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FY 2020 Wake Transit Work Plan Amendment Request - Commuter Rail Early Project Development
Bret Martin, MPO Staff
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Six (6) FY 2020 Wake Transit Work Plan amendment requests were submitted for the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year. Of the six (6) amendment requests, five (5) were recommended for approval by the Wake County Transit Planning Advisory Committee (TPAC) in January and were subsequently approved by the Executive Board in February, while one (1) was tabled for further consideration at the TPAC’s February regular meeting. The tabled amendment request to allocate funding to GoTriangle for commuter rail early project development activities has now been recommended for approval by both the TPAC and TCC and is proceeding for consideration by the Executive Board in March.
This amendment request would effectively allocate $5,666,667 to GoTriangle from reserves originally set aside in the FY 2018 and FY 2020 Wake Transit Work Plans for further alternatives refinement and project development for the commuter rail corridor identified in the Wake County Transit Plan. This requested allocation assumes that the Wake County share of the cost for the next proposed phase of study is slightly less than two-thirds of the cost of the total scope of performance, with Durham County and other partner funds assumed to support the remainder of the total cost. The scope of performance for early project development activities will include, but is not limited to:
• Land surveys, encroachment identification and utility investigations;
• Preliminary engineering and environmental study for key risk areas;
• Assessment of land availability for stations and park-and-rides and identification of site options for maintenance facility;
• Railroad coordination;
• Community and stakeholder engagement planning;
• Feasibility assessment for FTA Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program and develop project management plans; and
• Further refinement of risk assessment.
More information on specific activities associated with the proposed next phase of study is included in the ‘Memorandum of Understanding in Support of Continued Development of the Greater Triangle Commuter Rail Project’, which will also be considered by the Executive Board on its March agenda. If approved, the requested $5,666,667 allocation would be combined with a previously authorized allocation of $333,333 to GoTriangle in the FY 2019 Wake Transit Work Plan for commuter rail network capacity modeling, which is also included under the scope of the next phase of study.
The amendment request was released for public comment on December 13, 2019. The public comment period closed on January 12, 2020. No public comments were received in response to this specific amendment request. The TPAC’s recommendation of approval of this amendment request is based on a finding that any financial or scope impacts associated with the request are appropriate for the continued implementation of the Wake Transit Plan. More detailed correspondence on the amendment request was provided to the TPAC for its consideration and is included as Attachment 1, with the information related to this specific amendment request highlighted in red text.
Requested Action: Action Consider approval of the FY20 Wake Transit Work Plan amendment request to fund early project development activities for commuter rail, with the condition that no funds will be spent until an MOU detailing the cost share is approved by the appropriate boards.