Background on funding post preliminary design: Once a community has completed the 25% design (i.e., preliminary design) of its section of the rail trail, the community can request to be inserted in the long queue of transportation projects whose construction will be funded with state and federal transportation funds. The managing agency for our area, the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) has a committee, the Transportation Programming and Planning Committee (TPPC) that programs the queue of projects. The queue has two forms. The four-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), a four-year plan, is updated annually. The Boston MPO TIP feeds into the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), a statewide plan, that totals up the projects from all thirteen MPO’s in Massachusetts. Every three years, the TPPC generates a new long range (several-decade) Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), though amendments are sometimes considered in intervening years. The last RTP was formulated in 2008 and the new one will be generated in the 2011. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) must approve the TIP and RTP.
This process got more complicated when FHWA during 2008 laid down rules that the TIP and RTP had to be based on more realistic funding projections. For that reason, the 2007 TIP had to be amended, the 2008 TIP was rejected, and the 2008 RTP (covering transportation funding out to 2030) had to be amended. The 2007 TIP has been repeatedly amended and, during one of the amendments, funding for Phase 2A (Westford, Carlisle and Acton) was dropped. While this is not good news, it is not a train wreck, as it would be difficult to have Phase 2A or Phase 2C, with much design work pending, ready for construction bid for the 2010 construction season.
Settling on a RTP requires a good estimate of available funds to pay for the projects included, something not easily done with budgets affected by federal and state gasoline tax revenue uncertainty, stimulus package uncertainty, and general transportation funding uncertainty. In a further complication, FHWA said that it may not approve the release of any federal design funds unless construction was programmed within ten years of the release of design funds.
Summer 2009. The intermunicipal agreement between Acton, Carlisle, Concord and Westford which has Acton act as the lead town for contracting on further design and construction efforts for the four towns is formally adopted.
Summer 2009 – Board Members, (usually Dick Williamson), Town Staff, and legislators (thank you Senator Jamie Eldridge, Representatives Cory Atkins and Jen Benson) attended many of the Boston MPO’s TPPC meetings where amendments to the 2008 RTP were discussed. All of these attendees have advocated for the BFRT. State budget officials gave the TPPC dollar amounts to be used in the TIP and RTP. As of end of July 2009, Phases 2A and 2C are tentatively planned for construction in the 2021-2025 timeframe on the draft RTP. Assuming adoption, this is both good and bad news. It is good that the BFRT is on the list, but the release of the federally controlled Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program funds for trail design will be held up until at least 2011 because of the construction delay.
May 2009 – Staff from several BFRT towns, elected state officials and many members of the Friends of the BFRT came to the annual Municipal TIP day to advocate for the trail. The May TIP meetings provided essential input for formulation of the TIP during the following summer.
October 2008 through August 2009 – Funding limbo for design progress. Any funding for the design of Phases 2Aand 2C of the BFRT) was held up until the Boston MPO’s RTP is finalized. So while the BFRT has been on (and subsequently removed from) previous TIPs, construction funding never was on a RTP.
The final obvious repercussion is Phase 2 of BFRT is not “shovel ready” for construction, and will not directly benefit from economic stimulus funds. A “design/build” option where, design and construction is combined into one contract and could be considered “shovel ready” is not, as currently structured, a viable option for BFRT Phase 2 either.
Fall 2008 - The Friends have strongly advocated having the BFRT included in the first ten years of the RTP (250 supporters e-mailed the Boston MPO advocating this in October 2008). As the RTP log-jam breaks in the next few months, hopefully with BFRT inclusion, we will push for releasing the recommended Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program funds immediately, so design can move forward, and as appropriate we will advocate inclusion in a TIP to be scheduled for construction.
October 29, 2008 – The MassHighway Public Hearing for Phase 2A the “25% design” (preliminary design) was a well-attended love-fest with unanimous support for moving into final design and construction. Some major design elements for Phase 2A include: pavement, bridge over Rte 2A, parallel soft surface path on much of the trail south of Brook Street.
September 24, 2008 – The application to the Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program for design funds through 100% design was approved in June 2008. Phase 2C (Concord) through 100% design was added as an addendum to the Phase 2A (Westford, Carlisle, Acton) design funding. A vote at a September 24, 2008 State Transportation Enhancement Steering Committee meeting recommended that Secretary of Transportation Cohen allocate such funds.
Spring 2008 - Westford and Carlisle also agreed to enter into an inter-municipal agreement
April 14, 2008 – Acton overwhelmingly passed Article 33 at their Town Meeting which allows Acton to enter into an inter-municipal agreement with Carlisle and Westford to be the lead Town for Phase 2A efforts. Carlisle and Westford will vote on similar Articles at their upcoming Town Meetings.
April 7, 2008 – The draft 25% design plans for Phase 2A were delivered to MassHighway by GPI. You can view the plans at Pedal Power, or download them electronically here (17 MB PDF).
Note: MassHighway will now review, comments, and has the opportunity to make edits to the 25% design plans. Edits are expected to be minor as the GPI and Acton , Carlisle and Westford have been working very closely with MassHighway all through the process. After working on the plans, MassHighway will schedule a public meeting to formally present the plans and elicit public comment. We now expect this to occur late summer / early fall.
March 27, 2008 – A very extensive STEP application was submitted to the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. Applications are reviewed quarterly, so the Phase 2A application will be reviewed in June.
As of December 2007 Acton, Carlisle and Westford are working on a joint application to apply for Statewide Enhancement Program (STEP) funding for the final design (75% and 100%) of their section of the Phase 2 of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, referred to as Section or Phase 2A. It is expected a 25% Design Public Meeting will be held in the first few months of 2008.
In August 2007 GPI submitted an updated Project Initiation Form (PIF) to MassHighway’s District 3 for review and approval by MassHighway’s Project Review Committee (PRC). (As of December 2007 formal PRC approval had not been received, but is expected)
On June 12, 2007, a public meeting was held in Acton by Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. (GPI), the designer, to present the 10% design for discussion. Press coverage if the event can be found in the Acton Beacon
http://www.townonline.com/acton/homepage/x1595751723
As of December 15, 2006 all three towns (Acton, Carlisle & Westford) had signed a contract with Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. to conduct preliminary design.
On August 23, 2006 Acton with Westford and Carlisle issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for preliminary design services for their sections of the Phase 2 portion of the BFRT. The RFP requests the work to be completed by Spring 2007.
Request for Proposal (pdf)
Design Contract (pdf)
In March 2006, Project Initiation Form and Project Need Form were submitted to MassHighway to formally initiate the project.
Project Initiation Form
Project Need Form
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