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f r REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY r Engineering support Services for strategic Plan and Capital Investment Plan Implementation Task 6A Report Interstate Transfer Program May 13, 1988 Prepared by PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF QUADE & DOUGLAS, INC. Chicago, Illinois l l l L r r r Table of Contents r List of Exhibits ii r 1. Background of Assignment 1 2 . Overview of Interstate Transfer Program 1 3. Conduct of Task 3 4. Content of and Issues Affecting Chicago's IST-Transit Program 3 5 . Conclusions 11 6. Exhibits 13 l l l l l i r r I LIST OF EXHIBITS r Letter Source Title r A UMTA Letter 4/20/88, Ettinger to Williams re IST Program B IDOT Original IST Program Allocations c IDOT Revised IST Program Allocations D PBQD List of Documents Reviewed E PBQD List of Meetings held and persons contacted F IDOT Transfer 2 Project List, Federal Obligations through March 31, 1988 G DPW Description of Subway Renovation Program (As Revised May 1985) H DPW Quarterly Progress Report No. 16, Jackson Park Transit Improvement . Project, January 1988, Page 12 I IDOT Letter 2/29/88, Wheeler to Williams re Howard/Dan Ryan Rescoping Proposal J RTA Memorandum 1/27/88, Gaudette to Johnson and Hankett re SWT fleet requirement K UMTA Attachment 4 to UMTA - City of Chicago Grant Agreement, Amendment 03, Projec t IL-23-9020, July 28, 1986. (Cost Escalation) l l l L L ii 1. Background of Assignment r The April 20, 1988 letter from UMTA (Joel P. Ettinger - Area 5 Director) to Chicago DPW (David s. Williams, Acting Commissioner) concerning the Interstate Transfer Program raised a number of r issues concerning the funding and composition of the present program. This letter, copied to RTA, among others, is attached as Exhibit A. RTA asked Parsons Brinckerhoff for a brief analysis of the potential funding shortfalls which might result within the Interstate Transfer Program due to cost growth. Parsons Brinckerhoff conducted such a study during the period May 3-13, 1987 and this report documents our investigation of the program. 2. overview of Interstate Transfer (IST or IX) Program The IST Program originated with federal legislation passed in 1979, allowing localities to apply for "de-designation" of unbuilt urban portions of the Interstate Highway System. The federal monies allocated for the interstate highway portions so de-designated then became available for grants to the localities for approved substitute projects. The federal monies are fur nished to the region provided that a 15% local share is guaran teed by the locality, i.e. !ST projects are funded 85% federal, 15% local. The local share has been furnished by IDOT for the entire IST program, with no local match being furnished by City of Chicago. · The principal source of !ST monies for the Northern Illinois region was the de-designation of Federal Aid Interstate Highway 494, the "Crosstown Expressway". This proposed highway had a major transportation impact on the cities of Chicago and Cicero, with other municipalities outside Chicago also affected. As a result of a politically-arrived-at compromise, the City of Chicago and the suburban areas agreed that 50% of IST funds for the region would be allocated to the City, and 50% to the suburban areas. This results in a delicate balancing act whenever funding levels or allocations change. Of the monies coming to Chicago-Suburban Areas, there are three uses of funds: Accelerated FAU highways - 7%, Highways - 84%, and Transit - 9%. The suburban transit portion, amounting to l some $112 million of federal contribution, is administered by !DOT; this includes both FHWA-appropriated and UMTA-appropriated funds (approximate split= 79% UMTA, 21% FHWA). Suburban transit L projects include parking lots, grade crossing improvements, and transit-related bridges. All of these projects are Metra related, and many of the parking lots have Pace bus drop-offs , l turn-arounds, etc., which are designed in coordination with Pace. L 1 L IST.001 Of the IST monies corning to the City of Chicago, the primary use is for transit (68%), and the balance for highways (32%). A total of approximately $792 million is the total budgeted amount for city of Chicago transit projects (federal share). When com bined with a local match of $140 million, total Chicago transit !ST funding is some $931 million. The City transit !ST funding is all UMTA-appropriated; no FHWA funds are involved. An early feature of the !ST program was an inflation indexing scheme, which operated between 1979 and 1983. Inflation adjust ment was eliminated in 1983, but this caused discomfort at the r local level. To appease the local pain, Congress included a "one-time" deferred inflation adjustment for the !ST program in the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1987 (1987 STAA), for transit projects only. For the City of Chicago IST transit projects, the additional amount authorized was approximately $29.8 million. The Table below summarizes the funding for the IST Transit program for the City of Chicago. city of Chicago: IST Transit Program ($ Millions) Original Program After Inflation After 1987 (1979) Adjustments (1983) STAA Federal $ 649.1 770.4 791.7 Local Match 114.5 136.0 139.7 l Total $ 763.6 906.4 931. 4 The Table above is summarized from information supplied by !DOT, Division of Public Transportation. Source data are Exhibit B, "Original Interstate Transfer Program Allocations," and Exhibit c, "Revised Interstate Transfer Program Allocations." Two observations are offered concerning the increase in the source of federal funds. First, the overall increase of $167. 8 l million in total funds amounts to a 22% increase over eight years, or approximately a 2 1/2% compound rate of growth. To the degree that this rate has lagged the true inflation rate, a con l traction in the scope of !ST projects funded thereby is an implied fact of life. Secondly, while the 1987 STAA inflation adjustment was a "one-time" event, there may be reasons to seek another adjustment, particularly if !ST appropriations lag in the future and cause construction periods to be lengthened. This does not appear to have been the case to date. L 2 L IST.001 r 3. Conduct of Task f The task began with r eview of a number of IST Program d ocuments . The documents are tabulated in Exhibit D and consist primarily of grant applications, grant amendment applications, and quarterly r progress reports. In addition the SWTP full funding contract between UMTA and City of Chicago was reviewed, as was the Ke llogg Corporation report on the SWTP for IDOT. f Meetings were also held with UMTA, CTA, IDOT, and DPW. A list of meetings and persons contacted is shown in Exhibit E. The excellent cooperation of all agencies and personnel is gratefully acknowledged. Analysis and additional telephone follow-up concluded with the preparation of this report. 4. Content of and Issues Affecting Chicago's IST - Transit Program Overall The Table on the following page summarizes the $931 million IST Transit Program for the city of Chicago. This report is prepared monthly by DPW. The May 5, 1988 version shown reflects the recently provided "deferred inflation" adjustment provided in the 1987 STAA of approximately $30 million. This has provided addi tional funding for SWTP railcars, Jackson Park El, Planning, and IDOT (Suburban) projects. In addition the Table reflects (in the column headed "FY '87 SUP.") additional funding recently applied to the SWTP. This funding resulted from discretionary realloca l tion of the monies not used by Baltimore last year; it is not new money, it represents only an advance of project funds. This advance has allowed the SWTP schedule to be advanced by one year. l The first subtotal column on the Table shows total obligations o f $712.4 million through FY'87, for which the Federal share is 85% or $605.5 million. A detailed listing of the individual grants l by fiscal year which comprise this program is shown in Exhibit F . This document is produced by IDOT in Springfield on a quarterly basis (the Janik Report) -- RTA could undoubtedly receive it as l well as the others copied. Suburban Transit Before exploring the City Transit program, a few comments concerning the IDOT/ Suburban Transit program are in order. As mentioned, this $104 million project addresses parking l ots, L grade c rossings, and transit-related bridges. Between 1979 and 198 3 the IST Concept Plan was developed. The concept plan l amounts to a sort of super wish list of projects which a re 3 L IST. 001 ----. .-- ...---- ----. ----. ----, r- r- .... llAY 5, 1988 INTERSTATE TRANSFER 'TRANSIT PROGRAll C!TY OF Cl11 CAGO t~i ll ions of dollars) (Includes $29.776 1illion fro1 1987 STAAi ====================================================== ========= == ========= === ===================== ======== =========== ========================· OBLIGATED FUNDS FY'B5 FY'87 sue SUB PROJECT TITLE FY'79-84 FY' 85 c.o. FY'86 FY'B7 SUP. TOTAL FY'88 FY '89 FY '90 FY'91 TOTAL TOTAL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUTHWEST TRANS IT Design and Construction 8.7 11. 7 73.3 13b.6 75.3 45.3 350 .9 28.2 30.9 0 0 59. I 41 0.0 Rail Cars 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23.0 44.4 26.6 0 94.0 94.0 Reserv e 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 .0 0 17.0 17.0 HOWARD DAN-RYAN 9S .7 39.7 0 0.s 0 0 143.9 2.3 0 0 0 2.3 146.2 LOOP REHAB 44 .2 30.2 0 0 7.3 0 81. 7 0 12.4 14. 5 12.6 39 .