In establishing the Regional Surface Transportation Program Competitive Grants program, the Transportation Agency is seeking to fund projects that advance the goals of the Transportation Agency Board. These include delivering projects of regional significance that improve safety, provide maintenance for existing facilities, or support the development of a multimodal transportation network utilizing the principles of Complete Streets. Fair geographic balance in distributing the funds and the cost effectiveness of the proposed projects are also taken into consideration when recommending projects for funding.
The grant application is comprised of four sections, each with 25 available points, for a total possible application score of 100 points. The four categories are Project Information & Regional Significance, Complete Streets, Project Readiness & Cost Effectiveness, and Regional Transportation Plan Consistency. The scoring for the application was designed and approved by the Transportation Agency Board to favor projects that improve regional routes with high traffic volumes, include bicycle and pedestrian facilities and safety enhancements, can be completed within the three year funding window, and support the performance measures included in the 2014 Regional Transportation Plan.
In May 2017, the Technical Advisory and Bicycle & Pedestrian Committees nominated committee members to the grants review committee to review and score the applications:
- Sean Vienna, AMBAG
- Vera Noghera, BPC Member
- Orchid Ochoa-Monroy, Caltrans
- Mary Israel, Fort Ord Reuse Authority
- Lisa Rheinheimer, Monterey-Salinas Transit
- Virginia Murillo, TAMC Staff
- Mike Zeller, TAMC Staff
The Transportation Agency received thirteen completed grant applications, totaling over $14.3 million in requested Regional Surface Transportation Program funding. Each application was reviewed and scored by four committee reviewers. After considering the scores and factoring in geographic equity and cost effectiveness, the following projects are recommended by Agency staff for grant funding:
- Monterey - North Fremont Bike and Pedestrian Improvements - $1,933,000
- Soledad - Metz Road Traffic Calming Project - $516,800
- County - State Route 1 Climbing Lane - $600,000
- Salinas - Downtown Complete Streets - $2,970,000
- Marina - Reservation Road Roundabouts - $100,000
- Pacific Grove - Highway 68 Complete Street Corridor - $502,268
With this recommendation, staff made one adjustment from the overall scoring of the projects. The City of Marina's Reservation Road Roundabouts project ranked fifth in the total scoring, but was seeking a total of $4,005,000 in grant funding. Due to the high amount of requested funding and the limited amount of grant funding available, Agency staff is recommending $100,000 in funding for this project needed to complete the design phase.
Additionally, staff is recommending a swap of Transportation Development Act 2% grant funds for federal Regional Surface Transportation Program funding to reflect prior Board actions regarding the programming of funds to the County of Monterey's Castroville Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossing project and the Holman Highway 68 Roundabout. The total amount of competitive grant funding remains the same with this action.
The total recommended grant funding this cycle is $6.62 million, based on no partial funding of grant requests. As a result, there is an unprogrammed balance of $328,261 from the available $6.95 million. For the remaining balance of funding, Agency staff is conferring with the applicants not selected for funding in ranked order to determine if they can fund a phase or portion of their proposed project with the remaining balance and potentially deliver a project. If that is not feasible, staff recommends rolling the remaining balance over to the next cycle of competitive grants funding.
The Executive Committee, Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, and Technical Advisory Committee all reviewed the proposed program of projects and recommended approval of the attached list of projects to the Transportation Agency Board.