Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

Call for Non-Exempt projects to be added to the 2009 TIP

August 6, 2008
The federally required Transportation Improvement Program or TIP is a comprehensive listing of all Bay Area surface transportation projects that are to receive federal funding or are subject to a federally required action, or are considered regionally significant for air quality conformity purposes over the four year TIP period. MTC is required to prepare and adopt an updated TIP at least every four years. MTC has been in the process of developing the 2009 TIP and the draft TIP has been approved by the Commission. The 2009 TIP covers the four-year period from FY 2008-09 through FY 2011-12. The 2009 TIP is presently a reflection of the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan (T-2030).

MTC is also in the process of developing and adopting an updated Regional Transportation Plan (T-2035). The 2009 TIP has to be conformed to the new RTP and this is the only opportunity for the project sponsors to add new air quality non-exempt projects to the 2009 TIP over the next four years, until the next TIP is adopted in 2012.

This memo is a primer on conforming the 2009 TIP to T-2035 and adding new air quality non-exempt projects to the TIP.

On July 11, 2008 the draft committed list of projects in the financially constrained RTP was presented to the MTC Planning Committee. Partner agencies, including Caltrans, CMA’s, transit operators and project sponsors are requested to compare the projects in T-2035 list to the projects already listed in the 2009 TIP and develop a list of new air quality non-exempt projects, or project phases that have to be added to the 2009 as part of the revision to conform the 2009 TIP to T-2035. It is also an opportunity for project sponsors to update the existing TIP listings to add capital phases to projects (capital phases are right-of-way phase and construction phase) or change existing scope and cost of projects to reflect the new RTP.

Developing the list entails reviewing all your current TIP projects and projects in T-2035, and informing MTC Staff of:

• Which projects or project phases are in the financially constrained element of the RTP that are not in the 2009 TIP; and need to be in the TIP
• Any changes to existing projects (scope or funding) that might trigger air quality conformity analysis;
• Any scope changes to the existing TIP projects that might trigger air quality conformity analysis;
• Updating project costs in eth 2009 TIP period to reflect cost changes made in T-2035. Federal regulations require that the project listings reflect the latest estimates of the total project cost including all local funds, and costs of each phase. All costs must be escalated to the year of expenditure. The total project cost must be shown in the TIP. If a phase of a project is outside of the TIP, and relies on unidentified funding, then use RTP-LRP as the fund source for the those funds outside the TIP period.

For the new TIP to be federally approved, the TIP has to be a conforming TIP. Air Quality (AQ) conformity refers to a set of federal regulations that require Metropolitan Planning Organizations such as MTC to assess the impact of the projects in the TIP on the region’s air quality. Hence lists of any new non-exempt projects have to be submitted to MTC before the deadline of Wednesday, August 13, 2008. This deadline is for new non-exempt AQ projects not in the current 2009 TIP, but will need to be added in as part of 2009 TIP Revision (Amendment 09-06.)

The information needed for the new AQ non-exempt project is a project listing that includes the project sponsor, county, mode, project description (the description has to be detailed enough to conduct AQ analysis); project cost and year of implementation (when it will open to the public); purpose of the project (if is an expansion project or a maintenance project, operations project or enhancement project. The information can be provided via email. Attachment A is an excel file format of the required information.

Project sponsors are encouraged to send in the list of projects even if they are unsure if it is air quality non-exempt so MTC staff can make the decision. CMAs are advised to coordinate the timely project review by counties and cities within their county. The complete list of T-2035 projects and an excel spreadsheet with all the projects in the 2009 TIP and the RTP ID’s are also attached for your information as Attachments B and C.

Once the air quality analysis has been completed by MTC, project sponsors are requested to send in detailed information on these projects to allow MTC staff to enter the projects into FMS as FMS continues to be locked down till the 2009 TIP is approved. Attachment D, an excel spreadsheet, is a format of the detailed information needed. Sponsors are requested to submit individual spreadsheets for each project. CMA’s are requested to compile a list of all the projects in their county to make project tracking easy.

Please complete the entry into excel files and send in all the detailed excel files as soon as possible, BUT NO LATER THAN September 8th, 2008. Draft version of Amendment 09-06 will be available for review starting Monday, October 13, 2008.

The revision and the draft air quality conformity analysis will be released for public review on Friday, January 9, 2009.

Please focus your review on the following elements:

1. Are the projects properly described in the TIP?

Review project name and project description to ensure that the name, limits and scope are accurate.

2. Are the dollar amounts, fund sources and programming years correct?

In cases with existing TIP listings, particularly for federal and state funding, the fund sources and amounts should not be changed, since they reflect official MTC programming actions. For new projects, kindly ensure that all the funding information is present in the excel spreadsheet with phases, fund codes and years marked.

All projects must show the total cost for the project as described in the TIP listing, including any costs outside the four-year period of the TIP. Any funds outside the four-year TIP period (beyond FY 11-12) that are not yet specifically identified and committed should be coded with the RTP-LRP fund code (as long as it is specified in the financially constrained element of the Regional Transportation Plan, T-2035. All costs must be escalated to the year of expenditure.

3. Are all funded phases reflected in the project listing?

As part of the regulations requiring that project listings show the total project costs, federal guidance requires that all funded phases be reflected accurately in the project listing. If a project listing does not show any amount programmed for a phase, (e.g. ENV, PE, PS&E, ROW or Con) a formal TIP amendment and perhaps a new conformity analysis would be required to amend such a phase into the TIP if necessary in the future. Therefore, you must show all project phases (even if funded with local resources) in your project listings if they are not listed already.

Funds for a project phase must be listed in the same year, which is the year of allocation/obligation for that phase (e.g. ENV, PS&E, PE, ROW or CON). Exceptions are for pre-approved corridor projects (as listed in the RTP), annual ongoing service/operations projects (such as the Spare the Air Program), multi-year program of projects (such a various streets and roads rehabilitation, or bus rehabilitation/replacement programs), or projects with multiple segments (in which case the project description must include a statement noting the number of segments such as “segments 1 through 3”).

4. Should the Carryover Field be checked?

Please enter Carryover to 2009 if:
The funds are in a pending FTA grant; or

1. If the funds have been transferred to FTA from FHWA but have not been included in a FTA grant; or
2. If the funds are a prior year FTA earmark not yet obligated or included in a grant.


Do not use the Carryover Field for non-FTA funds.

5. In February 2008, FHWA released guidance on transportation planning requirements with respect to NEPA approval (See Attached). We recommend project sponsors that will seek NEPA approval for their projects, read and understand this guidance and ensure projects are properly programmed in the TIP.
6. If you have any funding specific question(s) please contact the following MTC staff persons:

We appreciate your help in updating the 2009 TIP to conform to T-2035. Time spent now getting the TIP entries correct will save time in the future by minimizing additional changes, preventing additional air quality conformity analyses, and avoiding potential project delivery delays. Also kindly remember that this is the only opportunity you will have to add new non-exempt projects to the TIP over the next four year period.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.

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