Feds approve next step for Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit
Triangle Business Journal, July 31, 2017
The Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project has received a green light from the Federal Transit Administration.
Jeff Mann, general manager of regional transit authority GoTriangle, notified Durham and Orange county commissioners Friday that the light rail project had secured approval from the Federal Transit Administration to proceed into the full engineering phase. With the engineering approval, GoTriangle has what’s called “pre-award authority” and could be in line for federal reimbursements.
Specifically, GoTriangle is seeking more than $1.2 billion in Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program funds, or half of the $2.5 billion project cost.
In an interview Friday, Mann said his team was “obviously very pleased” that the full engineering phase could proceed. Design is already more than 30 percent complete. The goal is to complete engineering and design completely to secure a full funding agreement in 2019 or 2020, he says.
“We’re in a really good spot,” Mann notes.
It’s sentiment echoed by other stakeholders Friday.
“This is a major hurdle overcome and a very significant milestone for a future high-capacity transit linkage that will connect two of the three points of our growing Triangle,” says Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, in an email.
The letter GoTriangle received from the FTA, however, contains a caveat.
“Please note that the President’s Budget for FY 2018 proposes no funding for new projects, and thus GoTriangle acknowledges that it is undertaking additional work at its own risk which may not receive Capital Investment Grants funding,” the letter notes in bold typeface.
It reiterates what an FTA spokesman explained earlier this month, that an approval to move into the engineering phase “is not an indication that the project will ultimately receive [grant money].”
With the CIG program, GoTriangle should be reimbursed for about half of its expenses, including project design work that’s already complete. The engineering design phase alone is expected to cost more than $100 million. But that’s if the federal dollars are still there.
Mann has repeatedly said he’s “confident” the administration will recognize the value of transit and make the investment.
And more is at stake than just light rail when it comes to President Donald Trump’s budget.
Trump’s budget includes a recommendation to phase out a number of discretionary programs, including the CIG, which in addition to endangering the light rail project, could fund major transit efforts across the Triangle, including commuter rail and bus rapid transit.
Without federal dollars, local officials have said many of those projects would be delayed or not happen at all.