Interagency Meeting Notes Federal Fiscal Year 2021
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THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Victoria F. Sheehan William Cass, P.E. Commissioner Assistant Commissioner ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Interagency Conference Remote via MS-Teams NHDOT | 7 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH August 12, 2021 at 1:00 pm ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction and Roll Call by William Rose William Rose noted the August Minor materials were sent out later than usual and apologized for the lateness of the materials. Dave Walker noted that the material previously sent were no longer available on the meeting link and the recent email didn’t include the additional materials. Others acknowledged the same. Linda Dusenberry then sent an emails to several people. Amendment I- William Rose thanked FHWA and FTA for their prompt turnaround time on the amendment. Amendment 2- going out August 19. Present: NHDOT: William Rose, Lucy St. John, Linda Dusenberry, Kim Rummo, Bill Watson and Fred Butler. State and Federal Agencies: NHDES- Tim White; EPA, Region 1- Eric Rackauskas; Federal Transit Administration (FTA, Region 1) - Leah Sirmin; & Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)- Leigh Levine. Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs)- Nate Miller (SNHPC), Carl Eppich (SNHPC), Colin Lentz (SRPC), Dean Williams (CNHRPC) Gregg Lantos & Matt Waitkins (NRPC), Dave Walker (RPC), J.B. Mack (SWRPC) and Susan Slack (LRPC). August Minor Revision Linda Dusenberry provided a brief summary of the five (5) projects that were added to the August Minor after the original report was sent out. 14460 Lyme- Thetford is advertising in September and has a change in funding type. The other 4 projects were programmatic and were increasing funds in 2021 for end of year obligation. BRDG T1/2, BRDG-T3/4, HIB M&P Pave T2 Resurf JOHN O. MORTON BUILDING 7 HAZEN DRIVE P.O. BOX 483 CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03302-0483 TELEPHONE: 603-271-3734 FAX: 603-271-3914 TDD: RELAY NH 1-800-735-2964 INTERNET: WWW.NHDOT.COM Agency Updates DES, Tim White: DES has started a new funding round for their clean diesel program, proposals due Oct 1. Total amount available $ 850,000. DES was appointed by the Governor to be the Lead Agency for the VW Settlement. EPA, Eric Rackauskas: No updates FTA, Leah Sirmin: Series of public listening session, including one tomorrow, August 13th at 2 pm Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)- for areas of persistent poverty and low emission vehicles implementation. Applications due end of August Rebuild transit ridership summit- Friday August 27th. Provided links to various workshops. FHWA, Leigh Levine: Proposals due Aug 23 for Advanced Transportation Technologies Grants. Truck parking workshop being planned in Mass. He will provide more information. Cindy Vigue, promoted to FHWA Division in New Mexico. He will be acting as Assistant Deputy Director until Sept 17th. NHDOT, Bill Watson: New NHDOT Deputy Commissioner, Andre Briere. New Assistance Commissioner at DES. GACIT meeting Sept 1 at St. Anselm in Manchester. Setting up Fall GACIT meeting schedule-some in-person, some hybrid. Interesting journey setting up meetings during COVID. Meeting Adjourned: Insert time Notes from Interagency Conference Call – 07/08/21 Present: William Rose (NHDOT) Lucy St. John (NHDOT) Linda Dusenberry (NHDOT) Fred Butler (NHDOT) Tim White (NHDES) Nate Miller (SNHPC) Colin Lentz (SRPC) Gregg Lantos (NRPC) Matt Waitkins (NRPC) Dave Walker (RPC) J.B. Mack (SWRPC) Katie Lamb (NCC) Pat Crocker (UVLSRPC) Jessica Bighinatti (LRPC) Eric Rackauskas (EPA Region 1) Leah Sirmin (FTA Region 1) THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Victoria F. Sheehan William Cass, P.E. Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Roll Call William Rose conducted a roll call of attending members. July Minor Revisions Linda Dusenberry advised that MPO approvals can now be sent to Kim Rummo (and copied to Linda Dusenberry). There were no additional questions or comments on the September minor revisions. Amendment #1 Update William Rose reported that NRPC, SNHPC, and SRPC have completed and submitted their approvals of Amendment #1. Dave Walker advised that RPC’s approval is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14th. Linda Dusenberry advised that all approvals will be forwarded to NHDES by the end of next week. William Rose reported that there will be three changes to Amendment #1 based on public comments: 1. Durham Project #42873 will not become a child project of the FTA 5339 program as originally proposed. It will remain as a separately listed project in the STIP. 2. Portsmouth Project #42350 will be included in Amendment #1 to add supplemental funding to the project. 3. Loudon-Canterbury Project #29613C will now be included in Amendment #1 as project activities will take place during the STIP years. Agency Updates Tim White reported that the next solicitation for the State Clean Diesel Program is expected to be announced around October 1st. Leah Sirmin reported that there will be a TRB webinar on the sustainability benefits of public transportation on July 21st. Other Business Gregg Lantos noted that the STIP Schedule distributed by NHDOT shows Amendment #2 being a discussion topic at the September Interagency Meeting. Gregg advised that, depending on the expected Amendment #2 approval schedule, NRPC may have a scheduling challenge and need to advertise the Amendment earlier. William Rose noted his appreciation in Gergg being proactive in re: the schedule, and that he didn’t see any JOHN O. MORTON BUILDING 7 HAZEN DRIVE P.O. BOX 483 CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03302-0483 TELEPHONE: 603-271-3734 FAX: 603-271-3914 TDD: RELAY NH 1-800-735-2964 INTERNET: WWW.NHDOT.COM concerns re: the approach given that 1.) the materials for A2 would be released/discussed by IAC prior to the proposed public comment period and 2.) the process was in re: the NRPC TIP. He also advised that this would be a good topic to discuss at the next Interagency Meeting when FHWA is in attendance. The next Interagency Consultation conference call will be held on August 12. 2021 at 1:00 PM. THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Victoria F. Sheehan William Cass, P.E. Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Interagency Coordination Teams Meeting June 10, 2021 at 1:00 PM Notes by David Walker, Rockingham Planning Commission Attending Members Katie Lamb, NCC; Jessica Bighinatti, LRPC; JB Mack, SWRPC; Dean Williams, Central; Colin Lentz, SRPC; Dave Walker, RPC; Nate Miller and Carl Eppich, SNHPC; Matt Waitkins, NRPC; Tim White, NHDES; Leigh Levine, FHWA; Leah Sirmin, FTA; Linda Dusenberry, Kim Rummo, William Rose, Fred Butler, NHDOT; June Minor Revision JB – Why is Keene (40666) project being delayed? Awaiting call-back from project manager. NHDOT will follow-up. Linda - Epping 29608 (and other projects) showing an inflation increase without a change in programmed years. Linda explained that this is due to more recent project cost estimates that formally incorporate planned inflation costs into the project costs. Linda – Statewide 43368 – SPR phase included. This is different from the “Other” phase used in other projects and the project is using SPR funding and HSIP funding which is why it is included in the STIP/TIP. Leigh - Hannover, NH-Norwich, VT (42278) and Walpole, NH-Rockingham, VT (41720) – Looks like a lot of the funding was lumped together and not broken out similar to other projects in the STIP. William noted that all projects should be documented in the STIP in a standard fashion. William noted he would review the STIP Minor details and follow-up with Leigh. Leigh - Nashua 10136a – Verify that those changes will not trigger a conformity determination. Project is shifting PE and ROW by one year. No one indicated that they thought the changes would trigger air quality conformity. Tim White and Erik Rackauskas will be consulted after the meeting to verify. Leigh - Observation that there are Programmatic listings with substantial changes in total project cost however they have only small changes within the TIP years. CRDR, GRR, HSIP are examples. Leigh would like further explanation for the changes. William replied that in preparation for the next iteration of the Ten Year Plan the project managers are adding two more years of funding at the end of the programmatics (2033 and 2034) and this is driving the increases in Total Project Costs. Amendment 1 Discussion Project Durham 42873: is currently a standalone as it is CMAQ funded. Project is proposed to be removed as a standalone and incorporated into the FTA5339 (Transit Capital) Programmatic, following transfer of CMAQ funds. FHWA/FTA stated their preference for the project to remain as a standalone in the STIP. William and Colin agreed that this change could be addressed as part of the public comment process for the SRPC TIP. JOHN O. MORTON BUILDING 7 HAZEN DRIVE P.O. BOX 483 CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03302-0483 TELEPHONE: 603-271-3734 FAX: 603-271-3914 TDD: RELAY NH 1-800-735-2964 INTERNET: WWW.NHDOT.COM NRPC TTAC has recommended approval of Amendment #1. The MPO will approve at their meeting next week. SRPC has the amendment on track for approval. SNHPC & RPC both also reported that their processes are on schedule. STIP 2021-2024 Update – Item removed. Agency Updates NHDES – State Clean Diesel program – Grant opportunities beginning October 10 when new EPA funding is received. Grant awards received by a Hampton Fishing Fleet for engine replacement. First Student received grants for replacement of 32 school buses. FHWA New England Virtual Public Involvement peer exchange coordinated through Volpe Center. Looking at July 13 and four consecutive Tuesday mornings. Information should be coming out soon. Other Business Reminder to review documents well ahead of meetings to ensure that questions can be answered prior to the Interagency Meetings. Documents are posted via outlook/teams and email reminder will be sent as well. Next meeting July 8, 2021. THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Victoria F.