Minutes 03-12-2019 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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14 John Talmadge said there is a path to resolving the remaining issues on a timeline that works for submitting the FTA grant application. John Talmadge said the FTA application is a process, and it is the last step in the process. He said GoTriangle has been providing materials to the FTA for many months, and once the FTA agrees that the agency is ready, GoTriangle will send a letter requesting to apply for the full funding grant, and the terms of the grant are negotiated. John Talmadge said another step, in being ready to apply for the FTA grant, is the environmental documentation. He said GoTriangle released a supplemental environmental assessment draft in October, and had public comments on it. He said this document contained a plan for downtown that required the closing of Blackwell Street, and a signature civic space span across the railroad there. He said in December, because of communication from the railroads that the shared crossing in the plan was not acceptable, as well as feedback from downtown stakeholders regarding the closing of Blackwell Street closing, and an encouragement from the FTA to deal with the RR objections, GoTriangle created an alternative design that includes underpasses, the tunnel section in the middle, and a bridge on the east end of that stretch. John Talmadge said GoTriangle is waiting on final direction from the FTA about the environmental review requirements, but is anticipating a revised supplemental environmental assessment. He said this would be a document including the updated downtown changes, and technical corrections to the October supplemental environmental assessment; followed by a 30- day public comment period. He said it is unknown when this will occur, and GoTriangle expects to hear from the FTA momentarily. John Talmadge said the FTA is asking for a Draft Risk Assessment Report, which is something the FTA requires of every single project applying for large capital improvement grants. He said the FTA is looking at the scope of the project, the cost estimates, and the schedule for delivering the project through construction. He said a team from the FTA has submitted a number of changes to the budget that it would like to see in the final budget that would go through the application. He said these changes are as follows: • Pettigrew Street Changes $128.8 million additional needed for real estate lease fees for the railroad; contract or overhead. • Construction escalation (inflation during construction period) needed to be more conservative. It was at 3.1% annual rate, and FTA said it should be 3.6% based on what the FTA has seen in construction costs nationally. This is an impact of adding $47.8 million in year of expenditure to the project. • Contingency# - how far has the design progressed, and the FTA does a statistical simulation to see how much they want to see to have a good robust budget. This was an additional $60.4 million. John Talmadge said this totals $237 million in addition to the budget in year of expenditure dollars. John Talmadge said GoTriangle has been working with this information during the recent weeks, and information about borrowing rates, and has had conversations with the cost- sharing partners and the City of Durham, in order to create a final financial plan. John Talmadge said the final financial plan would have to be reflected in both the Orange County and Durham County transit plans. He referred to the Orange County side of things, and said the working assumption is that there will be no changes to the transit tax revenues that would be committed to bus services, vehicle purchases, bus stop improvements,