activities to encourage walking and bicycling to school, such as public awareness campaigns and outreach to press and community leaders, traffic education and enforcement in the vicinity of schools, student sessions on bicycle and pedestrian safety, health, and environment, and funding for training, volunteers, and coordinators of safe routes to school programs. Each state receiving an apportionment under this program is required to use a sufficient amount of the apportionment to fund a full-time position of coordinator of the state's safe route to school program.
The Secretary is required to make grants to a national nonprofit organization engaged in promoting safe routes to schools to operate a national safe routes to school clearinghouse; to develop information and educational programs on safe routes to school; and to provide technical assistance and disseminate techniques and strategies used for successful safe routes to school programs. Funding for the clearinghouse would come from the Secretary's administrative expenses set aside.
Section also establishes a task force to study and develop a strategy for advancing safe routes to school programs nationwide. The results of the study are to be transmitted to Congress not later than March 31, CRS contact: Glennon Harrison. Within the overall increase, Congress shifted the share of funding going to various parts of the transit program.
The share of transit funding going to the Urbanized Area Formula Program shrank from Generally, the act made only minor changes to the structure of the federal transit program. As described below, a few new programs were added, several new funding categories were created within existing programs, and some changes were made to existing programs.
Other provisions in the act include a requirement that all federal agencies in the National Capital Region offer their employees a transit pass as a transportation fringe benefit Section ; a provision making the alternatives analysis required as part of the New Starts program eligible for FTA grants Section , with 18 such studies earmarked for FYFY; and earmarks for the Bus and Bus Facilities Program for FYFY in TEA, there were no earmarks for that program for the last three years of the authorization period, leaving the earmarking during those years to the appropriations committees.
Half of the funds under this pair of programs are apportioned to states according to population forecasts for 15 years beyond the date of the most recent Census, and are distributed to both urbanized and non-urbanized areas within each recipient state according to the ratio between urban and rural population within that state. The other half of the funding is distributed to urbanized areas in states whose population densities exceed persons per mile.
This is a formula program to increase the availability of transportation services to persons with disabilities, "including transportation to and from jobs and employment support services" Section This program will not be subject to the labor protection provisions of 40 U. This is a discretionary grant program to provide transportation alternatives to the private automobile in national parks and public lands, in order to protect those areas and to provide access to those areas for everyone, including persons with disabilities Section This program will be exempt from the labor protection provisions of 40 U.
This program provides additional funding for small under , in population urbanized areas that provide a level of transit service comparable to that provided by urbanized areas with populations between , and 1 million. The areas of transit service that are measured for this program are: passenger miles per vehicle revenue mile and vehicle revenue hour; vehicle revenue miles and hours per capita; and passengers and passenger miles per capita. This program is a response to an issue created by the formula for urbanized areas under , in population: unlike the formulas for larger urbanized areas, the formula for urbanized areas under , in population does not include any performance factors.
One reason for this difference was to relieve transit providers in small areas of the burden of having to collect and report the same amount of data about their operations as agencies in the larger areas.
But one result of the difference in treatment is that small areas that provide higher-than-average levels of transit service do not receive a level of funding that recognizes their efforts, compared to other small areas that do not offer a comparable level of service. DOT concluded that sufficient issues existed to consider changes in the Urbanized Areas Formula Program apportionment formulas to reward the extra effort of these transit-intensive areas. This program is a new category within the New Starts program, which funds new fixed-guideway transit systems or extensions to existing systems Section a e.
CRS Contact: [author name scrubbed]. Under the TEA deployment program, maglev projects in Pennsylvania and Maryland were selected to compete for the available funding. The explanatory language in the conference committee report on SAFETEA notes that the Committee intends for this program to be administered as a new program and not as the continuation of any previously authorized program.
The act reauthorizes the Swift Rail Act, expanding the eligible expenses from "planning" to "development" of high-speed rail corridors Section The act directs the Secretary of Transportation to make grants to the Alaska Railroad for capital rehabilitation and improvements benefitting passenger transportation Section No specific amounts are authorized for these grants; the act authorizes "such sums as may be necessary.
The act requires the Federal Railroad Administration FRA to establish a program to review continuous welded rail joint bar inspection data from railroads and FRA track inspectors, and directs FRA to require track owners using continuous welded rail track to improve the identification of cracks in rail joint bars Section FRA is also directed to develop regulations for appropriate design standards for pressurized tank cars, and recommend ways to reduce the risk of catastrophic fracture of pressurized tank cars constructed before CRS contact: [author name scrubbed].
This program subsumes the existing roadway hazard elimination program 23 U. States could use the remainder on other highway projects if they certified it was not needed for safety improvements. This funding is apportioned by a formula using three ratios: one-third of the funds are apportioned based on a state's share of total lane-miles of federal-aid highways; one-third based on a state's share of total vehicle miles traveled on federal-aid highways; and one-third based on a state's share of fatalities on the federal-aid highway system.
No state will receive less than 0. In both cases, states that demonstrate to the Secretary's satisfaction that they have met all their needs for safety projects on grade crossings or on high risk rural roads can use their share of those funds for other safety projects.
States are required to prepare a strategic highway safety plan. The act, as mentioned earlier, also creates a new Safe Routes to Schools program Section to fund infrastructure projects that increase the safety of children within two miles of primary and middle schools, in order to encourage children to walk or bike to school. The act creates a new grant program to promote seat belt use Section States that enact a primary seat belt law 14 after December 31, would receive a grant states that have already enacted a primary seat belt law will also receive a smaller grant under this program.
The act also expands a grant program to reduce the rate of motorists driving while impaired by alcohol Section To receive a grant, a state must have an alcohol-related fatality rate of 0. For FY, a state must be carrying out 3 of the specified programs, for FYa state must carry out 4 of the programs, and for FY and FY a state must be carrying out 5 of the specified programs.
The specified programs are: check points or saturation patrols; a prosecution and adjudication program; annually increasing the percentage of drivers involved in fatal accidents whose blood is tested for its alcohol content; more severe penalties for drivers convicted of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.
The grants may be used to fund any of the specified programs, or certain other related expenses. The act also directs that DOT establish standards to reduce vehicle rollover crashes, to reduce the incidence of occupants being thrown from vehicles in rollover crashes, to increase the roof strength of passenger vehicles to protect occupants in rollover crashes Section , and to enhance passenger motor vehicle occupant protection in side impact crashes Section ITS, often consisting of communication systems, sensors or monitoring equipment, and computers, is used in highway or transit projects, facilities, or operations with the intention of improving their performance or safety.
For example, ITS enables traffic management centers to receive real-time video and other measures or indicators of traffic flow, incidents, events, or crashes, as well as roadway and weather conditions. Such information can help operators redirect traffic, coordinate emergency response, or improve the operation and coordination of the surface transportation system.
That amount does not include federal aid highway funds allocated by the states to deploy ITS. Both the short- and long-term, research and development, as well as technology deployment activities RD and TD have a role in helping to reduce the various challenges that affect the performance or operation of the nation's surface transportation systems.
These challenges include congestion, security, loss of life and injury due to traffic crashes, degradation of environmental or life quality e. With the clock ticking down on the future of federal highway and transit funding, the United States Congress and House of Representatives yesterday both voted to extend funding through September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
This measure has now officially been signed into law by President Barack Obama and will cover funding related to highway, highway safety, and transit programs. This vote was part of H. This funding, which goes toward surface transportation maintenance, development, and construction, has been kept afloat by multiple continuing resolutions typically ranging from four-to-seven weeks and keep funding at current levels.
When these previous continuing resolutions were granted, there was no clear picture as to the future reauthorization and if or when a new long-term alternative would be offered up.
A long-term extension, moreover, is essential to ensure reliability in transportation planning because short-term extensions force states and local governments to focus on smaller projects rather than invest in comprehensive infrastructure projects that require federal funding certainty. As approaches, we look forward to working closely with the th Congress to develop a sustainable national strategy for surface transportation infrastructure.
Raymopnd C. Congressman Jason Altmire Pa. The Keystone pipeline will create thousands of jobs, and is one of the most important economic investments we can make. The construction of the Keystone pipeline will lower the cost of fuel for millions of American families. This is a vital project and we must work to get construction underway. Related Stories.
Contractor of the Year Finalist. Wisconsin Kenworth opens dealership in La Crosse. On Record.
0コメント