Increasing Economic Activity Through Multimodal Investments Lead Applicant: Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) In partnership with the City of Baltimore Kevin Quinn Director, Office of Planning and Programming 6 Saint Paul Street, 9th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202 [email protected] (410) 767-8361 Photo courtesy of NDC/Matt Roth FY 2016 TIGER Discretionary Grant Program Total Project Costs: $27.3 Million TIGER 2016 Funds Requested: $14.7 Million North Avenue Rising Increasing Economic Activity Through Multimodal Investments Project Name North Avenue Rising Applicant Maryland Transit Administration Co-sponsor City of Baltimore, MD Contact Information Kevin Quinn, Maryland Transit Administration Director, Office of Planning and Programming 6 Saint Paul Street, 9th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202 [email protected] (410) 767-8361 Project Type Urban Project Description The Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and the City of Baltimore are partnering to revitalize the critical North Avenue corridor with a multimodal investment in bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements, including dedicated bus lanes to improve travel speeds and enhanced bus stops with improved shelters, wayfinding, and streetscaping to improve the passenger experience. The goal of North Avenue Rising is to support economic revitalization along the corridor through increased mobility, and to broaden access for residents of the corridor to economic opportunity throughout Baltimore. Project Cost $27.3 million TIGER VIII Request $14.7 million Other Source(s) and Amounts $10.0 million – Maryland Department of Transportation $1.0 million – City of Baltimore $1.6 million – Federal Highway Administration Total: $12.6 million NEPA Status Documented Categorical Exclusion initiated in April 2016 and expected to be completed January 2017 Completion Date 2020 Benefit-Cost Analysis Results Based on the BCA, North Avenue Rising is estimated to achieve a 1.16 ratio of benefits to costs at a 7 percent discount rate, and a 2.17 benefit cost ratio at a 3 percent discount rate. Table of Contents 1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................ 1 2. PROJECT LOCATION ....................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Introduction to North Avenue ..................................................................................................... 4 2.2 North Avenue Assets .................................................................................................................. 6 3. PROJECT PARTIES .......................................................................................................................... 9 4. GRANT FUNDS AND SOURCES/USES OF PROJECT FUNDS .................................................. 10 4.1. Capital Sources of Funds ......................................................................................................... 10 4.2. Capital Uses of Funds .............................................................................................................. 10 4.3. Summary of Operating Sources and Uses .............................................................................. 13 5. SELECTION CRITERIA ................................................................................................................... 14 5.1. Primary Criteria ......................................................................................................................... 14 5.1.1 Economic Competitiveness ........................................................................................... 14 5.1.2 Quality of Life ................................................................................................................. 18 5.1.3 Safety ............................................................................................................................. 23 5.1.4 State of Good Repair ..................................................................................................... 24 5.1.5 Environmental Sustainability .......................................................................................... 25 5.2. Secondary Criteria .................................................................................................................... 25 5.2.1 Innovation ....................................................................................................................... 25 5.2.2 Partnership ..................................................................................................................... 26 6. BCA RESULTS ................................................................................................................................. 27 7. PROJECT READINESS .................................................................................................................. 27 7.1. Technical Feasibility .................................................................................................................. 27 7.2. Financial Feasibility .................................................................................................................. 28 7.3. Project Schedule ...................................................................................................................... 28 7.4. Required Approvals .................................................................................................................. 28 7.5. Assessment of Risks and Mitigation Strategies ....................................................................... 30 8. FEDERAL WAGE RATE CERTIFICATION ...................................................................................... 30 APPENDICES Appendix A: Letters of Support Appendix B: Nor th Avenue Rising - Dedicated Lanes - Ladders of Opportunity Connectivity Analysis Appendix C: Baltimore Development Corporation – The Economic Impact of the North Avenue Rising Proposed Infrastructure Improvements Appendix D: Benefit Cost Analysis i 1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION North Avenue plays a vital role in Baltimore as surrounding communities have come together a corridor that connects neighborhoods and with a common goal to revitalize the corridor to its institutions across the City. One of the few east-west full potential. roadways that span the Jones Falls Expressway, North Avenue is an important corridor for the local Sponsored by the MTA and the City of Baltimore, economy. The avenue connects the Maryland the North Avenue Rising project is a unique suite Transit Administration’s (MTA’s) Metro Subway and of proposed transportation investments intended to Light Rail lines and is traversed by Baltimore’s improve corridor and regional mobility and leverage second-busiest bus line, carrying nearly 4 million these transportation improvements with other State, passengers annually – a figure that is expected to City, and private development initiatives to revitalize grow as the MTA implements a new BaltimoreLink the surrounding area. As shown in Figure 1, North bus network. North Avenue is also a designated Avenue Rising includes dedicated bus lanes, truck route and serves as US Route 1 through enhanced bus stops, accessibility improvements Baltimore City. to the Penn-North Metro Subway station, improved crosswalks, bike boulevards and lanes, and needed Over the past several decades, North Avenue and intersection improvements and roadway repaving the communities that surround it have suffered throughout the corridor. from economic disinvestment. Today the corridor is characterized by a mixture of vacant residential In addition to showing aspects of North Avenue and commercial properties and deteriorating Rising, Figure 1 shows the City’s ongoing investment sidewalk and roadway infrastructure, but it is also in the East Baltimore streetscape and repaving home to longstanding institutions such as Coppin project (from Aisquith to Washington Streets) and State University and an emerging arts district that MTA’s enhanced BaltimoreLink bus stops at Penn- encompasses the Maryland Institute College of Art. North, Light Rail (MICA-North), Charles/St. Paul The corridor has a rich cultural history worthy of (Station North), and Harford (Courthouse). Both celebration, and beneath a surface of disrepair it investments are being funded outside North Avenue brims with potential. The City of Baltimore and the Rising but are functionally connected to this effort. 1 1 Figure 1: North Avenue Rising – Project Elements More specifically, North Avenue Rising features the The communities surrounding North Avenue are following transportation improvements: heavily transit-dependent, with fewer than 47 percent of corridor households having reliable • Dedicated bus lanes to improve transit access to an automobile. Moreover, MTA’s Route reliability and increase bus speeds 13, which serves North Avenue communities, is the system’s second-busiest bus line, carrying over • Needed roadway repaving to maintain a state 12,000 riders each weekday. The goal of North of good repair Avenue Rising is to support economic revitalization • Transit signal priority (TSP) installed at key along the corridor through increased mobility, and intersections to reduce delay for buses at to broaden corridor residents’ access to economic intersections and improve on-time performance opportunities throughout the Baltimore region. • Enhanced bus stops at key transfer points, In fact, North Avenue has already