Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Programming Flexibility topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Regions ask CTC for more programming flexibility: supplemental allocations, contract award time and benefit-evaluation thresholds
Summary
Regional attendees urged the California Transportation Commission to consider guardrails for Caltrans supplemental allocations, permit longer contract-award timelines at allocation, and raise thresholds that trigger project-specific benefit evaluations; CTC staff said they will study options and requested written comments.
Multiple attendees used the STIP guidelines workshop to press the CTC for greater flexibility and clearer guardrails in programming and allocation practice.
Nafili (Nafili) Barrett of Mendocino Council of Governments suggested allowing local agencies to request supplemental STIP allocations from their shares when projects face unpredictable cost increases, saying some regions could reallocate shares to keep priority projects whole. "If the region has the funding available or if they're willing to sacrifice another project… that could add some extra helpful flexibility," Barrett said.
Shelley from LA Metro asked that the guidelines explicitly allow agencies to request, at the time of allocation, additional time to award a contract as well as additional time for project completion. Staff noted statutory and policy constraints: local participants and CTC noted the timely-use-of-funds provisions include a one-year statutory allowance and the commission policy typically follows a six-month standard in practice; staff said they would check whether contract-award time should be enumerated in guidance.
MTC's Carl Anderson raised a related program-management point: the STIP's earlier years are often oversubscribed, in part because of Caltrans supplemental allocations. He asked whether staff would consider guardrails to prevent excessive or routine supplemental allocations that reduce capacity in early years. CTC staff said the issue is complex and would require further analysis.
Anderson also suggested raising the dollar thresholds that trigger a project-specific benefit evaluation in the RTIP; current thresholds require evaluations for projects with total costs of $50 million or greater or STIP programming for ROW/construction of $15 million or more. Anderson suggested updating the thresholds to reflect cost escalation and offered to provide a recommendation.
CTC staff said they would compile the workshop feedback for the June guidelines package, invite written comments and consider whether another focused session is needed; no formal procedural or rule changes were adopted at the workshop.
Ending: Staff invited stakeholders to submit written comments and said they would follow up on supplemental allocation guardrails, the contract-award timing question, and possible threshold adjustments for benefit evaluations.
