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All right, good afternoon, everyone. It's 130. I'd like to go ahead and get started. We have a lot of material to cover today.

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But first I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time out of your schedules to come and talk about project delivery, project development with us.

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First, well, just a little housekeeping. We are live streaming this this workshop. So there are folks at home. So if you have questions, please please let us know.

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So we can speak them back clearly into the microphone, so their folks can hear the question

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and the response.

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We also have been approved by the American Planning Association certification maintenance

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credits.

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So if you would like those, you can claim those credits after the workshop as well.

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We're going to have quite a few speakers today, so first up, I'll have Alan Clark, the director

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of Transportation here at the Houston Galveston Area Council, come and give you our formal

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welcome. Thank you.

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Thank you, Adam. I really just wanted to say thank you, you know, we do a lot of

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planning activities and get to work with all of you in different capacities as a council of

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governments, but it doesn't really mean much unless what we plan happens, right? And getting that

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project delivered in your community is what it's all about because without that we're not going to

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see the safety benefits, the mobility benefits, the economic development and your community.

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All the things that are important about the work we do only happen when you're able to

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work with your community with your, with, with, with important agencies like TechStot and

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others to bring that project to reality. So thank you so much for your time, for the work

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that you do, it's why our job is fun to do,

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because we get to see these great things happen.

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I was told that the simplified blow chart on the far wall

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will be on the quiz.

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So I hope you can read legibly and it's at 33rd box to the right.

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I'm going to give you a clue about one of the questions now.

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But thank you so much for being here today.

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I'm not going to take time.

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The Council of Governments is home to the Metropolitan Planning Organization for those of you who are not familiar with the Houston

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Galvestonary Council. And we try to work cooperatively with our local governments, our key

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Transportation Partners like Textot, to make sure our citizens are served as best we possibly can with the resources that we have.

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And that's certainly true in the Transportation Area. So thank you again for being here today.

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All right, to get us started, I wanted to introduce Katherine McCrape.

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She is with the text.heast in district office, believe Katherine has about 20 years experience

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in the project.

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Most of those with the district office, Katherine is going to talk to us today about, give us

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an overview of the project delivery process, process, and with that, I will turn it over

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to Katherine.

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Bring this down here because I'm a little short.

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Okay, so thank you for having me. Yes, my name is Catherine McRite and I'm a senior transportation planner with a Texas Department of Transportation.

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Today, I'm going to spend the bulk of the time talking to you about Texas process for project development and delivery.

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The reason this is important to you is that while you may be here because you received some funds through your MPO for to develop and deliver a project, the funds that you received actually came through the state.

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They are federal funds, and the federal highway administration has delegated responsibility

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for those funds to the Texas Department of Transportation.

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Our commission has suballocated certain funds of those federal funds to the MPO for a local

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project decision making, but just because the MPO has done projects selection, you still

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to come back to the state in order to develop and deliver your project. And so I think it's

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important that you understand kind of from a big picture our process and also I'm going to give

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you a peek into some of our new processes that we've implemented over the past couple of years.

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So I teach a class actually teach four classes across the state on a project development delivery

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text. And this is a condensed version. It's a 45-minute version of a four-hour class. So I'm going to go kind of fast.

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So today, some of the key learning objectives that you should realize, you should understand the many steps

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and their interdependencies to successfully develop and construct projects with text. That you should be able

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to define how projects are created and how they move through a funnel that's part of a portfolio that we

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manage at the district and at the state.

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You should have a good understanding of performance-based planning,

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understand our quarterly review process,

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and understand how understand our project delivery and governance process

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that ensures on time and on budget projects.

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So here's kind of a snapshot of where we're going.

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When I get to chapter two, I've eliminated this slide, this actual particular slide, and I'm just going to take you from two, three, four, five, and six kind of rapid fire.

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So, as Alan mentioned over here on the wall is kind of a layout of a, or it's a high level overview of the project development delivery process at text time.

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It is not exhaustive, and what you need to know about this is that there are a lot of processes where we can parallel process.

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And that's the important thing, the important message that I want to talk to you about today.

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So, project development delivery, our process is cyclical.

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We start with operation and maintenance, we're all maintaining our respective systems,

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and then we identify needs, and so, project selection has occurred within the far left

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part of that circle, that's where what you did with the MPO, when you went through the call

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for projects, and use the mid-idger project, and there was consideration by various committees and

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staff, and then it went through the TAC and TPC and your project was selected.

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We are in a process now where we are inserting your projects into the transportation improvement

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program, and I'll get into that in just a little bit.

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And we're going to begin the initiation process.

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We're going to take you through a process of initiation, engineering, PS&E, letting and construction.

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today you're going to be hearing from some subject matter experts in each one of these areas.

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So,

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we just take this for a second.

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I'll walk around with it.

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So, the interesting thing here is, from a federal perspective,

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the state starts out with a statewide long-range plan.

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It's a 24-year plan that lays out the framework for how the state is going to proceed over the next 24 years.

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It talks about technology, it talks about expected funding, what it does not have is a specific

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list of projects and specific funding.

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It just talks about what we think the trends are.

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If you read it today, we're introducing kind of some of these disruptive technologies, talking

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about how they're coming, CBAV, these kind of things.

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When you get down to the next document, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan or the RTP at Houston,

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Galveston Area Council, the Regional Transportation Plan, that is a 20-year document that identifies

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projects that are going to be undertaken by the region over the next 20 years and anticipated

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funding, reasonably available funding, not actual funding.

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Basically, the MPO takes the 10 year financial forecast in the UTP, the unified transportation program,

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and they run it out over the next 10 years to develop a reasonably anticipated funding that they can program projects against.

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The MTP, the UTP, the STIP, and the letting schedule are all

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physically constrained documents.

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The Unified Transportation Program is a state-required document.

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It is a 10-year programming document that identifies projects and the funding that will be used

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to implement that project.

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Then the statewide transportation improvement plan program, and you may hear it here as the

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the Transportation Improvement Program is a four-year federally-required document that generally is

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constructed authority. Those are guaranteed pretty much guaranteed funds to implement your project.

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And then of course, text dot does the two-year letting schedule. And so what you're doing is

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you can just kind of draw an arrow from the 24-year all the way down here, project development occurs

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throughout this process and we're working towards a letting schedule.

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Any questions?

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So, we're going to need processes fit into this letting schedule and these plans and programs.

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Text that over the past few years has implemented three new processes, the project delivery and governance for

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performance-based planning which is a response to state and federal requirements and the quarterly review process.

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Project development and governance, we document our current project development and delivery process and refine it to improve efficiency and facilitate improved staff training.

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We have a governance committee that manages the portfolio and makes adjustments as necessary.

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In performance-based planning, which is largely governed by our transportation planning and

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programming division in Austin, they help to define our planning process and develop scoring

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criteria and ranking methodology to ensure that we comply with the state requirements and

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federal requirements for performance-based planning.

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Probably, you've seen this process more here at the local level when you went through your

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for projects. If you were following it and you followed the tech and TPC and staff

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activities, you know that they went through many months worth of work to

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number one identify the funding that's available to look at the categories that

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they're going to fund like mobility, alt modes, planning projects, air quality

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projects, and then they came up with scoring criteria from there and then they

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release the call for projects, and you, as a project sponsor, probably submitted, you fill

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voucher application and submitted it and hoped for the best. If you're here, hopefully that

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means you were awarded some months. A very similar process goes on within text dot between the

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districts. And so we put together our list of projects and the state uses certain tools to rank

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evaluate and rank our projects internally as well to determine a portfolio or projects.

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The, and we'll talk a little bit later about which funds are suballocated to the, yeah, thank

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you.

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Which funds are suballocated to the MPO, but suffice to say that the MPO's selected projects

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just get inserted into our unified transportation program and the state carries them through

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towards completion. The quarterly review process was initiated a few years ago. It builds a

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structure into monitoring the progress of individual projects and the health of each district

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and the department's portfolio. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. All of these solutions

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are kind of tied into a modernization project called Text.Connect where we're taking all of

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our legacy systems. You may have heard of DCIS, Rois, if you've dealt with right away. We're

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taking all of the legacy systems that Text.us is and we're kind of rolling them all into this one

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program called Text.Connect. It's a slow process. They're rolling it out, module by module,

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the estimates, PS&E estimates, module just rolled out. And so the MPO does have access, at least

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to some of the information in Text.Connect, but eventually everything is going to be rolled into

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Text.Connect, and so we'll have a one-stop shop for managing the projects within our portfolio.

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And

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so where do these new processes fit?

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We integrate project development delivery in three areas, including plan, manage, and deliver.

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In plan, we look at performance-based planning.

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In manage, we use the quarterly review process and to deliver a project.

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We use the our project delivery in governance committee.

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Switch back over here.

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So this...

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This is just another way of looking at those planning and programming documents that I showed you earlier

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of the RTP, the statewide long-range plan, the UTP, the tip, and the two year-letting schedules.

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So what do we do? We have an estimate of funding and we have transportation strategic objectives that are given to us by our commission.

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We plan projects, we evaluate them against our strategic goals, and then we bring them

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through milestones.

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And they work through a funnel, they advance through a funnel to meet certain development milestones.

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And as each project meets that milestone, it's working towards the ready to construct and let.

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So in performance-based planning, we define clear key performance measures.

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We develop planning targets for each district and MPO.

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We align those projects with the strategic objectives and support compliance with state legislative requirements.

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This helps us to ensure that we are consistent with state and federal rules and regulations.

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We align our planning activities with the strategic objectives, which enables us to improve project performance and tracking.

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So

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again, here are your 12 categories of funding.

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So I talked to you earlier about the fact that all of the federal funding that comes from

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federal highway administration, DOT, and open, really Congress, as well as the state funding

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comes into the text.coffers, and it's suballocated to 12 categories of funding.

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Each category has a specific purpose, for instance, category one is maintenance, category

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five is congestion mitigation air quality, category nine is your transportation alternative

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set aside program. The state, as I mentioned earlier, has sub-allocated four categories

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of funding to MPOs for a local project selection, categories two, five, seven, and nine. And so

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the MPO also develops a process that's consistent with state and federal criteria in evaluating

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your projects and ultimately selecting them for funding. So we identify projects. We evaluate

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them against the performance criteria and then we put them through a sieve basically that

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is determining the right source of funding for the project. Category 6 is Bridge Funding.

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Category

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So here are some examples of potential key performance measures that we look at safety, connectivity, preservation, and congestion.

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We also consider, as I mentioned on the previous slide, we also consider the economy and the environment because those are federal requirements.

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And so, but this is basically our commissions strategic objectives.

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And so, the stakeholders in this performance-based planning process, all of these entities around the UTP,

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and in the development of the UTP provide input to that.

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We have a quarterly review process leadership committee over on your right.

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You'll see that it's made up of our executives.

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Text that executives and everything from the chief engineer to the executive director.

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They meet on a quarterly basis to review the health of our portfolio.

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And so on the quarterly review process districts program a mix of projects to meet their key performance measures.

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We manage that portfolio to maintain the right volume and mix of projects.

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And we have defined we have quarterly meetings to review the district's portfolio.

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This is a time probably if you have a federally funded project that we might be contacting you and saying,

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Hey, we have concerns about your project.

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We have concerns about its ability to make the letting schedule.

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And this is usually what's triggering those concerns because we've internally we've met.

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And as part of the internal quarterly review process, our TPND, James Koch brings us into a

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conference room and we spend the day with him going line-by-line project by project, giving

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him a status and you're going to see a little snapshot of what that portfolio looks like later

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on, but we go line-by-line project by project, status by status, activity by activity, talking

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about where we are, what the problems are, what needs to be done to correct it and making adjustments

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as needed. And he usually wants to do this because, next the following month, he's heading

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up to Austin to tell the Quarterly Review Leadership Committee, line by line project by project

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what's going on. And so there's a lot of accountability within the organization to deliver

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projects on time and on budget.

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So what does the quarterly review process look like?

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Again, I just have to use a district portfolio review.

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And then from there, there is a pre-alignment meeting in Austin

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where the district meets with the central planning team,

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which is composed of several divisions,

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including our transportation planning and programming,

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finance, environmental, right of way in our professional

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engineering procurement services divisions. They review the portfolio, assess progress against

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the letting schedule. We look at the resources needed. If we're having trouble delivering a project,

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do we need some additional support? We might need to engage PAPS, the professional engineering

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procurement services, to get the job done. We may need right away division to give us

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some additional resources. That's the time that we sit and talk with our divisions about what

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support we need. We assess the projects against the letting schedule and then

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prioritize those projects based on anticipated letting and then following

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that there is a leadership committee meets with the central planning team and

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usually the district engineer for each district and the central planning team

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along with the leadership committee which I showed you right

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They will sit down, meet, they will review a consolidated portfolio, get district input and identify

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and take appropriate actions.

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Part of the concern is, you've heard it if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

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That's very much true for federal funds, and you're going to hear later on when Anna,

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Dr. Ramirez, talks about the TASA program, the Transportation Alternative Settiside Program.

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So, probably focusing on that program, but the truth is all federal funds expire three years after they've been apportioned.

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And so, we're always on time on budget is very important because we never want to send federal dollars back to Washington.

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the state also has certain requirements and the legislature is looking at us every two years seeing how well we spent the money they gave us.

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We want to show them that we need more, not less.

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And so it's very incumbent upon us to spend the money.

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And so many times we do want to make adjustments in your project and you may feel that you want to kind of leave it there because it's very important and we agree,

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but you also need to look at, we're also very much concerned about spending the money in drawing that down

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and not sending anything back either to Austin or to Washington.

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That is obligation.

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So, and what I mean by that is when you get projects, you will develop that project and go through

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process of schematics, environmental clearance, right away utility adjustments, all of that.

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Right before we let a project to construction, the month before that we pull, if you have

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federal funds, the month before that we pull what's called the FPAA Federal Project Authorization

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and Agreement.

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That is a one-page agreement between the State and Federal Highway Administration that

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says we're authorized for you to begin spending and drawing down your federal fund.

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That when we get that FPA, the project is considered obligated, meaning the federal government

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has an obligation to deliver those funds to you.

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They can't be rescinded or they shouldn't be rescinded unless there were extraordinary circumstances.

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And so they have an obligation to you at that time.

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And so that's once you get your FPA, the project's kind of off the books.

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That's what we're trying to get to.

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We're trying to get to letting and do that.

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But there's a lot of things you have to do in order to do that.

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And so the four desired outcomes for managing the portfolio

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programming, we want the right mix and volume of projects

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at each stage to ensure that projects can move through that funnel.

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We looked at and we can meet our planning targets.

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We're using the funding that we have,

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and we're not leaving anything on the table.

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FYI, moving your project a year, although sometimes with with TASA, and others can be problematic,

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but we would rather move it out, it's easier to accelerate and pull it back in than it is to push it out.

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And so when we ask you to delay your project, it doesn't mean that we're reducing its priority.

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It's still very much a priority for us, but we also, I talked earlier about the four documents,

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the fact that they're fiscally constrained.

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We have caps. We have budget caps in all four

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of those documents, the RTP that's up the UTP and the two year letting schedule. If your

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project is continuing to sit in there and isn't going to make it, it's consuming capacity

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that needs to be used by something else. And so we do want to move it out so that we can move

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something into that we can fully expand the funds.

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Anyway, we look at milestones.

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We monitor progress of letting projects

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to ensure that they're on time and on budget.

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We've hit all the milestones.

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We look at resources that are needed at the district

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and division, and we coordinate now stakeholders here

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is not about the public involvement process.

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stakeholders here is about the stakeholders

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internal to textile and the MPO to deliver the portfolio of projects and so the QRP enables

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the achievement of the four outcomes through regular coordination with all stakeholders.

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Here is kind of the process. Everything again feeds into the UTP. The ones with the gold circle around

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are the central planning team, they're the ones that coordinate the portfolio and the funding

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for it. The MPOs, of course, coordinate through the districts to move projects as an

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necessary. Some of the risks, if we don't actually manage that portfolio, we don't have

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the right-sized funnel and we don't have enough projects in the hopper to fully utilize the

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funding. We don't have timely and accurate data and we're in a hurry trying to get everything

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at the last minute so they make us do it quarterly and not some other time and we of course

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want to deliver with integrity. We don't want to prioritize short-term issues of the day

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over the big picture portfolio.

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Project delivery in governance is a standardized workflow.

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It

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These proactive collaboration and individual projects are delivered on time and on budget

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to minimize delays and cost overruns.

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What do they say time as money?

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It really is.

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If your project is delayed, the costs go up.

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The four guiding principles of the project development delivery and governance process

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is early involvement.

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Get all the stakeholders together against stakeholders.

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When I'm talking about stakeholders here, I'm not talking about a public involvement

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process. I'm talking about an internal process of making sure that environmental and

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right-of-way are talking to each other because right-of-way can be parallel processing

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while environmental clearance is happening. And so what can we begin doing? We can begin

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mapping our right-of-way. We can begin getting our our appraisals together. We just can't mail them.

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So if we put those kind of back to back the time would be much greater and so we want to make sure that we're parallel processing where we can and we're collaborating with each other internally to make sure that everybody understands where we are.

294
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If through the environmental process they identify the need for an individual permit, we need to understand what kind of hit to the time to the time table that's going to happen.

295
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individual permits can take up to a year. Certain agreements such as railroad agreements

296
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can easily take up to a year, we typically say 18 months. And so that's a railroad permit

297
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will delay a project by 18 months. And so we need to understand that because then we don't

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want to go out and begin doing the appraisals too soon, either. It's about the right time,

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you know it's about delivering work at the right time. So we want to parallel process and we want

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to be visible, making sure that all of the stakeholders internal and here at the MPO and the

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local governments that we're talking about what the challenges are. We're open about that so that we

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and begin phasing the work appropriately.

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deadly.

304
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:06,120
This is just a glimpse that who all has part in the project delivery process.

305
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And so some of the risks, if we advance right away activities and right away title, work

306
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,080
and appraisals aren't carried out in parallel to environmental.

307
00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:21,480
The project could get delayed, accurate tracking of progress in milestones, lack of visibility,

308
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could complicate the timeline.

309
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We need to advance long lead time activities.

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We just talked about the individual permit and the railroad agreements.

311
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There are other things that may require some long lead times.

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We need to talk about and identify those early so that we can try to mitigate

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for them and also phase whatever other work we need that we can be doing.

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We need to be doing it.

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And then we need to just continue to collaborate.

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And so here I call this the long and winding road.

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This is kind of what it looks like to do a project at text time.

318
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From the beginning, we talked about the needs identification.

319
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So this would be the MPO data call for projects.

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And you know that there's a need in your local government.

321
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And so you've identified that need.

322
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At textile, we look for project authorization.

323
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Do we have authority to work on that project

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even if we don't have construction funding?

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We get something called developer authority.

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And that means we can start environmental engineering.

327
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Some of the other work that needs to be done

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in order to advance that project through project development,

329
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even before we have construction funding.

330
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We look at compliance with the planning documents.

331
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we talked about the long-range plan, the UTP, the STIP, and the two year-letting schedule, all of

332
00:31:50,580 --> 00:31:57,380
these documents need to be in sync with each other. Nine times out of 10, when we get a call from

333
00:31:57,380 --> 00:32:03,620
environmental, they're concerned because they can't get environmental clients because what we say,

334
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:10,420
what we're trying to clear, is it consistent with the RTP in the STIP? And I'll give you a little,

335
00:32:11,220 --> 00:32:15,020
Let me give you an example real quick, and I'm going to throw them work under the bus.

336
00:32:17,940 --> 00:32:28,220
So, there was a project, and I will say which one it is, and we put the project in the RTP in this step, and everything was wonderful.

337
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We got a proof, said, great, good to go.

338
00:32:31,580 --> 00:32:34,800
Now, that project will just call it West time, or it wasn't.

339
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:41,220
Um, we said that the original limits were the short little piece right over by the Galleria

340
00:32:41,220 --> 00:32:45,000
and then all the rest of it out to state highway six, right?

341
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:49,320
So we had the small piece and we had this big long piece, but we were actually designing

342
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:53,700
an implementing a widening on the whole facility, it's just different years.

343
00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:00,240
So it went through the environmental clearance process, it went through schematics, everything

344
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:05,420
was fine, it's consistent with the, with the long range plan and the tip. Now when it

345
00:33:05,420 --> 00:33:12,500
gets to Mark to do PS&E, Mark is going to give it to consultants and very, very

346
00:33:12,500 --> 00:33:18,180
logically he says, why do I want to give one consultant this small little piece of

347
00:33:18,180 --> 00:33:23,960
here and give another consultant this big, huge piece over here? And he says, I'd

348
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:31,080
to divide it in half and go from 610 to about 8 and then about 8 to highway 6 makes perfect

349
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:36,800
sense, right? Very logical. He actually did the right thing and he took back into

350
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:41,680
environmental and said, hey, if I change these limits, is that a problem? And they said,

351
00:33:41,820 --> 00:33:46,700
well, no, we cleared it from, you know, 610 all the way to highway 6, you're good to go.

352
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,820
You can do anything as long as you deliver, you know, according to the environmental document.

353
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:57,300
What he didn't do though is come back and tell us and planning what he had done.

354
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:03,300
And so the project continues on through design and it gets towards letting and all of a sudden

355
00:34:03,300 --> 00:34:07,640
planning again is looking at the letting schedule and we said, whoa, whoa, what's this?

356
00:34:07,860 --> 00:34:10,080
What's going on? That's not what's approved.

357
00:34:10,940 --> 00:34:15,380
That's not going to give you an FPAA to obligate your project.

358
00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:18,460
You know, who changed the project limits?

359
00:34:18,460 --> 00:34:24,720
And everybody said, oh, well, so I'm so dead, oh, and work wanted to change it because of this perfectly good reason.

360
00:34:25,260 --> 00:34:33,200
But if he had just did back and told us, we could have made the change in the documents and he could have continued on with the process.

361
00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:36,220
That is the importance of concern.

362
00:34:36,540 --> 00:34:43,440
That is the importance of communicating and ensuring that we have compliance with the planning documents.

363
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:50,580
we kind of make changes to your project, not only during the, sorry mark, not only during the

364
00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:55,100
contracting process and the MPO was done a really good job over the past few calls for

365
00:34:55,100 --> 00:35:01,950
projects publishing your applications. And so our contract specialist as Laura will talk about,

366
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:07,740
look at the application and we developed your scopes using the budgets that you submitted and

367
00:35:07,740 --> 00:35:13,420
what was approved in the step because they pulled the step they want to ensure that we're compliant

368
00:35:13,420 --> 00:35:18,420
with what feds approved, but also if you want to make a change, many times we'll say,

369
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:23,420
hey, you got to go back to the MPO, because we need a change here in this document.

370
00:35:28,790 --> 00:35:38,010
Okay, so a process, it depends. To do the MPO has a two meeting process for a tip amendment.

371
00:35:39,390 --> 00:35:45,670
The first month is a preview. The second month is approval. Now depending on the

372
00:35:45,670 --> 00:35:50,490
change that we're making it might require a step revision, meaning that it might require

373
00:35:50,490 --> 00:35:53,250
feds to have another look at that project.

374
00:35:53,910 --> 00:35:58,870
And if that happens, we revise the step on a quarterly basis.

375
00:35:58,870 --> 00:36:00,230
It's called a step revision.

376
00:36:00,770 --> 00:36:05,990
Now depending on when your project was approved by TPC, you may be three more months out.

377
00:36:08,220 --> 00:36:15,000
When a project goes through a step revision is a 30-day process for a 30-day public involvement

378
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:22,260
process, and then once the 30 days in, we then transmit that to federal highway administration

379
00:36:22,260 --> 00:36:30,920
and our experience is feds take 60 to 90 days to approve a steep revision. So if we need

380
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:37,960
an amendment and a steep revision is required, then we're, worst case, probably six months out.

381
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:55,280
And so, that's again, that early collaborative activity, why it's so very important, and why many times we're pushing local governments to say we really want to move this project because we understand the time it's going to take even to move it.

382
00:36:55,460 --> 00:37:06,680
And if we don't move it, you run the risk of not being compliant with the planning documents and you can't get environmental approval and without environmental approval, you can't begin right away.

383
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:19,440
And so there's this domino effect and so I just, you know, again, moving your project is not a huge problem unless you're trying to meet a milestone.

384
00:37:21,740 --> 00:37:34,280
And so we look at study requirements. We'll do agreements. We'll identify funding. This again is all in the planning process and so if you look over here at this chart, it's about 12 inches.

385
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:40,520
The planning process is about 12 inches of that long work flow,

386
00:37:43,300 --> 00:37:45,120
and so now here we're moving

387
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:50,220
into preliminary engineering. We hold the design concept conference. This is a formal

388
00:37:50,220 --> 00:37:56,440
form that we use to kind of identify the activities that are going to be required to deliver

389
00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:02,360
your project. And so we formalize that with our team. Get everybody in the same room.

390
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:03,960
you'll be in the room at that time,

391
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,260
where we can talk about your project.

392
00:38:07,060 --> 00:38:09,020
We'll do the data collection that's needed,

393
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:11,240
begin schematic development and approval.

394
00:38:11,980 --> 00:38:15,780
We'll be looking at environmental, do we need right away,

395
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,380
utility adjustments, and interstate access,

396
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:19,800
justification request.

397
00:38:20,700 --> 00:38:26,380
Now, here for project requires a federal decision.

398
00:38:26,940 --> 00:38:29,840
It has got to be in the tip and long range plan.

399
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:36,850
And so even we had a project once with the beaver, Becky's.

400
00:38:37,980 --> 00:38:44,120
Becky's was going to put the Katie Road, Becky's, maybe you guys know it.

401
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,820
It was a 100% locally funded project, not regionally significant.

402
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:54,180
So the determination was, we don't need to put it in the step.

403
00:38:54,900 --> 00:38:57,380
It doesn't meet any other requirements to begin there.

404
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:08,740
Unfortunately, we found out later on, they wanted to move the ramp, and when you move the ramp, it required an IJR, an interstate access justification request.

405
00:39:09,260 --> 00:39:20,780
And when that happened, we ended up having to put it in the step in the project was delayed, and Mr. Beaver, Mr. Applin, he actually goes by the name Beaver, was not happy.

406
00:39:20,780 --> 00:39:27,180
And so, if you need a federal decision, you need to make sure that your project is in the

407
00:39:27,180 --> 00:39:30,500
step, and it's in the right timeframe in the step.

408
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,740
We do public involvement and then in some projects we do value engineering.

409
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:42,420
Value engineering is a federal requirement when the project is $50 million or more for a

410
00:39:42,420 --> 00:39:46,820
roadway project and $40 million or more for a bridge project.

411
00:39:46,820 --> 00:39:55,100
If you think your project is going to be somewhere near that, we all know that the early schematic

412
00:39:55,100 --> 00:39:59,380
level budgets, the cost always goes up on a project.

413
00:39:59,700 --> 00:40:05,600
And so if you're thinking you're going to be hitting that kind of budget, then you probably

414
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:11,300
need to go ahead and ask for value engineering early on because it is a process and it does

415
00:40:11,300 --> 00:40:12,260
take time.

416
00:40:14,380 --> 00:40:21,100
Now, we're getting into Mark's area. Mark does the PS&E, the Plan Specifications and Estimates.

417
00:40:21,100 --> 00:40:22,800
These are your construction documents.

418
00:40:23,620 --> 00:40:27,580
What Mark is looking at is finalizing the alignment in the profiles.

419
00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:31,360
He's doing detailed design in the meantime, environmental.

420
00:40:32,460 --> 00:40:37,580
The engineers may be working on obtaining the IJR.

421
00:40:37,580 --> 00:40:42,840
Our right away is still furiously purchasing right away, we're adjusting those utilities and we're

422
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:47,880
praying that we get railroad clearance because we have an imminent letting date.

423
00:40:48,540 --> 00:40:54,340
And so Mark is working very hard to put together the PS&E assembly and design review.

424
00:40:55,420 --> 00:41:03,480
Your design is due to the state, your PS&E is due to the state five months prior to letting.

425
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:11,540
And so whatever your wet date is, back it up five months, we need a hundred percent perfectly

426
00:41:11,540 --> 00:41:20,560
reviewed text not approved plans. Five months prior to the letting date. And so work backwards

427
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:26,540
from that schedule, build in that five months. Mark will probably talk to you about this, but

428
00:41:26,540 --> 00:41:30,260
but the state also likes to see 30, 60, 90 reviews.

429
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:34,220
Until you need to make some build some time in for that.

430
00:41:40,150 --> 00:41:43,710
We, so if the state is letting your project,

431
00:41:44,170 --> 00:41:47,070
the five month review, we get your 100% plans.

432
00:41:47,510 --> 00:41:51,570
We review them, we certify them, we notify Austin.

433
00:41:52,430 --> 00:41:55,170
And there's kind of a chain reaction of activities

434
00:41:55,170 --> 00:41:58,410
that are going on during that time.

435
00:41:58,410 --> 00:42:07,150
Our finance division, 30 days prior to letting, goes to federal highway administration and pulls the FPA.

436
00:42:07,790 --> 00:42:14,970
If we don't get the FPA for some reason, like the project's not approved in the STIP, something like that, then the letting is pulled.

437
00:42:15,470 --> 00:42:16,830
It's automatically delayed.

438
00:42:17,730 --> 00:42:25,410
If we can't get the FPA shortly before that, we get that.

439
00:42:25,410 --> 00:42:27,350
of the financial clearances are done.

440
00:42:27,690 --> 00:42:32,090
We're going to be asking you for your final payment in there.

441
00:42:33,150 --> 00:42:35,210
And then the project is advertised.

442
00:42:35,350 --> 00:42:37,170
And let me keep going here.

443
00:42:37,850 --> 00:42:39,670
The project, so we get the letter of authority.

444
00:42:39,950 --> 00:42:41,190
That's the state letter of authority

445
00:42:41,190 --> 00:42:43,130
to make sure if it's state funds on there

446
00:42:43,130 --> 00:42:44,710
that those state funds are certified

447
00:42:44,710 --> 00:42:46,390
and that we've got them obligated,

448
00:42:46,390 --> 00:42:48,770
or we go to Feds and get the FPA.

449
00:42:50,030 --> 00:42:52,090
We advertise the project.

450
00:42:52,090 --> 00:42:58,730
Now, I'll text that recently in the last year or so, I think, has begun putting out

451
00:42:58,730 --> 00:43:04,810
mark as at a 50% for contractors to look at of our plans.

452
00:43:06,830 --> 00:43:15,190
On the big projects, we have started kind of publishing our plans at about 50% letting the contractors

453
00:43:15,190 --> 00:43:20,670
take a look at it. We hope that there's kind of a mutually beneficial activity there.

454
00:43:20,670 --> 00:43:25,410
maybe if they see some fatal flaws they can talk to us and if not it gives them a little glimpse.

455
00:43:25,590 --> 00:43:32,010
I think their complaint was that we give them less than 30 days to put a bit together but yet it took us

456
00:43:32,010 --> 00:43:37,170
a year or two to put the plans all the plans together depending on the size of the project.

457
00:43:37,530 --> 00:43:43,550
And so we've started giving them a little glimpse at that hopefully to facilitate a better bid during

458
00:43:43,550 --> 00:43:50,450
this bidding process. And so we advertise the project and 21 days later the bids are due.

459
00:43:50,450 --> 00:43:52,790
But it used to be in Austin, there was this room,

460
00:43:53,230 --> 00:43:56,510
and all of the bids would come in and it a certain time.

461
00:43:57,130 --> 00:43:58,610
All of the bids were opened, and of course,

462
00:43:58,750 --> 00:43:59,650
the low-bid wins.

463
00:43:59,690 --> 00:44:01,210
Now it's pretty much all electronic,

464
00:44:01,990 --> 00:44:03,750
but it's the same principle.

465
00:44:04,550 --> 00:44:06,590
And then the bids are reviewed.

466
00:44:07,350 --> 00:44:12,390
If they're over or above, how much percent?

467
00:44:16,740 --> 00:44:19,260
10%, 10%, if they're over or above 10%,

468
00:44:19,260 --> 00:44:22,680
maybe 15%, then the district is required

469
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:29,120
to review the project and write an explanation of why the discrepancy, the difference.

470
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:38,580
And so we'll go through that process and then all of the projects are sent to the Texas Transportation Commission,

471
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:43,420
which is our governing body, and they award the project.

472
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:58,300
So during construction, we issue a notice to proceed to the contractor to a pre-construction conference,

473
00:44:58,300 --> 00:44:59,960
are area off.

474
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:12,160
campuses, supervise and inspect the projects. We do contracted administration as needed. Quality assurance and testing, any change orders or process at that time.

475
00:45:12,660 --> 00:45:20,820
And then there is project acceptance and closed out. Probably the next time you'll hear from us. If we've left your project, is it closed out?

476
00:45:20,820 --> 00:45:24,120
I was just telling David Hortlow before this meeting.

477
00:45:24,700 --> 00:45:29,800
Our finance division, I talked about, we've kind of began modernizing.

478
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:36,880
We about a couple of years ago, Austin also rolled out people's soft.

479
00:45:37,180 --> 00:45:43,080
And so all of our financial and other HR stuff is done through people's soft.

480
00:45:43,720 --> 00:45:47,000
Finance has automated the collection's process.

481
00:45:47,660 --> 00:45:50,700
And so what's really important for you to know about that?

482
00:45:50,700 --> 00:45:57,980
is that in article whatever article 14 or something like that of your contract, there is a

483
00:45:57,980 --> 00:46:04,900
contact name in there that says, for correspondence, who do you want to contact? We kind of default

484
00:46:04,900 --> 00:46:11,480
to the mayor. It's not a person, it's a title, and we usually default to the mayor, but in some

485
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:16,900
larger local governments like the city of Houston sending something to the mayor instead of

486
00:46:16,900 --> 00:46:24,780
and that can actually deal with the collection letter is probably not the best idea.

487
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:29,120
And so be sure, when you're doing your contract at the beginning of the project,

488
00:46:29,180 --> 00:46:35,860
determine who do we want notices to go to because our finance division now has an automated

489
00:46:35,860 --> 00:46:39,140
system for once project close out has happened.

490
00:46:39,580 --> 00:46:46,000
If you owe the state money, they will follow the state law and there's a highly prescribed process

491
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:52,080
for collections. They'll send you a letter and tell you UOS money in within 30 days. 30

492
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:57,140
days later, you'll get another letter from us and you'll get a final letter from us and then

493
00:46:57,140 --> 00:47:04,340
they will send it to the Attorney General for Collection. And that is now automated. Excuse

494
00:47:04,340 --> 00:47:07,960
me, it's not something that the district does anymore.

495
00:47:11,740 --> 00:47:14,500
And so with that, you should now understand

496
00:47:14,500 --> 00:47:20,920
many steps and interdependencies to successfully develop and construct projects. We go from project

497
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:26,900
initiation and planning. We look at the planning and programming documents. There's a funnel that

498
00:47:26,900 --> 00:47:34,660
these projects go through. We do preliminary engineering, PS&E, letting and construction. Define

499
00:47:34,660 --> 00:47:40,080
how projects are created and move through a funnel. We talked about the 12 categories of funding

500
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:52,560
in the funnel how they meet our strategic objectives and then we move them through a funnel to meet certain milestones trying to progress them through to construction.

501
00:47:54,600 --> 00:48:03,020
Here's the funding categories, categories 2, 5, 7 and 9 are suballocated to the MPO for

502
00:48:03,020 --> 00:48:09,640
a local project decision, included in that is the selection of those projects and how

503
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:15,860
that occurs, other than that, the state has its own process for selecting projects.

504
00:48:18,300 --> 00:48:22,020
And then you should understand that we have a quarterly review process.

505
00:48:22,020 --> 00:48:50,640
The district looks at its portfolio and then certain district staff meet with the key team members and Austin to review the portfolio, assess progress against the letting schedule and to prioritize projects and then ultimately we have a consolidated portfolio that goes to our leadership committee made up of our executive leadership and they are trying to monitor the overall health of the project.

506
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:57,720
to ensure that we let projects on time on budget and that we utilize the funds that we have available.

507
00:48:58,240 --> 00:49:00,980
We don't want to leave any funds on the table.

508
00:49:03,500 --> 00:49:06,880
You should now understand that we have a project delivery in governance process

509
00:49:07,300 --> 00:49:12,660
that involves that includes early involvement, collaboration, parallel processing,

510
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:17,580
where we can, as I said, while you're waiting for you can't buy right away

511
00:49:17,580 --> 00:49:20,340
until you get environmental clearance with a few exceptions.

512
00:49:20,340 --> 00:49:27,380
But you can be doing some things in right of way like you're mapping in your appraisals while you're waiting on environmental.

513
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:36,160
You want to be coordinating with environmental through that process because if there are certain things that are going to have long lead times, maybe you don't want to do that work.

514
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:42,580
And so you'll want to continue to parallel process where you can and be visible.

515
00:49:42,580 --> 00:49:48,420
be open. If there's a problem, let's talk about it. Let's make some adjustments to that portfolio.

516
00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:54,700
It's not that your project is an important. It is. Your project is in this portfolio too.

517
00:49:54,780 --> 00:50:00,880
As I started out by saying, we've suballocated those funds, but the state still has responsibility for it.

518
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:07,700
If your project is allocated, certain federal funds, it's in that portfolio and we want to deliver it.

519
00:50:07,700 --> 00:50:19,060
Every time we move a project even one month, we have to fill out a form and make a request and we have to specifically say why we're moving that project.

520
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,640
Every time we move a project, our district engineer gets a ding.

521
00:50:25,260 --> 00:50:32,780
Okay, the district's report card, basically the district's performance report card is the district engineer's performance plan.

522
00:50:33,240 --> 00:50:37,680
Okay, district engineer, you know, will it rolls downhill, right?

523
00:50:37,700 --> 00:50:39,640
He wants to know, why are we moving projects?

524
00:50:39,820 --> 00:50:42,940
Why can't we let these projects, why aren't we scheduling them?

525
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:47,720
You know, in a reasonable amount of time, not an optimistic amount of time.

526
00:50:47,740 --> 00:50:54,860
And so it's very important, as you look at, as you help us, with your project to look at the health of our portfolio,

527
00:50:55,380 --> 00:51:00,140
being realistic and not optimistic about when we can deliver that project.

528
00:51:02,260 --> 00:51:05,840
any questions? Yes sir.

529
00:51:12,230 --> 00:51:13,150
Say that again.

530
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:21,760
Is there an approved? So the answer is yes.

531
00:51:22,060 --> 00:51:29,880
There is an approved bitter list for contractors. They get their pre-approved by the state or pre-qualified by the state.

532
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:30,340
Right.

533
00:51:34,210 --> 00:51:36,850
Ooh, design build is a whole, another, yeah.

534
00:51:38,210 --> 00:51:40,850
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a whole mother, uh, Bologax.

535
00:51:45,070 --> 00:51:47,710
Any other questions about the process as a whole?

536
00:51:47,870 --> 00:51:55,270
You're going to be hearing, uh, from subject matter experts, uh, talking about the contracting process and what you can expect.

537
00:51:55,890 --> 00:51:57,650
Uh, you're going to get a glimpse into that portfolio.

538
00:51:57,990 --> 00:52:04,650
You're going to hear from our, uh, our environmental supervisor about, uh, what you can expect for environmental claims.

539
00:52:04,650 --> 00:52:10,490
you're going to be talking to Mark who not only does the PSNE, but he also does the local

540
00:52:10,490 --> 00:52:15,290
government coordination. So if you have a federal project that's federally funded,

541
00:52:15,770 --> 00:52:21,290
you're going to have to coordinate with him and his group. And then you're going to hear from

542
00:52:21,290 --> 00:52:21,990
right of way.

543
00:52:24,540 --> 00:52:25,320
Thank you guys.

544
00:52:33,300 --> 00:52:38,020
Thanks Katherine for that overview. It's now time in the schedule

545
00:52:38,020 --> 00:52:44,640
for a brief break. We have a 10 minute break before we come back and talk about the local

546
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:46,640
government contracting and federal obligation.

547
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,040
All right. It's been about 10 minutes.

548
00:52:50,580 --> 00:53:00,460
Breaks just over. Up next, we have our presentation by Lord Gimboa from text.com to discuss

549
00:53:00,460 --> 00:53:04,080
contracting and local government projects.

550
00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:04,800
So

551
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:15,460
I'm Laura Gambo, I'll work with Catherine, I work in the planning section at text.

552
00:53:17,220 --> 00:53:21,780
And the person that, after you get the funds, if you need an advanced funding agreement,

553
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:24,300
the person that you come to next.

554
00:53:25,620 --> 00:53:32,000
And so that's, I'm here to talk about kind of that process a bit, and come over here

555
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:32,460
a little more.

556
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:36,000
So this is just kind of a brief overview.

557
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:39,820
How many of y'all have been through the AFA process before?

558
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:42,320
All right, quite a few.

559
00:53:46,990 --> 00:53:47,470
There we go.

560
00:53:48,290 --> 00:53:50,070
Okay, you are already the project.

561
00:53:50,330 --> 00:53:51,190
What's next?

562
00:53:52,290 --> 00:53:57,570
So, we need a funding agreement if at least one phase of the project development is federally

563
00:53:57,570 --> 00:54:03,010
or state funded, managed by the local government being reimbursed by text

564
00:54:03,010 --> 00:54:06,490
or locally funded project on the state system.

565
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:15,080
These are the various different types of projects that you may have had funded and that you do need a funding agreement for.

566
00:54:18,310 --> 00:54:22,610
And this just kind of gets into why we're even involved.

567
00:54:23,070 --> 00:54:26,950
You know, say there's no state money at all on it. It's not on the state system.

568
00:54:28,270 --> 00:54:33,450
Text that has through various different laws and statutes.

569
00:54:33,790 --> 00:54:36,170
We're sort of the governor of the federal money.

570
00:54:36,170 --> 00:54:41,250
And we'll sort of partner in that process.

571
00:54:43,210 --> 00:54:45,770
So, the event, funding agreement, is negotiated

572
00:54:45,770 --> 00:54:47,890
contract between textile and local government.

573
00:54:48,390 --> 00:54:51,490
It defines the scope of the project location and the budget.

574
00:54:52,390 --> 00:54:54,330
And who's going to be doing the various responsibilities

575
00:54:54,910 --> 00:54:57,150
and the state oversight fee?

576
00:54:57,270 --> 00:54:59,830
If we have a full reviewing your plans,

577
00:55:00,210 --> 00:55:02,890
and we need to recoup a cost for that, that sort of thing.

578
00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:06,620
No.

579
00:55:13,330 --> 00:55:18,290
I know a lot of people are wondering why we charge you on oversight fee and that's because

580
00:55:18,290 --> 00:55:26,070
state law says that it's against the law for us to spend state resources off system.

581
00:55:26,430 --> 00:55:30,510
Now state resources are not only our money, in other words we can't take our money and

582
00:55:30,510 --> 00:55:36,250
go improve your roads, but we also can't spend our time because our time is paid for by

583
00:55:36,250 --> 00:55:38,430
the state to therefore wear a state resource.

584
00:55:38,430 --> 00:55:49,670
If you're using federal funds, we have to oversee your project, but because it's off-system of the state highway system, we have to charge you for our time.

585
00:55:50,090 --> 00:56:00,570
The good news for you is that we can charge 80% of our most federal funds or 80-20, right? 80% federal, 20% your dollars.

586
00:56:00,570 --> 00:56:07,590
the good news for you is that we can charge 80% of our time to the federal government as well.

587
00:56:07,730 --> 00:56:11,690
So you're only paying $0.20 on the dollar for our expertise.

588
00:56:15,860 --> 00:56:21,560
I'm glad you address that, because we do frequently get people who have never been through the AFA process,

589
00:56:21,720 --> 00:56:26,120
and we send them the first draft, and they make the section at the bottom, and they're like,

590
00:56:26,220 --> 00:56:30,120
what are we indirect and direct costs? That's not part of what we've budgeted for construction,

591
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:37,200
And that's where we recruit our costs for oversight, or if we're letting the project, it's all there on there.

592
00:56:37,420 --> 00:56:42,960
And those are costs of the projects that you need to think about when you submit your project.

593
00:56:43,140 --> 00:56:45,260
And you say, this is how much I think it's going to cost.

594
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:47,200
You need to figure those in there.

595
00:56:50,140 --> 00:56:55,020
This kind of is a lot of lines and boxes, but he simply tells you the process.

596
00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:59,640
So to break it down, essentially, you're going to order the project.

597
00:57:00,980 --> 00:57:07,640
We watch the tip actions, so frequently I will contact you and say, okay, we're going to start

598
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:13,660
the graph. Let's make sure of the details. If there's a change in a project, or if you haven't

599
00:57:13,660 --> 00:57:19,640
been contacted, and you believe we need an AFA, then I need you to contact me. And my contact

600
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:25,380
information will be at the end of this presentation. But that's how we kind of initiate the process

601
00:57:25,380 --> 00:57:27,140
is one of those two ways.

602
00:57:27,860 --> 00:57:31,900
So once that happens, we draft, in our office,

603
00:57:32,060 --> 00:57:33,760
we'll draft the AFA.

604
00:57:34,020 --> 00:57:35,400
We send it to the local government.

605
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:39,120
The local government at this point will view it.

606
00:57:39,300 --> 00:57:41,360
It gives us combines other comments

607
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:43,200
and sends it back to us.

608
00:57:43,500 --> 00:57:46,040
Then we go back and forth to we agree on that draft.

609
00:57:46,700 --> 00:57:49,520
At that point, once I have an agreed upon draft,

610
00:57:50,140 --> 00:57:51,940
we send it for division reviews.

611
00:57:52,180 --> 00:57:54,680
So if it involves building a bridge,

612
00:57:54,680 --> 00:57:59,640
we're going to send it to our bridge division and our design division and maybe even traffic.

613
00:58:00,380 --> 00:58:06,360
We, those different divisions in Austin send us back in a review conference they may have.

614
00:58:06,780 --> 00:58:07,920
We address those.

615
00:58:08,380 --> 00:58:11,900
Then it goes to contract services in Austin.

616
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:15,400
They do a complete review of the whole thing.

617
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:19,960
They make sure it matches the still everything else.

618
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:21,640
They send us back comments.

619
00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:32,580
If the comments are very volumeless or there's something that was really missed, then we'll come back to the local government and say, we need you to re-erate review and approve.

620
00:58:32,900 --> 00:58:36,420
So the process can become somewhat cyclical for all.

621
00:58:37,060 --> 00:58:47,260
If contract services doesn't have any major comments, then we usually just make those. They're usually kind of minor, like we want you to load this differently.

622
00:58:47,260 --> 00:58:50,900
this doesn't specifically match the scope description of the project.

623
00:58:52,220 --> 00:58:55,960
So if with the minor changes we don't come back to y'all with those usually,

624
00:58:56,280 --> 00:59:00,280
what they do is, once we're having a copy that's approved for partial execution,

625
00:59:00,820 --> 00:59:04,840
we'll send it to y'all for partial and they'll say, and we change this thing here,

626
00:59:05,060 --> 00:59:10,520
this there. It just speed this in process up a little more than going back and forth,

627
00:59:10,600 --> 00:59:15,440
because especially smaller local governments, if we send it back to you for some

628
00:59:16,120 --> 00:59:20,340
little tiny change that doesn't matter to anybody. A lot of small local

629
00:59:20,340 --> 00:59:23,260
governments, they'll be like, oh, I need my attorney to look the whole thing

630
00:59:23,260 --> 00:59:28,060
over again. If your attorney's being paid by the hour, he's going to hold on to it

631
00:59:28,060 --> 00:59:32,400
for a while and come back with some of it. So it's just that if it's not major, that's

632
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:38,960
how we address those. So once we get a copy that's ready to be signed by the local

633
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:43,800
we send that to you. And I'm going to talk about vacuum sign here in a second, but

634
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:49,280
We really prefer, and it speeds the process up greatly, if I will get on the road with

635
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:50,380
DocuSign.

636
00:59:50,860 --> 00:59:57,160
We have several open governments that do it in, from the time we send them a signable copy of the

637
00:59:57,160 --> 00:59:59,980
AFA to it being signed up.

638
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:09,420
In Austin, can be 48 hours versus hard copy wet signatures that draws the whole process out about two weeks.

639
01:00:10,220 --> 01:00:13,060
That's how quick that speeds it up.

640
01:00:14,650 --> 01:00:22,750
Finally, a last sign that you send it back to us, we send it to Austin, our county and contract services signs that they send it back to us.

641
01:00:23,390 --> 01:00:31,410
Well, I'm back and forth, and if that person, we soon had a very executed copy, and if

642
01:00:31,410 --> 01:00:34,210
their funds do we send you a request for payment.

643
01:00:34,870 --> 01:00:39,290
That's that initial amount that's at the bottom of the budget, on the attachment.

644
01:00:40,930 --> 01:00:41,990
And it's the request for payment.

645
01:00:42,070 --> 01:00:46,910
Once you're all sent us payment, then we can proceed with a project.

646
01:00:46,910 --> 01:00:56,970
And tell that payments received, we can't have a kickoff meeting, no work can be done on the project that hasn't been authorized.

647
01:00:57,650 --> 01:01:00,710
We can't get the FPAA until we have payment.

648
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:09,780
Okay, that goes into the FPAA that I just talked about.

649
01:01:12,960 --> 01:01:18,160
And we give y'all instructions when we send that, you know, this is how you send payment, this is how much it's due.

650
01:01:20,770 --> 01:01:22,010
Okay, thank you, sorry.

651
01:01:22,690 --> 01:01:25,670
It is so easy a caveman can do it.

652
01:01:27,840 --> 01:01:32,360
Okay, this is just going to send to Digital Signature what DocuSign is.

653
01:01:33,340 --> 01:01:35,580
The last house I bought was through DocuSign.

654
01:01:36,180 --> 01:01:39,700
I mean, it's used for everything, it's legal, it's binding.

655
01:01:41,400 --> 01:01:43,800
It's a very secure way of sending documents.

656
01:01:49,260 --> 01:01:51,320
It is so much faster.

657
01:01:51,760 --> 01:01:56,240
And TechSide is getting more and more into this and we're starting to

658
01:01:56,240 --> 01:02:00,720
use it for totally replace even storing paper documents.

659
01:02:01,540 --> 01:02:09,480
the digital copy initiates and is kept through this process and it's we can map it

660
01:02:09,480 --> 01:02:14,720
too. We get some local governments that get concerned because someone approves what we

661
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:20,440
send, defer the sign or signs in it. And you can write it through all those people. If you

662
01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:25,380
tell me who you want to approve it, I'll just line them up in Dockey's sign and this person

663
01:02:25,380 --> 01:02:30,360
has to approve and then it'll write it to the next person to the next person and the next

664
01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:37,140
person. And the whole thing, you can do it from an iPhone, from an iPad, from a desktop computer.

665
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:39,680
It is so quick and easy.

666
01:02:43,420 --> 01:02:46,660
All digital signatures legal and Texas, I get this from local

667
01:02:46,660 --> 01:02:52,440
governments a lot. They're like, were you not sure about that? Yes, they are legal. And here's

668
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:57,120
all the codes. You can take a picture of that and take it back to your local government if they don't

669
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:58,020
So

670
01:03:00,670 --> 01:03:09,210
you do not need to purchase any software to use like you sign touch that purchase the right to use it in this manner

671
01:03:09,210 --> 01:03:15,030
And we send it to you all and all you do is open it. It opens it in the DocuSign format

672
01:03:15,030 --> 01:03:18,970
I think there's an app you can download for your iPhone or iPad

673
01:03:18,970 --> 01:03:25,990
But we said a little easier to use but you don't need to buy your local government don't have to go out and buy all license or anything

674
01:03:28,050 --> 01:03:32,530
And this is just kind of basically what you'll get when it's sent to you in DocuSign.

675
01:03:32,630 --> 01:03:33,610
You get something like this.

676
01:03:33,710 --> 01:03:36,110
It says, hey, you need to take some action on this.

677
01:03:36,190 --> 01:03:39,530
Whether it's the review action or the signature action.

678
01:03:43,400 --> 01:03:46,620
And a guide you through the process tells you where to sign.

679
01:03:46,920 --> 01:03:49,440
You do your little chicken scrap signature with your finger,

680
01:03:49,720 --> 01:03:53,400
but resembles nothing but a looks like a doctor signing a prescription.

681
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:58,560
And we hit finish and it wraps it back to us.

682
01:03:58,560 --> 01:04:00,460
It tells us you have signed it.

683
01:04:00,460 --> 01:04:04,180
It's ready to go on to our next person that signs it.

684
01:04:07,500 --> 01:04:10,520
And DocuSign also scores a copy of that.

685
01:04:10,780 --> 01:04:13,180
And you can access that copy at any point.

686
01:04:14,980 --> 01:04:16,680
And that's my contact information.

687
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,120
If you have, if you need a lawyer for it,

688
01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:22,680
have problems with one need and a amendment,

689
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:24,960
feel free to contact me.

690
01:04:25,460 --> 01:04:25,940
Any questions?

691
01:04:30,200 --> 01:04:30,360
No?

692
01:04:30,860 --> 01:04:32,460
I answered all your questions, point.

693
01:04:32,780 --> 01:04:33,260
Yes.

694
01:04:38,990 --> 01:04:43,390
Yes, the loss is a new type of modern agreement, yes.

695
01:04:44,110 --> 01:04:47,230
Any other other kinds where I use the term AFA,

696
01:04:48,210 --> 01:04:53,050
but there's non-federal AFAs, there's ones that are state-only money,

697
01:04:53,230 --> 01:04:55,310
there's donation agreements, volunteer agreements,

698
01:04:55,410 --> 01:04:57,050
and the loss is the new one.

699
01:04:57,470 --> 01:05:01,050
And it's purpose is more for smaller projects

700
01:05:01,050 --> 01:05:05,550
that we will have them to do a bunch of permits for overused

701
01:05:05,550 --> 01:05:07,770
to do permits for all of them ever came in AFA.

702
01:05:08,270 --> 01:05:12,930
So like, turn ones when you're joining our roadway

703
01:05:12,930 --> 01:05:15,570
in your project involves a turn line on our roadway

704
01:05:15,570 --> 01:05:18,010
or something like that.

705
01:05:19,030 --> 01:05:21,170
There's some restrictions on how it can be used,

706
01:05:21,490 --> 01:05:23,150
but it speeds up the process a lot

707
01:05:23,150 --> 01:05:25,230
at a board's a bunch of the review.

708
01:05:26,270 --> 01:05:29,270
And if it applies, that's another thing we have to tell you

709
01:05:29,270 --> 01:05:33,290
which found out in template applies, but if that one applies,

710
01:05:33,290 --> 01:05:37,210
that is my new favorite tool to use because it is so much quicker.

711
01:05:49,170 --> 01:05:49,290
Right.

712
01:05:53,880 --> 01:05:59,580
So, one of the one hiccup is some local governments that can't send us the Resolution

713
01:05:59,580 --> 01:06:02,580
beforehand because the Resolution is an attachment.

714
01:06:04,500 --> 01:06:13,300
So, it's workable that if we can get the Resolution beforehand, it gets lighted and

715
01:06:13,300 --> 01:06:17,540
DocuSign document doesn't have to be later all through to add that, which is a problem.

716
01:06:18,300 --> 01:06:20,180
It negates the signature, essentially.

717
01:06:22,360 --> 01:06:26,620
But what we do have this, it's similar to the documents, they have a whole copy

718
01:06:26,620 --> 01:06:32,920
per out of it, and the action that can't say or prove it, and then they docuSign it after

719
01:06:32,920 --> 01:06:38,720
accounts after that meeting, but not literally sit down silent in the meeting, although

720
01:06:38,720 --> 01:06:41,340
you could open up the DocuSign and sign it in the meeting.

721
01:06:41,340 --> 01:06:45,880
But they just take, but they do that to incorporate into their agenda.

722
01:06:51,890 --> 01:06:56,250
It's, I would need to get with you and see how we work that in, how yes process works.

723
01:06:56,930 --> 01:07:04,190
And so, I know some counties, they will get the resolution of proving the project like months before they approve the AFA.

724
01:07:04,650 --> 01:07:06,710
And then approving the AFA is a separate agenda.

725
01:07:06,710 --> 01:07:18,550
So, and that's another, let me touch on that while I keep your reservations general, don't put specific dollar amounts in them.

726
01:07:19,010 --> 01:07:27,970
Don't put very, very narrow project descriptions like we're proving five intersection improvements on these quarters of these intersections.

727
01:07:28,490 --> 01:07:35,370
Because when the project changes or we let the project in the process a little different, we need a new resolution.

728
01:07:35,370 --> 01:07:39,350
because you put a very specific dollar amount in there.

729
01:07:39,510 --> 01:07:41,550
So they only have to amend the whole agreement

730
01:07:41,550 --> 01:07:45,830
because your resolution doesn't approve how to project that.

731
01:07:47,390 --> 01:07:47,890
So, what do you want to answer?

732
01:07:49,310 --> 01:07:50,010
Anything else?

733
01:07:52,290 --> 01:07:55,610
Are we going to hand it off to one sentence?

734
01:08:15,540 --> 01:08:16,880
Hello, my name is Juan Fuentes.

735
01:08:17,220 --> 01:08:18,160
I work for

736
01:08:27,850 --> 01:08:31,670
deeply demonstrate the portfolio that we run.

737
01:08:32,490 --> 01:08:33,190
We do this.

738
01:08:33,190 --> 01:08:39,430
Like we have a quarterly review four times throughout the year, this is like Catherine was discussing

739
01:08:39,430 --> 01:08:45,830
earlier, all this information goes to Austin and we have a letting meeting once a month as

740
01:08:45,830 --> 01:08:46,170
well.

741
01:08:46,570 --> 01:08:52,110
All the information is gets pulled from the portfolio, it is just a sample of some projects that

742
01:08:52,110 --> 01:08:56,710
we're in there that are pulled, if you take a look, it gives you all the information on who's

743
01:08:56,710 --> 01:09:01,530
manager, who's the project manager, their environmental manager.

744
01:09:08,320 --> 01:09:09,560
It gives you the work programs

745
01:09:09,560 --> 01:09:16,440
with funding sources, federal percent, how much of it is 80 percent, 20 percent. It gives you

746
01:09:16,440 --> 01:09:21,080
all the main categories. So we know what funding categories we're using and it breaks down

747
01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:27,840
their cost per category. So we have, you can see at this project 27 million is a category 7.

748
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:37,220
It tells you the project class, the PS&E percent, and the environmental date, the acquired date,

749
01:09:37,480 --> 01:09:40,340
when it's planning to be acquired, it goes right away needed.

750
01:09:41,160 --> 01:09:46,320
The right away acquisition date, all possibly, the future right away acquisition date,

751
01:09:46,520 --> 01:09:51,980
has the utility information, the utility of clearance date, the beneath of schematic.

752
01:09:52,300 --> 01:09:54,440
If there's a railroad, needs to be done.

753
01:09:54,440 --> 01:09:58,220
If there's a very quiet, like this project, there's a quiet area of faith.

754
01:09:58,920 --> 01:10:01,200
So it just keeps track of everything while the projects,

755
01:10:01,580 --> 01:10:05,160
and we sit down with the managers every three months,

756
01:10:05,460 --> 01:10:07,800
and we're going to line by line project by project,

757
01:10:08,060 --> 01:10:13,760
trying to fill in these dates, verify if it's going to make us

758
01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:18,560
letting data not, we also keep a middle system with comments.

759
01:10:18,960 --> 01:10:21,540
So I have to put all the comments in there and why is going to be delayed,

760
01:10:21,540 --> 01:10:28,600
Why is that on time and then we use this just to keep track of everything?

761
01:10:31,740 --> 01:10:32,460
One

762
01:10:34,860 --> 01:10:40,280
mentioned something else as well and that is that on a monthly basis we have a

763
01:10:40,280 --> 01:10:47,520
wedding meeting and so we talked about earlier the fact that your PSME 100% plans are due

764
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:55,340
to text out five months prior to wedding. We have a wedding meeting which looks five months

765
01:10:55,340 --> 01:11:01,180
out we're looking ahead five months to say is this project going to make it? Do we have your

766
01:11:01,180 --> 01:11:07,320
100% plans? Is the local government environmentally cleared? You know, this is coming into it,

767
01:11:07,740 --> 01:11:12,740
but we're down to the nuts and bolts when we're taught number five months out. And so not only are we

768
01:11:12,740 --> 01:11:18,700
looking at our portfolio on a quarterly basis with the hope portfolio, but we also have monthly

769
01:11:18,700 --> 01:11:25,280
meeting and this is where we get really scared if the answer is no we don't have

770
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:31,160
environmental clearance access we don't have 100% plans right away says well we

771
01:11:31,160 --> 01:11:37,520
still have a few parcels left I don't think we can make it and so again it's that

772
01:11:37,520 --> 01:11:40,800
realistic not optimistic letting schedule all

773
01:11:56,570 --> 01:12:04,450
right thanks Lord and one up next we have Mark

774
01:12:04,450 --> 01:12:07,810
us about engineering, federal and state-funded projects.

775
01:12:08,390 --> 01:12:08,490
Mark,

776
01:12:33,930 --> 01:12:34,890
I'm Mark Patterson.

777
01:12:35,290 --> 01:12:37,770
I'm the director of the consultant contract section with TechSod.

778
01:12:39,030 --> 01:12:43,830
And one of my responsibilities is to administer, there we go.

779
01:12:44,370 --> 01:12:48,270
We administer all local government projects, pretty much all local government projects.

780
01:12:48,950 --> 01:12:54,710
I also am responsible for hiring consultants to develop projects for TechSod.

781
01:12:55,650 --> 01:13:00,550
I don't know if you looked at that real closely at that spreadsheet that Juan had, looked

782
01:13:00,550 --> 01:13:06,810
like all the projects were assigned to me, he just, he had, he just sorted it, just

783
01:13:06,810 --> 01:13:10,850
those projects are assigned in, oh, I do have quite a few projects that are assigned

784
01:13:10,850 --> 01:13:14,810
to be for implementation and probably half of them are local government projects, which

785
01:13:14,810 --> 01:13:19,790
probably about 150 of them at any one time, so there's quite a few projects, okay,

786
01:13:19,790 --> 01:13:22,950
I'm going to walk you through some of the requirements

787
01:13:22,950 --> 01:13:24,270
if you get federal funds.

788
01:13:26,290 --> 01:13:28,670
And like all federal funds, there's a lot of strings attached

789
01:13:28,670 --> 01:13:30,070
to getting federal funds.

790
01:13:30,690 --> 01:13:34,770
And one of the first deals is, if you ask to get

791
01:13:34,770 --> 01:13:35,710
reimburse for engineering.

792
01:13:39,820 --> 01:13:42,680
So you've got a project selected with the MPO.

793
01:13:43,280 --> 01:13:46,420
You've asked for it to get reimburse for engineering.

794
01:13:46,980 --> 01:13:49,160
And let's involve with that.

795
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:58,260
First of all, I think you got to ask yourself, how much am I going to get reimbursed, and if I walk you through what you need to do to get reimbursed,

796
01:13:58,880 --> 01:14:03,180
but is it worth my wild to get reimbursed with these federal funds?

797
01:14:04,980 --> 01:14:10,080
And if you're only going to get reimbursed like $10,000, I don't think it's worth going through all this trouble.

798
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:11,560
You might as well just pay for yourself.

799
01:14:12,900 --> 01:14:13,800
That's my thought on it.

800
01:14:13,800 --> 01:14:16,320
But anyways, the general requirements are,

801
01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:18,940
you got to advertise in a paper of highest regional circulation,

802
01:14:19,260 --> 01:14:21,300
which in this area is usually the Houston Chronicle.

803
01:14:22,540 --> 01:14:24,900
It needs to be a qualification space selection.

804
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:28,260
You need to have a DVE or hub requirement,

805
01:14:28,300 --> 01:14:30,220
depending on what kind of funds you're going to use.

806
01:14:30,540 --> 01:14:31,580
It's DVE for federal.

807
01:14:32,380 --> 01:14:33,680
It's hub for state.

808
01:14:34,940 --> 01:14:37,040
And there can't be no geographic preference

809
01:14:37,640 --> 01:14:38,700
for selecting a consultant.

810
01:14:39,360 --> 01:14:41,400
And that gets kind of back into why you need to advertise

811
01:14:42,280 --> 01:14:46,160
in a paper of high regional circulation, I get this all the time.

812
01:14:46,380 --> 01:14:51,140
Well, it's expensive to advertise in the chronicle, and it is.

813
01:14:51,960 --> 01:14:54,440
I want to just advertise in my local paper, so I like cheaper.

814
01:14:55,080 --> 01:14:57,480
Well, not everybody gets your, not always consultants.

815
01:14:57,780 --> 01:14:58,920
Look at your local paper.

816
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:18,120
And so that gets back, you're trying to target consultants, local consultants. Well, now you need to target all consultants. Everybody, this is a federal, really funded deal, and you need to target all consultants. Everybody needs to have an opportunity to learn this project to send you a letter of interest.

817
01:15:19,700 --> 01:15:22,020
We have a very simple selection procedure.

818
01:15:22,540 --> 01:15:23,880
It's like a page and a half.

819
01:15:24,720 --> 01:15:25,740
It's not hard.

820
01:15:26,220 --> 01:15:29,380
It basically highlights these four or five things

821
01:15:29,380 --> 01:15:30,420
that I've outlined.

822
01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:35,360
We'll send you a sample for selection procedure.

823
01:15:35,780 --> 01:15:37,280
You need to put it in your own format.

824
01:15:38,040 --> 01:15:41,260
You know, maybe with a header of your agency on the top.

825
01:15:44,510 --> 01:15:45,710
You need to send it back to us.

826
01:15:45,710 --> 01:15:47,250
And we need to write your letter that says,

827
01:15:47,250 --> 01:15:50,130
Yes, we reviewed your selection procedure, it looks good.

828
01:15:50,430 --> 01:15:53,210
Need to do that before you start your selection.

829
01:15:55,170 --> 01:15:58,030
I think I want to add one other thing to the general requirements.

830
01:15:59,030 --> 01:16:02,370
You can't have any involvement in this process by elected officials.

831
01:16:03,770 --> 01:16:05,850
The selection needs to be done by the staff.

832
01:16:06,130 --> 01:16:08,310
If you have involvement by elected officials,

833
01:16:09,010 --> 01:16:12,590
then we're going to probably throw your selection out to start over again.

834
01:16:13,090 --> 01:16:14,090
That can be very time consuming.

835
01:16:15,970 --> 01:16:29,270
Okay, now you've gone through the process of selecting your consultant, but you're not finished with the federal requirements, because there's a lot of federal requirements that go along with your consultant contract.

836
01:16:31,290 --> 01:16:37,430
Textouts got to prove your contract between the local government and consultant prior to execution.

837
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:45,980
We got to prove the scope, the contract format and the fee for all contracts we're going to reimburse you.

838
01:16:45,980 --> 01:16:50,580
Now, if you're not going to get reimbursed, we'd usually like to see the scope, so that we

839
01:16:50,580 --> 01:16:55,460
can make sure that what you're requiring of the consultant and what text out requiring of

840
01:16:55,460 --> 01:16:57,140
the consultant are the same thing.

841
01:16:57,740 --> 01:17:03,040
If not, we get a lot of complaints by the consultants that they're being asked to meet two different

842
01:17:03,960 --> 01:17:05,440
agendas by two different masters.

843
01:17:08,170 --> 01:17:13,230
Again, we've done this a lot, so we can send you a standard, the local government of samples,

844
01:17:13,230 --> 01:17:19,530
standard contract. The contract must be either lump sum or cost plus fixed fee. The local

845
01:17:19,530 --> 01:17:23,470
government and the consultant negotiate a contract and submit to text up for review.

846
01:17:24,990 --> 01:17:30,470
Text.reviews and approve the draft contract and we'll meet if necessary. A lot of times

847
01:17:30,470 --> 01:17:36,510
you could do it just reviewing stuff via email. The local government that consultant

848
01:17:36,510 --> 01:17:39,190
finalized negotiations and send the contract to text.

849
01:17:42,250 --> 01:17:44,310
Text. Here in the Houston district

850
01:17:44,310 --> 01:17:50,770
would submit, submit the contract to us and audit office review.

851
01:17:51,190 --> 01:17:53,730
What they're looking for there is text.

852
01:17:54,510 --> 01:17:56,770
Dot does a lot of contracting with consultants.

853
01:17:58,130 --> 01:18:03,350
So we have a list of, we have current contracts with consultants that maybe it's more

854
01:18:03,350 --> 01:18:05,490
likely we're using the same consultants you're using.

855
01:18:06,510 --> 01:18:09,970
And so we can make sure that you're going to get the best deal, that you're getting the overhead

856
01:18:09,970 --> 01:18:13,430
rate that we're getting, that you're getting the same hourly rates that we're getting.

857
01:18:13,430 --> 01:18:16,650
So we're going to help you in this process and it is a federal requirement.

858
01:18:19,110 --> 01:18:23,670
So we're going to help you, we need to submit that to the ROT office for you to make sure

859
01:18:23,670 --> 01:18:25,430
you're getting the best rates in overhead.

860
01:18:27,700 --> 01:18:33,400
If audit approves, text sets, submits for final approval and then we, we're offering running.

861
01:18:33,680 --> 01:18:36,780
The local government executes the contracts and we schedule a kickoff meeting.

862
01:18:38,480 --> 01:18:42,660
We do need a copy of the fully executed consultant contract because remember you're getting

863
01:18:43,220 --> 01:18:49,860
reverse. Also, female agreements to consultant contracts require prior approval. And the way

864
01:18:49,860 --> 01:18:56,240
it works with, with getting reimbursed is, this is a, yeah, it's a reimbursement. All of

865
01:18:56,240 --> 01:19:00,280
the stuff is a reimbursement deal. So you got to spend the money, then you get reimbursed.

866
01:19:00,940 --> 01:19:07,060
So, so if you hire a consultant, he sends a bill in. You get, you got to reimburse the

867
01:19:07,060 --> 01:19:11,780
consultant 100% of the bill, turn around and submit the bill back to us with the proof that

868
01:19:11,780 --> 01:19:16,700
paid the consultant and will reimburse you the 80%. But it's important to know that you've

869
01:19:16,700 --> 01:19:21,740
got to spend 100% before you get reimbursed. Kind of a texture cash flow.

870
01:19:24,480 --> 01:19:24,480
Okay.

871
01:19:26,560 --> 01:19:32,180
Let's get an engineering plan preparation. We'll have a design kick-up meeting. We'll assign

872
01:19:32,180 --> 01:19:38,080
it a project manager. We have 14 project managers that work on our section. They're all professional

873
01:19:38,080 --> 01:19:41,880
engineers and most of them are pretty experienced with doing these kind of projects.

874
01:19:42,660 --> 01:19:51,500
We typically have plan reviews at 30, 60, 90, 95, doesn't say it in the slide, and 100% completion.

875
01:19:52,080 --> 01:20:00,380
The 95% we, well, during all these interim submissions, 30, 60, 90, we have various sections that text out.

876
01:20:00,400 --> 01:20:06,720
We'll submit your plans over to our traffic people, our signing pavement marking people, our bridge section,

877
01:20:06,720 --> 01:20:09,880
They'll all review your plans at 30, 60, 90.

878
01:20:10,400 --> 01:20:12,140
We also have a plan review section.

879
01:20:13,340 --> 01:20:16,580
That's why you submit the 95% plans too.

880
01:20:16,980 --> 01:20:19,200
And they review, they review all the paperwork mainly.

881
01:20:20,060 --> 01:20:23,000
They look at, on any of these projects,

882
01:20:23,580 --> 01:20:28,360
you're required to, you're a whole raft of forms.

883
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:30,180
You need to fill out for the final letting.

884
01:20:32,890 --> 01:20:34,370
We require, as Katherine mentioned,

885
01:20:34,450 --> 01:20:36,430
a five month review of the final plans

886
01:20:36,430 --> 01:20:39,230
that does include that the advertisement time.

887
01:20:39,710 --> 01:20:42,030
And so there's a required advertisement time,

888
01:20:42,210 --> 01:20:44,310
I can't remember what it is like, it's like 30A's

889
01:20:44,310 --> 01:20:46,910
or that that include that's included in this time,

890
01:20:47,010 --> 01:20:47,950
the five months.

891
01:20:50,480 --> 01:20:53,240
Plans will use text.specification and plan format

892
01:20:53,240 --> 01:20:56,860
for text.lettings, local specifications

893
01:20:56,860 --> 01:20:59,960
and plan format can be used for local leddings.

894
01:21:00,680 --> 01:21:03,160
Local leddings require text.par approval

895
01:21:03,160 --> 01:21:05,180
and adherence to local led guidelines.

896
01:21:06,020 --> 01:21:14,620
typically we do not let just everybody local letter project. We have a risk assessment process

897
01:21:15,260 --> 01:21:21,100
where we assess our risk, text, text, text risk of doing a project with a local government.

898
01:21:22,020 --> 01:21:25,560
And typically if you're a really small local government, you don't have a lot of resources.

899
01:21:26,040 --> 01:21:28,200
You don't have a big staff like the city of Houston.

900
01:21:29,380 --> 01:21:32,840
And all likelihood, you're going to have text.lager project.

901
01:21:33,600 --> 01:21:38,060
And the reason for that is, because the federal rules for this state,

902
01:21:38,320 --> 01:21:39,300
that nothing released text.

903
01:21:39,620 --> 01:21:42,080
Of our responsibility for these projects.

904
01:21:42,860 --> 01:21:45,860
And since if we're responsible for administering the project,

905
01:21:46,600 --> 01:21:50,680
then you have a very small staff, then yeah, we just don't want to take the risk.

906
01:21:52,660 --> 01:21:52,960
Yes, sir?

907
01:21:53,360 --> 01:21:53,740
Question.

908
01:21:58,670 --> 01:21:59,370
Excuse me?

909
01:22:06,820 --> 01:22:06,980
Okay.

910
01:22:11,890 --> 01:22:15,550
It kind of depends what you're doing, and it kind of gets back to what Laura was talking

911
01:22:15,550 --> 01:22:20,050
about with that specific, that new agreements she was telling us about, we have a lot

912
01:22:20,050 --> 01:22:24,590
of projects where people want to do something on our road, like the county wants to come in

913
01:22:24,590 --> 01:22:30,270
and put a right turn lane in, and they're not asking for any money from us, but we're going

914
01:22:30,270 --> 01:22:34,050
to end up with a right turn lane that textot's going to have to maintain when we're finished.

915
01:22:35,030 --> 01:22:42,730
Okay. So how do we do that? Well, typically we let the county do it if we're confident

916
01:22:42,730 --> 01:22:47,870
in their ability to execute. Now if you're a real small local government and we don't think

917
01:22:47,870 --> 01:22:53,270
you can execute it, we might say, hey look, we know that you want this done, you give us

918
01:22:53,270 --> 01:22:59,690
the money and we'll do it for you. It does require an agreement, but it doesn't, it's not

919
01:22:59,690 --> 01:23:03,770
what we call a local let. Local let is where you're getting federal or state funds for

920
01:23:03,770 --> 01:23:07,210
project. You're getting reimbursed.

921
01:23:07,590 --> 01:23:07,830
Sure,

922
01:23:11,660 --> 01:23:13,560
yes. Which one?

923
01:23:14,380 --> 01:23:15,960
Fondran, West Park, West Park.

924
01:23:26,200 --> 01:23:27,820
For local projects, for local

925
01:23:27,820 --> 01:23:30,860
projects, you can use your own format. And that's what we've

926
01:23:30,860 --> 01:23:33,960
typically done, you can. And that's what we've typically done

927
01:23:33,960 --> 01:23:37,520
with the city of Houston. So the question is can you use

928
01:23:37,520 --> 01:23:41,980
your own format? Well, a lot of local governments don't

929
01:23:41,980 --> 01:23:45,980
have a real set format. And if you don't, and you want to

930
01:23:45,980 --> 01:23:51,020
text us format, you can use that for local, for a local, for a local, for a local at

931
01:23:51,020 --> 01:23:57,800
project, if you so desire. No, no, no, I think it's in the agreement. It's in the

932
01:23:57,800 --> 01:24:01,800
agreement for West Park that you can, you can do that. That's part of our local

933
01:24:01,800 --> 01:24:05,540
letting deal. Have you been to the local government projects class?

934
01:24:07,140 --> 01:24:11,580
Okay. Well, they'll cover it in that class. And yeah, basically allow local

935
01:24:11,580 --> 01:24:13,360
governments to use their own specifications.

936
01:24:13,960 --> 01:24:17,360
Now, all your specifications have to meet federal requirements.

937
01:24:18,120 --> 01:24:22,260
And that's why we require you to produce a project manual for local projects.

938
01:24:24,040 --> 01:24:28,680
And in that project manual, you kind of demonstrate how, if you want to use any special

939
01:24:28,680 --> 01:24:34,160
specifications that are specific to your local government, how they meet the federal requirements.

940
01:24:39,300 --> 01:24:39,980
I'm doing it.

941
01:24:40,260 --> 01:24:40,600
I'm doing it.

942
01:24:40,600 --> 01:24:41,220
Another question.

943
01:24:41,480 --> 01:24:41,780
Yes, sir.

944
01:25:03,230 --> 01:25:07,370
Basically, we're not interested in your, we're not interested in how much you're paying them.

945
01:25:07,470 --> 01:25:09,730
We might be interested in the scope, the scope.

946
01:25:10,670 --> 01:25:13,510
Now, if you've already got a contract with them, we'll just work with you.

947
01:25:13,710 --> 01:25:19,350
But if you wanted to bring a contract before you started to us and have us get some joint input,

948
01:25:20,230 --> 01:25:20,830
that would be great.

949
01:25:21,250 --> 01:25:26,090
If you've already got, like for you guys with the City of Houston, you've got a project

950
01:25:26,090 --> 01:25:31,730
that you've already developed, you already have a consultant on board, and you're going

951
01:25:31,730 --> 01:25:34,450
to do yourself, and now you've got federal funds,

952
01:25:34,890 --> 01:25:36,270
we'll just work with you on those.

953
01:25:39,790 --> 01:25:40,490
Any other questions?

954
01:25:44,100 --> 01:25:45,600
Design standards and specification.

955
01:25:47,480 --> 01:25:49,220
The design must match the design criteria

956
01:25:49,220 --> 01:25:51,660
and text-outs operation and procedures manual

957
01:25:51,660 --> 01:25:53,140
and ashto guidelines.

958
01:25:53,560 --> 01:25:54,380
That's in the agreement.

959
01:25:55,460 --> 01:25:57,840
Deviation from Design criteria requires an exception

960
01:25:57,840 --> 01:26:00,280
slash waiver approved by text-outs.

961
01:26:01,120 --> 01:26:04,180
A desperate facility must meet ADA standards.

962
01:26:04,920 --> 01:26:08,160
Bicycle facilities must meet the Astro Bicycle guidelines.

963
01:26:14,660 --> 01:26:14,940
Construction.

964
01:26:17,400 --> 01:26:21,140
As we mentioned, projects may be let in managed by text.org or the local government.

965
01:26:22,440 --> 01:26:26,560
Local networks are reimbursed in a monthly basis, depending upon the percentage contract

966
01:26:26,560 --> 01:26:27,100
completion.

967
01:26:27,720 --> 01:26:32,480
And these work just like I mentioned with the consultant reimbursement.

968
01:26:32,800 --> 01:26:39,480
You've got to spend the money, you're a contractor, you know, you're a contractor, you

969
01:26:39,480 --> 01:26:44,900
pay it, you turn around and submit that bill to text sign you get reimbursed 80%.

970
01:26:47,040 --> 01:26:52,320
Statelets, if it's a statelet project, the local government's 20% match for the entire

971
01:26:52,320 --> 01:26:55,180
project is due 60 days prior to letting.

972
01:26:55,820 --> 01:27:01,480
In typical, we'll do this, I'll write you a letter, and we'll have a table line, it'll

973
01:27:01,480 --> 01:27:07,320
show all the costs for the project, it'll show the construction costs, the design costs,

974
01:27:07,320 --> 01:27:14,520
the review costs, any other costs, and have a break down of which costs may be 100% your

975
01:27:14,520 --> 01:27:16,500
cost and all the ones that we're splitting.

976
01:27:17,280 --> 01:27:20,960
There's certain costs in these projects that are not not eligible for reimbursement,

977
01:27:21,600 --> 01:27:26,000
like if you wanted to replace a water line or something as part of the project, we could

978
01:27:26,000 --> 01:27:28,560
do it as part of the project, but you would have to pay.

979
01:27:29,620 --> 01:27:30,320
This is a good question.

980
01:27:57,220 --> 01:28:02,480
Well, typically if we start the project from scratch, we can cover that in the end of

981
01:28:02,480 --> 01:28:07,980
project development. And a lot of the design criteria are fleshed out when we have a design

982
01:28:07,980 --> 01:28:13,240
concept conference, which is usually around 30%. Where we always have, where we typically

983
01:28:13,240 --> 01:28:17,760
have an issue is a project like Muhammad was talking about, where you guys have already started

984
01:28:17,760 --> 01:28:22,460
it. Well, then we have an issue. Can you, can you, or can you not meet our design criteria?

985
01:28:23,060 --> 01:28:27,780
It's what you read on, because it's in our agreement, can you meet it or not? And then we'll

986
01:28:27,780 --> 01:28:31,840
let's just, well, we'll work with you to assess whether you can meet it or not. Typically, if you

987
01:28:31,840 --> 01:28:37,720
have right away, yeah, you have enough right away, you have enough room, we'd like you to

988
01:28:37,720 --> 01:28:43,080
meet at the middle of the Ash took design criteria. Preferably text-outs design criteria,

989
01:28:43,500 --> 01:28:44,880
but minimum Ash took,

990
01:28:50,470 --> 01:28:53,450
let's see, where do we leave this? Okay, field changes must be approved

991
01:28:53,450 --> 01:28:56,030
by text-outs, that's for local-let projects.

992
01:28:58,300 --> 01:29:00,020
Text-outs charges of construction management

993
01:29:00,020 --> 01:29:05,820
fee for text-out-let projects, as Catherine mentioned. We also charge an oversight fee for

994
01:29:05,820 --> 01:29:07,400
local, local, let projects.

995
01:29:08,320 --> 01:29:09,240
Now, why do we do that?

996
01:29:09,380 --> 01:29:11,820
Well, somebody's got to be out there from TechStot

997
01:29:11,820 --> 01:29:14,860
who monitors your project and make sure you get reimbursed.

998
01:29:15,240 --> 01:29:18,740
I mean, sorry, make sure that your contractor's doing the work

999
01:29:18,740 --> 01:29:21,540
and that we can reimbursed you.

1000
01:29:21,840 --> 01:29:23,020
So somebody's going to have a little oversight

1001
01:29:23,020 --> 01:29:25,260
from TechStot because you're going to send your build

1002
01:29:25,260 --> 01:29:27,300
to somebody and that somebody needs to,

1003
01:29:27,300 --> 01:29:29,260
it TechStot needs to make sure the work's been done.

1004
01:29:29,780 --> 01:29:31,440
So we charge you an oversight fee.

1005
01:29:32,080 --> 01:29:33,380
It's not as much, of course,

1006
01:29:33,380 --> 01:29:35,480
as if we were managing the project ourselves.

1007
01:29:37,540 --> 01:29:41,620
Uh, textot in the local government must agree on the final acceptance of the completed project.

1008
01:29:43,860 --> 01:29:47,640
Um, many federal requirements must be met for textot and local lip projects.

1009
01:29:49,820 --> 01:29:54,560
Like I said, there's a lot of strings attached with receiving, uh, state or federal funds for projects.

1010
01:29:55,460 --> 01:29:59,960
Finally, I'd encourage you all to go to this local government project procedures class that we, that we mentioned.

1011
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,760
It's LGPP, they have it. If you get on our website, our text. website, there's a list of when the classes are held.

1012
01:30:08,200 --> 01:30:17,900
I think there's a big demand right now, so I think the classes here are not all more available, but there's lots of classes throughout the state if you're willing to travel someplace.

1013
01:30:20,510 --> 01:30:21,010
Any questions?

1014
01:30:29,680 --> 01:30:33,360
So the question is, context.letter project office system, yes, yes we can.

1015
01:30:43,790 --> 01:30:45,730
Okay. Yeah.

1016
01:30:53,750 --> 01:30:56,910
So the question is, what are the advantages of text out versus the local government

1017
01:30:56,910 --> 01:30:57,870
letting a project?

1018
01:31:00,000 --> 01:31:04,260
I get law kind of feedback from people from our construction people

1019
01:31:04,260 --> 01:31:10,380
and I get, yeah, about whether or not it's easier for a local government to do it or for us to do it.

1020
01:31:10,720 --> 01:31:14,780
I'd say if a project is kind of a lot of involvement with a local community,

1021
01:31:15,900 --> 01:31:21,240
it might be better for you guys to do it because you're more used to dealing with a local community.

1022
01:31:21,240 --> 01:31:27,000
So it's got a lot of community interests, like this project, well, we've got coming up

1023
01:31:27,000 --> 01:31:31,760
on Memorial Drive, yeah, that might be a good project for you guys to do.

1024
01:31:32,060 --> 01:31:34,960
Maybe for us, if you've got a big bridge project,

1025
01:31:37,240 --> 01:31:38,440
maybe that would be a better project

1026
01:31:38,440 --> 01:31:39,080
for textile.

1027
01:31:40,180 --> 01:31:45,060
But it's just, whatever you guys want to do, if you guys have already done the engineering

1028
01:31:45,060 --> 01:31:50,640
for a project and it's all in your format, yeah, you don't want it to go to the expense

1029
01:31:50,640 --> 01:31:55,960
of redoing the project and putting it into text us format, and we can't implement a project

1030
01:31:55,960 --> 01:31:59,160
that's done in your format, has to be done in text us format.

1031
01:32:00,820 --> 01:32:05,400
So, I don't know, any projects is just way the pros and cons.

1032
01:32:11,480 --> 01:32:13,540
It's usually pretty quick.

1033
01:32:15,260 --> 01:32:22,000
The issue I have more is getting your permission, so I've got a lot of projects where you

1034
01:32:22,000 --> 01:32:27,160
get complaints from our area offices. We sent the change where the local government, we've asked

1035
01:32:27,160 --> 01:32:32,460
them to approve it and we can't get the approval. And a lot of times on those projects if

1036
01:32:32,460 --> 01:32:39,480
it's a text out project, we may just proceed without your approval. We want to get your approval

1037
01:32:39,480 --> 01:32:44,400
because we're spending 20% of your funds in addition to our project, our funds rather,

1038
01:32:44,820 --> 01:32:49,840
or the state and federal funds. Some projects that we had an overrun, if we're overbudget,

1039
01:32:49,840 --> 01:32:55,280
But prior to letting, we may be spending 100% of your funds on a change order, so we really

1040
01:32:55,280 --> 01:32:59,120
want to get your buy-in, but we can't wait forever.

1041
01:33:04,960 --> 01:33:09,400
We just need it, you know, now you're back to the other deal, you're spending the federal

1042
01:33:09,400 --> 01:33:10,540
and state dollars, right?

1043
01:33:10,900 --> 01:33:14,060
So yeah, if you're going to spend those, then yeah, we need our approval.

1044
01:33:15,260 --> 01:33:21,080
We're looking the other day, and we've changed our agreements, and the agreements now say,

1045
01:33:21,080 --> 01:33:24,880
For local, it says exactly what we said on local government projects.

1046
01:33:25,240 --> 01:33:27,460
You need to submit the change order to us to approval.

1047
01:33:28,200 --> 01:33:30,380
It doesn't say the same thing for state projects.

1048
01:33:31,160 --> 01:33:34,920
I don't necessarily need your approval according to the new agreement format.

1049
01:33:35,340 --> 01:33:36,540
I used to say that.

1050
01:33:37,040 --> 01:33:39,080
We changed it.

1051
01:33:40,200 --> 01:33:40,660
The reason?

1052
01:33:40,880 --> 01:33:41,420
I don't know.

1053
01:33:41,560 --> 01:33:43,120
Maybe we're having trouble getting approvals.

1054
01:33:48,820 --> 01:33:49,260
I

1055
01:33:52,460 --> 01:33:53,640
didn't see it either.

1056
01:33:54,560 --> 01:33:58,600
I think we're going to continue as good state or practice to send you all the change order.

1057
01:33:58,600 --> 01:34:08,160
But then again, especially for federal projects, if there's a delay, federal funds don't participate in delays.

1058
01:34:09,120 --> 01:34:13,140
So for delayed implementing a change order, it delays the entire project.

1059
01:34:14,200 --> 01:34:19,360
Well, we're going to pass that cost on to you, the local government, because the feds aren't going to reimburse us either.

1060
01:34:22,380 --> 01:34:23,640
Does anybody have another question?

1061
01:34:35,910 --> 01:34:38,810
you can use the city piece and design criteria as long as they need

1062
01:34:38,810 --> 01:34:40,070
to ask to a design criteria.

1063
01:34:42,620 --> 01:34:43,940
That makes sense.

1064
01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:46,000
So,

1065
01:35:00,530 --> 01:35:02,250
the question is, when you can,

1066
01:35:02,250 --> 01:35:04,670
when can you use the city piece and design criteria.

1067
01:35:05,330 --> 01:35:06,790
Well, you can.

1068
01:35:07,550 --> 01:35:09,290
You didn't, we didn't agree that you could use the city

1069
01:35:09,290 --> 01:35:10,610
to use the design criteria.

1070
01:35:10,830 --> 01:35:13,150
We agreed that, you could use the askedo design criteria.

1071
01:35:13,550 --> 01:35:15,970
So, long as the city piece and design criteria meet

1072
01:35:15,970 --> 01:35:18,310
the askedo design criteria, we're good.

1073
01:35:18,770 --> 01:35:21,790
If they don't, do we need to have a conversation about it?

1074
01:35:22,090 --> 01:35:23,550
Why can't you meet the design criteria?

1075
01:35:23,830 --> 01:35:26,230
Are you constrained on the right away?

1076
01:35:26,850 --> 01:35:29,790
What's your reason why you can't meet the astro design criteria?

1077
01:35:30,350 --> 01:35:34,550
Remember, we have an agreement, and you agreed to use the ashto.

1078
01:35:39,470 --> 01:35:39,730
Yes.

1079
01:35:45,000 --> 01:35:45,140
Yes.

1080
01:35:45,140 --> 01:35:45,400
Yes, sir.

1081
01:36:03,430 --> 01:36:03,590
Okay.

1082
01:36:23,680 --> 01:36:28,240
It could be Mike, but then you need to have, you need to make sure that you can meet all the other

1083
01:36:28,240 --> 01:36:34,540
criteria. Can you meet the D.B. goals for a local at project? And I guess you, you know,

1084
01:36:34,640 --> 01:36:35,780
you've done these recently.

1085
01:36:38,580 --> 01:36:39,740
Can you meet all the other criteria?

1086
01:36:55,080 --> 01:36:55,700
I think that would be

1087
01:36:55,700 --> 01:37:00,260
better addressed by one of the subsequent speakers, but I've been thinking that, yes, you would

1088
01:37:00,660 --> 01:37:03,980
be. I think as soon as you get those federal funds,

1089
01:37:06,030 --> 01:37:07,110
you're subject to our scrutiny.

1090
01:37:09,230 --> 01:37:12,850
And if, so if you're still buying the right away after you receive the federal funds,

1091
01:37:15,220 --> 01:37:20,840
Now, if you've done it before, I don't know, you might, like I said, I might need to be addressed

1092
01:37:20,840 --> 01:37:24,960
by one of the subsequent speakers, but I'm thinking, yeah, I'll see another projects where,

1093
01:37:25,060 --> 01:37:30,300
yeah, they've asked how they acquired the right away for this project four years ago

1094
01:37:30,300 --> 01:37:35,220
before they could receive federal funds. Is that the new norm? I don't know.

1095
01:37:36,280 --> 01:37:37,100
But I have seen it happen.

1096
01:37:40,650 --> 01:37:42,470
It's something

1097
01:38:03,180 --> 01:38:05,780
that's going to cost additional funds.

1098
01:38:07,020 --> 01:38:08,860
Something that's going to cost additional funds.

1099
01:38:09,620 --> 01:38:13,620
It's just because you're moving a firehead or if the contractors are not going to

1100
01:38:13,620 --> 01:38:17,860
cost you more money, then I don't think we'd be that interested.

1101
01:38:18,200 --> 01:38:23,040
We're interested in stuff where it's going to cost additional funds and we're going to

1102
01:38:23,040 --> 01:38:24,520
have to reimburse for it.

1103
01:38:24,720 --> 01:38:25,660
That's what we're interested in.

1104
01:38:26,300 --> 01:38:28,120
And it's different from the contract.

1105
01:38:28,200 --> 01:38:30,120
It's outside the contract you have with your contract.

1106
01:38:37,500 --> 01:38:40,140
And then we're interested.

1107
01:38:43,840 --> 01:38:44,600
Anything else?

1108
01:38:46,180 --> 01:38:46,600
Thanks, everybody.

1109
01:38:55,420 --> 01:38:56,020
Thanks, Mark.

1110
01:38:57,180 --> 01:38:57,420
All right.

1111
01:38:57,720 --> 01:39:00,520
Up next, we have Anna Ramirez.

1112
01:39:01,480 --> 01:39:03,320
Here to talk about the transportation alternative

1113
01:39:03,320 --> 01:39:05,720
set of size or toss of program.

1114
01:39:28,150 --> 01:39:29,170
I think I'll say.

1115
01:39:29,810 --> 01:39:34,530
Well, I'm going to start with a story about pitfalls.

1116
01:39:35,490 --> 01:39:36,190
What not to do?

1117
01:39:37,850 --> 01:39:43,850
And this is a project that, believe it or not, started in 2012.

1118
01:39:45,310 --> 01:39:51,730
At that time, Tessa, or the PED-Bike funding project, was called Transportation Alternatives Program.

1119
01:39:52,170 --> 01:40:01,530
And I'm going to just walk it over here and say that this project right here, North, is kind of to the left.

1120
01:40:01,530 --> 01:40:04,470
was a project that seemed, you know, very promising.

1121
01:40:04,750 --> 01:40:07,810
It connected all those other shared use paths.

1122
01:40:09,550 --> 01:40:11,570
It was, when it says Cat 3,

1123
01:40:11,670 --> 01:40:16,730
I think it's really Cat 9, T-Tap, Tessa, Cat 9.

1124
01:40:17,110 --> 01:40:21,710
And so this project, the time when it was selected in 2012,

1125
01:40:21,930 --> 01:40:23,750
there was an amendment in 2013.

1126
01:40:24,530 --> 01:40:30,330
The AFA that Laura just talked about was in 2014.

1127
01:40:30,330 --> 01:40:37,130
to years after I got selected, we're hoping you would let and we would start construction

1128
01:40:37,130 --> 01:40:45,190
in 2018. That's six years right there. This is for maybe a World War Project. This is like

1129
01:40:45,190 --> 01:40:50,830
a think of a shared use path as a really wide sidewalk. A 10 feet.

1130
01:40:53,190 --> 01:40:54,190
So then happened.

1131
01:40:56,840 --> 01:40:57,400
Share this

1132
01:40:57,400 --> 01:40:58,040
project,

1133
01:41:00,260 --> 01:41:07,480
what happened here was a this project over here, used to go through the river

1134
01:41:08,220 --> 01:41:16,420
here, and it had to have a bridge. But in that area, which is in the clear lake area,

1135
01:41:16,820 --> 01:41:24,440
there basically have a lot of people that have cell boats go figure. And the clearance

1136
01:41:24,440 --> 01:41:30,600
to go through those bridge right here, this river was that we didn't have enough clearance

1137
01:41:30,600 --> 01:41:36,220
for all those cell boats to go through it. So the cell group community came out and said,

1138
01:41:36,420 --> 01:41:45,080
I know, I know how. And we could not move forward on this pipeline that we've been talking to

1139
01:41:45,080 --> 01:41:54,420
you about about getting into contract, the design review and all that good. So we could be

1140
01:41:54,420 --> 01:42:03,140
We had a script problem and it ended out that this project that was elected in 2012 lost the funding.

1141
01:42:04,080 --> 01:42:09,100
The funding was taken away because this project was not able to move forward.

1142
01:42:09,160 --> 01:42:11,440
It was an important gap for it.

1143
01:42:12,600 --> 01:42:16,540
But if you don't use it, like Catherine said, you lose it.

1144
01:42:16,780 --> 01:42:18,120
So they lost the funding.

1145
01:42:21,150 --> 01:42:22,490
So what happened next?

1146
01:42:23,900 --> 01:42:29,760
When your construction started, stay tuned because for this project,

1147
01:42:32,020 --> 01:42:39,140
so again, this is a river that we talked about, this river here, and so they couldn't get the bridge because of the server.

1148
01:42:40,700 --> 01:42:51,900
So they removed this segment and added this one here and they came back to the MPO in 2015 and said, we're ready to go. Let me will submit.

1149
01:42:53,080 --> 01:43:00,780
Well, going to have, there's people here that live in this house is right here said,

1150
01:43:01,200 --> 01:43:08,260
not in my backyard. I don't want to show you stuff behind my house. Who would think

1151
01:43:09,200 --> 01:43:15,180
that people who now want to have like a trail, like a buffalo by a trail? But for whatever reason,

1152
01:43:15,180 --> 01:43:24,020
These people had said, now in my backyard, and this segment here, was recently in April,

1153
01:43:24,640 --> 01:43:28,920
so made for an amendment, and it was changed.

1154
01:43:31,510 --> 01:43:32,870
So, still tuned,

1155
01:43:35,480 --> 01:43:37,040
where are our lessons learned?

1156
01:43:38,120 --> 01:43:45,460
For TASA, the transportation alternatives, say TASA, like I said before, it was TE, this project

1157
01:43:45,460 --> 01:43:48,900
that I just talked to you about was transportation enhancement 2012.

1158
01:43:49,580 --> 01:43:58,540
Then in 2015, the feds just to make it, you know, interesting, change the name of kind of the same kind of funds for paid like to tap.

1159
01:43:58,940 --> 01:44:01,200
Transportation alternatives program.

1160
01:44:01,820 --> 01:44:04,660
And then now that's called a transportation set aside.

1161
01:44:04,700 --> 01:44:10,680
And that's part of the surface transportation block grant that used to be called STP.

1162
01:44:10,680 --> 01:44:12,440
You just have to follow those things.

1163
01:44:14,440 --> 01:44:22,220
And basically, for the public funding, interestingly enough, there's not one but two

1164
01:44:22,220 --> 01:44:23,380
call for projects.

1165
01:44:25,860 --> 01:44:31,580
There's the agency's call for project, which is included in the tip, and then there's a

1166
01:44:31,580 --> 01:44:32,760
state call for projects.

1167
01:44:33,240 --> 01:44:34,200
And they're a little bit different.

1168
01:44:34,600 --> 01:44:41,040
From the state perspective, they find public infrastructure for nine urban communities

1169
01:44:41,040 --> 01:44:45,820
are you know, real small and smaller urban communities are less than 200,000.

1170
01:44:46,480 --> 01:44:52,660
For, you know, the NPR, obviously, you know, they do the urbanized area kind of a bit different

1171
01:44:52,660 --> 01:44:59,980
and the NPO in 2015, they include some transit for the state, is mostly pet.

1172
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:11,760
But it is a competitive process and why am I calling highlighting that? I'm highlighting that it's a competitive process because you cannot just go up and change your scope of work.

1173
01:45:12,040 --> 01:45:18,300
Even if it's a slow sidewalk or a trail, you cannot just get creative and change your scope of work.

1174
01:45:21,150 --> 01:45:28,550
Now, from a faith-like perspective, the state, another difference is that the state pays

1175
01:45:28,550 --> 01:45:29,670
only for construction.

1176
01:45:29,910 --> 01:45:35,850
The only eligible activities construction only, except for this last cough cough

1177
01:45:35,850 --> 01:45:43,270
project that ended August 2015, they had safer to score funding that had remaining

1178
01:45:43,270 --> 01:45:48,830
safety movements that didn't include some engineering, but the state is construction only

1179
01:45:48,830 --> 01:45:56,530
A.J.C. is, you can have P.S. and E in right away another other basis of project development.

1180
01:45:57,330 --> 01:46:04,730
Now, the most important part is that TASA is really for this funding, the TASA funding is for transportation.

1181
01:46:05,690 --> 01:46:10,950
So, there is a transportation funds. So, I will understand that other amenities might be important,

1182
01:46:11,310 --> 01:46:14,850
or that other things might be needed to put in the sidewalk, or the shared use path.

1183
01:46:16,030 --> 01:46:23,010
The idea, both from the state and the MPO, is the most of it should go to increase the infrastructure for more-time-oral connections.

1184
01:46:24,530 --> 01:46:29,930
Meaning that from the state perspective, if you're in a small community and you need to re-grade your ditches,

1185
01:46:30,690 --> 01:46:32,910
because you have open ditch or you need to put a pipe.

1186
01:46:34,250 --> 01:46:40,330
Some drainage, you can only do 30% of that, because we know the drainage is a high cost ticket item.

1187
01:46:40,330 --> 01:46:44,930
And so that's going to take up all of the limited head-by-finding that is available.

1188
01:46:45,410 --> 01:46:53,230
From the NPO, in terms of advantages and last, if you think I think it's 15 percent, I believe, and it changes in each call for projects.

1189
01:46:55,150 --> 01:46:59,950
Now, those call for projects agree that you have to think about connectivity and access.

1190
01:46:59,950 --> 01:47:07,350
You want to connect with people who live to where they work, to where they shop, because it's for transportation and those, you know, short and long distance strips.

1191
01:47:07,350 --> 01:47:12,030
Obviously, there's an importance in connecting to transit.

1192
01:47:13,010 --> 01:47:17,670
Be it the first lesson to transit centers, park and rides,

1193
01:47:18,510 --> 01:47:20,470
thinking about continuity in the network,

1194
01:47:20,830 --> 01:47:23,150
thinking about gut fillers, and very importantly,

1195
01:47:23,410 --> 01:47:25,590
thinking about the logic terminology.

1196
01:47:27,350 --> 01:47:29,770
So let me go back to the funding.

1197
01:47:32,430 --> 01:47:36,390
So, Tessa, like Catherine was saying, is real restrictive.

1198
01:47:37,670 --> 01:47:44,230
The reason for it is, like we said, we have a three-year timeframe, but not only that.

1199
01:47:45,010 --> 01:47:51,170
It's not only the timeframe, but the fact that there's not enough projects.

1200
01:47:51,550 --> 01:47:54,810
So if there's a project that God delayed, what does that mean?

1201
01:47:55,170 --> 01:47:57,610
That means that we got to accelerate somebody else.

1202
01:47:58,430 --> 01:48:01,330
And is there somebody ready to go?

1203
01:48:01,990 --> 01:48:04,510
You know, sometimes that's just not the case.

1204
01:48:04,730 --> 01:48:09,030
And so it makes it a bit harder to find a substitute.

1205
01:48:10,710 --> 01:48:14,610
The other thing is sometimes for TASA,

1206
01:48:15,550 --> 01:48:16,930
they're going in and they look maybe,

1207
01:48:16,930 --> 01:48:19,030
can we do some sum back funding?

1208
01:48:19,310 --> 01:48:21,490
Can we, you know, transfer from category nine

1209
01:48:21,490 --> 01:48:23,190
and then move it at category five?

1210
01:48:23,790 --> 01:48:25,370
But category five, which is congestion,

1211
01:48:25,370 --> 01:48:28,990
communication or quality, you gotta think about admissions reductions.

1212
01:48:29,390 --> 01:48:33,490
So if you're really reconstructing a sidewalk, the feds are going to say,

1213
01:48:33,590 --> 01:48:36,610
well, how many admissions reduction is there for reconstruction?

1214
01:48:37,630 --> 01:48:42,370
There might be some associated with a new sidewalk, but to reconstruct,

1215
01:48:43,090 --> 01:48:44,130
maybe not so much.

1216
01:48:44,470 --> 01:48:48,370
So makes it harder on us to get that federal approval that is needed.

1217
01:48:48,950 --> 01:49:00,570
The person to think about with Tessa is that you think about this first time is that this is the funding that is available for Tessa.

1218
01:49:00,750 --> 01:49:03,610
It doesn't mean that your project is going to last.

1219
01:49:03,730 --> 01:49:08,830
It means that the funding that is available for the whole state or for an area where labs.

1220
01:49:09,250 --> 01:49:14,270
Which means that what we need is to hear from you earlier and say, you know what, I have delays.

1221
01:49:14,270 --> 01:49:19,470
I have the laser and that way we can reprogram your project.

1222
01:49:19,870 --> 01:49:23,590
We can make it, you know, delayed and try to accelerate somebody else.

1223
01:49:23,990 --> 01:49:31,990
You could have the laser because very commonly, sometimes the developers, especially local

1224
01:49:31,990 --> 01:49:36,210
governments, they already went in and pulled the sidewalk.

1225
01:49:36,770 --> 01:49:41,170
They already put the sidewalk in place, the developers, and then they come back to us and

1226
01:49:41,170 --> 01:49:46,430
have a new map and that doesn't look like the map that they submitted to a J.C. and the

1227
01:49:46,430 --> 01:49:50,730
car for projects. And there's a rule you know what the developer, the developer here

1228
01:49:50,730 --> 01:49:55,230
and there we already have those segments. So I'm just going to take my money and the money

1229
01:49:55,230 --> 01:50:00,130
that I got and I'm going to put the same linear feed somewhere else. But that's all fine

1230
01:50:00,130 --> 01:50:06,750
and then you got to come back to the J.C. and make sure they approve it. The other thing

1231
01:50:06,750 --> 01:50:13,270
think of our is outreach. You want to make sure that you reach out to the community because

1232
01:50:13,270 --> 01:50:20,270
you don't want to have that pitfall of having community really against your project. The other

1233
01:50:20,270 --> 01:50:26,470
thing that's important in terms of the change of scope is something that Mark touched upon.

1234
01:50:26,750 --> 01:50:35,330
If you decide to the local standards and you say, I'm project ready, I'm 95% complete. But remember,

1235
01:50:35,330 --> 01:50:38,750
one sense of federal funds for their life is a whole project.

1236
01:50:39,510 --> 01:50:42,310
Then that means you're not at 95% complete.

1237
01:50:43,210 --> 01:50:45,550
That means you have to go back and do it

1238
01:50:45,550 --> 01:50:46,990
to text that standards.

1239
01:50:47,990 --> 01:50:49,630
And that, you know, you have to go somewhere

1240
01:50:49,630 --> 01:50:53,230
without even something that you want to do it or not.

1241
01:50:53,450 --> 01:50:56,290
So, some of the things in terms of bike design standards,

1242
01:50:56,430 --> 01:50:57,570
we do up to Ashdo.

1243
01:50:58,070 --> 01:51:01,770
But some of you, on my think, will lack to is even better.

1244
01:51:01,770 --> 01:51:07,370
That may be the case, but your leaves have to be the minimum of ash, though.

1245
01:51:07,590 --> 01:51:15,990
You have to need whatever federal highways and, in terms of a proof control devices and anything

1246
01:51:15,990 --> 01:51:19,610
that's been approved in the METCV, in terms of pad bank.

1247
01:51:21,210 --> 01:51:27,270
One of the things that we have a lot of issues with is right away an easement for sidewalks.

1248
01:51:27,270 --> 01:51:32,170
Sometimes there is a corner club. You have a lot of utility there. You utility is there. Sometimes

1249
01:51:32,170 --> 01:51:37,910
is a fact that an easement can take about a year to resolve and that really delays projects.

1250
01:51:38,090 --> 01:51:43,990
Utility coordination, some of the utilities may be willing to move things for a roadway but not for a

1251
01:51:43,990 --> 01:51:53,890
sidewalk. So if you can avoid, if you can go around and go around them, if you don't have an

1252
01:51:54,730 --> 01:51:59,330
to make sure that you're up to par.

1253
01:52:00,010 --> 01:52:03,350
The idea here is that if your project is not ready,

1254
01:52:03,530 --> 01:52:04,850
we have to swap it.

1255
01:52:05,050 --> 01:52:07,690
We swap it in the district through the infield,

1256
01:52:07,890 --> 01:52:09,910
but then also they have to think about

1257
01:52:09,910 --> 01:52:12,670
so we don't have a lot in task-offending.

1258
01:52:13,090 --> 01:52:15,510
These are projects through the whole state.

1259
01:52:15,890 --> 01:52:17,390
But task-offending is limited,

1260
01:52:17,530 --> 01:52:21,150
so we don't have as many projects to pick and choose from.

1261
01:52:21,150 --> 01:52:27,690
So it's very important again to think about reaching to us earlier on to have a disability

1262
01:52:27,690 --> 01:52:35,350
and have those conversations with text on. Any questions? Go ahead.

1263
01:53:01,790 --> 01:53:03,610
Well, when you

1264
01:53:03,610 --> 01:53:09,470
think about the benefits, the benefit is the motion has been done differently here at HAC

1265
01:53:09,470 --> 01:53:15,730
than it has on at the state. At HAC it's really a process that they go that eventually gets approved

1266
01:53:16,310 --> 01:53:23,630
TPC. So, that would be more of an HAC policy question. I don't know if Adam, you want to answer that.

1267
01:53:32,980 --> 01:53:40,680
And those, you know, that has changed from 2015 to 2018 and that that HAC strives to work through those

1268
01:53:41,640 --> 01:53:46,860
eligibility and effectiveness and looking at federal house performance measures as well

1269
01:53:46,860 --> 01:53:49,000
when they think about the evaluation criteria.

1270
01:54:27,130 --> 01:54:28,730
Okay. So, let me see,

1271
01:54:28,730 --> 01:54:30,330
So I can see two scenarios.

1272
01:54:31,010 --> 01:54:37,350
One is why does a community reach to text that for a project?

1273
01:54:38,050 --> 01:54:40,170
One of the questions that is that,

1274
01:54:40,170 --> 01:54:44,930
what if, you know, some people that welcome back,

1275
01:54:45,690 --> 01:54:48,630
make them true, text that roadways,

1276
01:54:49,070 --> 01:54:50,290
to be a bit of a barrier.

1277
01:54:51,450 --> 01:54:51,990
And everybody,

1278
01:54:55,490 --> 01:54:56,970
so some people make them true,

1279
01:54:56,970 --> 01:54:59,730
it takes that roadways to be really wide, have a lot of volumes,

1280
01:54:59,730 --> 01:55:01,710
so I consider them to be a barrier.

1281
01:55:02,430 --> 01:55:05,950
But they want to cross them, because, you know,

1282
01:55:06,130 --> 01:55:09,050
as thick as the county, the citizens don't

1283
01:55:09,050 --> 01:55:12,190
and so many identified limits, because they're not,

1284
01:55:12,190 --> 01:55:13,230
you know, it's not like, you know,

1285
01:55:13,230 --> 01:55:15,730
I'm just right away here, I'm sitting in, you know, county road.

1286
01:55:16,310 --> 01:55:18,210
And so, since it's a, I right away,

1287
01:55:18,350 --> 01:55:19,490
they're going to come to us and say,

1288
01:55:19,990 --> 01:55:22,170
hey, we're really thinking it's in a foreign connection.

1289
01:55:22,630 --> 01:55:25,750
How can we work together to make it safer for the community?

1290
01:55:25,970 --> 01:55:28,950
And that happened this past last couple of projects.

1291
01:55:28,950 --> 01:55:33,990
We've got just regular community members reaching out to us and saying, I want a cross-ite

1292
01:55:33,990 --> 01:55:40,750
10 and I don't know how to do that. Can we do something safely? And in that way, we do collaborate with them.

1293
01:55:40,950 --> 01:55:48,870
There's other projects, two, seven days, which is in this area that basically, you know, on some projects,

1294
01:55:49,570 --> 01:55:55,750
we have an off-street facility because that's what the local government says they want, but then sometimes we have the cycling groups that say,

1295
01:55:55,750 --> 01:56:02,390
We wanted on straight because that's where we, I mean, you build that thing, but I'm not going to

1296
01:56:03,070 --> 01:56:08,270
write on it. And you're thinking, but it's off straight. You don't have to worry about the speed.

1297
01:56:08,410 --> 01:56:13,690
You don't have to worry about the volume. But in some areas, that's not context sensitive.

1298
01:56:13,710 --> 01:56:25,730
That's not what the users are want to do. And in some areas, they might say, you know, that I don't

1299
01:56:25,730 --> 01:56:31,650
over the right, so it just really varies and it's very context sensitive. The one thing to remember is,

1300
01:56:31,650 --> 01:56:37,410
and I think we're not going to touch on it a bit later, if you put a bike line, now that triggers

1301
01:56:37,410 --> 01:56:43,330
a public hearing, it's made a lower project. It's a public hearing. We have to have a judge clerk

1302
01:56:44,270 --> 01:56:53,230
a clerk and that would be about 60,000 just for the public hearing to put in the striping to do the

1303
01:56:59,340 --> 01:57:00,780
Thank you.

1304
01:57:09,810 --> 01:57:10,070
All right.

1305
01:57:10,090 --> 01:57:17,030
Now, it's time for a last short break before we come back and finish out the rest of the

1306
01:57:17,030 --> 01:57:17,550
presentations.

1307
01:57:18,530 --> 01:57:19,630
We'll be back in 10 minutes.

1308
01:57:20,610 --> 01:57:23,570
We have two more presentations left.

1309
01:57:25,050 --> 01:57:29,890
First up, we're going to have the presentation on environment, the environmental clearance

1310
01:57:29,890 --> 01:57:31,290
process.

1311
01:57:31,290 --> 01:57:34,430
And for that, I have a Mr. Nisha Robinson,

1312
01:57:42,320 --> 01:57:42,720
how you doing?

1313
01:57:43,540 --> 01:57:44,720
Just keep that microphone.

1314
01:57:45,620 --> 01:57:45,760
Let's see.

1315
01:57:46,720 --> 01:57:47,420
Yes, here.

1316
01:57:48,100 --> 01:57:49,100
That one's okay.

1317
01:57:49,640 --> 01:57:50,940
Good afternoon.

1318
01:57:51,600 --> 01:57:52,760
My name is Denise Robinson.

1319
01:57:53,040 --> 01:57:55,240
I'm the Environmental Manager for the Houston District.

1320
01:57:56,180 --> 01:57:58,560
And we're going to discuss a little bit about the environmental

1321
01:57:59,380 --> 01:58:01,600
clearance process for your projects.

1322
01:58:02,300 --> 01:58:05,960
This is a very, very important process.

1323
01:58:06,680 --> 01:58:15,960
A lot of times you guys kind of wait, and our strongest suggestion is as soon as you know, then you need to come and talk to us.

1324
01:58:17,260 --> 01:58:22,940
We have 15 staff that we work diligently with you to ensure that we're moving forward.

1325
01:58:23,700 --> 01:58:28,860
You never know until we get boots on the ground to determine exactly what we're dealing with.

1326
01:58:28,860 --> 01:58:48,840
And in fact, if it triggers one of these permanent processes, then we're looking at six months to 18 months in addition to so we're just going to step through just a little bit so you can see and when you have a project the best things to get with us and we'll step through our whole entire process this is just very general information.

1327
01:58:50,040 --> 01:58:53,760
So, the purpose is to talk about environmental, environmental clearance.

1328
01:58:55,020 --> 01:59:00,980
We have three, basically, classifications that we look at, the first is categorical exclusion.

1329
01:59:01,560 --> 01:59:07,900
This is an opportunity to do an analysis of a project that has very low impact.

1330
01:59:08,480 --> 01:59:15,300
The next is environmental assessment, the third is environmental impact statement, and we'll

1331
01:59:15,300 --> 01:59:17,380
go through these in general again,

1332
01:59:17,660 --> 01:59:19,740
but giving you more of the high points.

1333
01:59:20,680 --> 01:59:22,840
We do a lot of interagency coordination,

1334
01:59:23,360 --> 01:59:26,280
and this is critical for the success of your project.

1335
01:59:27,500 --> 01:59:31,860
So with that, if we have any idea that you're doing

1336
01:59:31,860 --> 01:59:35,020
something that may trigger Coast Guard

1337
01:59:35,020 --> 01:59:37,820
or working with the Corps, engineers,

1338
01:59:38,620 --> 01:59:42,120
then we need to try to start doing what we call

1339
01:59:42,120 --> 01:59:43,460
our pre-application process,

1340
01:59:43,460 --> 01:59:50,380
And that will then allow us to afford them with the potential of what your project will be.

1341
01:59:50,980 --> 01:59:59,980
And then allows them to start providing representatives from their areas to help us to navigate through the system.

1342
02:00:00,140 --> 02:00:11,300
And to reduce any lag time if possible. But again, the urgency and importance of understanding what exactly that means is left up to you.

1343
02:00:11,540 --> 02:00:17,080
But when it gets to us, we really try to take on the ship of it and help you to navigate through the system.

1344
02:00:17,760 --> 02:00:23,360
So environmental clearances are the process that is required. We're also the projects that you guys are going to be dealing with.

1345
02:00:23,420 --> 02:00:29,140
We have an aspect of screening, scoping, and then complete evaluation of the projects.

1346
02:00:29,140 --> 02:00:34,420
And the main purpose is to assess the potential impacts of the plan project on the environment

1347
02:00:34,420 --> 02:00:36,760
as well as the people that are surrounding.

1348
02:00:37,620 --> 02:00:43,180
And what we try to do is to obey to minimize anything that could have ever impact.

1349
02:00:44,540 --> 02:00:50,180
So the Council of Environmental Quality, CQ, has provided guidance through a memorandum

1350
02:00:50,180 --> 02:00:55,420
of understanding in the MoU, and that's for the regulations for implementing the procedural

1351
02:00:55,420 --> 02:01:00,400
provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act.

1352
02:01:00,840 --> 02:01:06,920
We follow NEPA, and that's from start to finish, and that's the only way that we can

1353
02:01:06,920 --> 02:01:07,320
operate.

1354
02:01:10,010 --> 02:01:14,250
So, the Texas Department of the TechSite utilizes the following classification, as I stated

1355
02:01:14,250 --> 02:01:20,810
earlier, categorical exclusion, and that is a very detailed list of the Act.

1356
02:01:20,870 --> 02:01:25,970
We look at the activities that your particular project may have, and with that we step through

1357
02:01:25,970 --> 02:01:35,590
see if it will fit into what we call a lease or low impact projects in that set as well

1358
02:01:35,590 --> 02:01:42,790
we have C22s as well as open-ended D. And again, as we're evaluating your projects and

1359
02:01:42,790 --> 02:01:47,350
the activities that those projects may encompass, we step through our checklist to determine

1360
02:01:47,350 --> 02:01:53,570
what may be included and make that determination. The environmental assessment as well as

1361
02:01:53,570 --> 02:01:55,750
doing the environmental impact statements.

1362
02:01:56,370 --> 02:01:58,630
And that's the, the long one.

1363
02:01:58,890 --> 02:02:02,090
If you don't know any more about that process,

1364
02:02:02,150 --> 02:02:04,470
just always understand that big red dot

1365
02:02:04,470 --> 02:02:06,630
is the hazard sign.

1366
02:02:07,110 --> 02:02:10,270
And it takes, or can take a very long time

1367
02:02:10,270 --> 02:02:13,130
to actually get that project completed.

1368
02:02:16,360 --> 02:02:19,800
That's one of the processes that we have created

1369
02:02:19,800 --> 02:02:21,580
where we can look at.

1370
02:02:21,880 --> 02:02:23,880
I'm gonna go through it a little bit more in detail

1371
02:02:23,880 --> 02:02:24,880
as we get for it.

1372
02:02:24,880 --> 02:02:26,420
it breaks down the listing.

1373
02:02:29,240 --> 02:02:32,620
So the CE level will projects or projects that do not individually

1374
02:02:32,620 --> 02:02:40,240
or cumulatively have a significant environmental effect. And normally do not require any additional

1375
02:02:40,240 --> 02:02:50,000
or further need an environment. I mean, that will. So the C-22 projects that are entirely within

1376
02:02:50,000 --> 02:02:56,240
the right away. So these are what we call our simple projects that we're not really doing much

1377
02:02:56,240 --> 02:03:01,260
to it, it could be something as small as coming in and replacing the lights and doing

1378
02:03:01,260 --> 02:03:02,280
reforceation.

1379
02:03:02,880 --> 02:03:07,060
It's not something that's very difficult.

1380
02:03:07,720 --> 02:03:13,100
However, we have a programmatic agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office.

1381
02:03:13,620 --> 02:03:18,980
And with that, that project cannot one trigger a section four.

1382
02:03:19,320 --> 02:03:23,440
That's something like with the Parks and Recreation, a section 106.

1383
02:03:23,440 --> 02:03:28,720
that will be something that's historical, endangered and threatened species, and then the

1384
02:03:28,720 --> 02:03:30,880
Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harvard Act.

1385
02:03:34,350 --> 02:03:34,510
Yes,

1386
02:03:40,620 --> 02:03:41,860
I'm sorry I can understand it.

1387
02:04:48,820 --> 02:04:52,660
If it's our project, we're going to overlook that anyway.

1388
02:05:28,770 --> 02:05:30,470
They come again on the project.

1389
02:05:31,430 --> 02:05:35,590
We do have CVs that will trigger a perfect request, a plan.

1390
02:05:36,090 --> 02:05:37,630
And we have a little bit of a whole process.

1391
02:05:38,190 --> 02:05:40,530
But if you're triggering that permit and understanding

1392
02:05:40,530 --> 02:05:43,310
if any of that technical permit, just an issue of arts,

1393
02:05:43,790 --> 02:05:46,070
which allow them to think that you have to,

1394
02:05:48,500 --> 02:05:49,860
but if you want to write ID,

1395
02:05:50,220 --> 02:05:52,140
they're trigger hours to you.

1396
02:05:52,820 --> 02:05:53,520
So I think

1397
02:05:57,770 --> 02:05:58,470
part of it,

1398
02:06:03,860 --> 02:06:06,360
is basically, you know, kind of a permanent document.

1399
02:06:26,720 --> 02:06:28,860
Do you want their projects to make sure that they

1400
02:06:28,860 --> 02:06:36,400
look at that and get with us to determine how they can best execute what needs to be assessed

1401
02:06:36,400 --> 02:06:38,120
as they're moving forward with their project.

1402
02:06:39,880 --> 02:06:44,860
So our project must be classified as an open-ended D by the activities of their project.

1403
02:06:46,160 --> 02:06:50,000
So with that we can have, when we're looking at it, it means that it didn't really

1404
02:06:50,000 --> 02:06:57,220
mean to C E and it doesn't mean that E E. But with that we had to look at that classification

1405
02:06:57,220 --> 02:07:03,800
and activities that's being done, we can step through in at the end of the day our environmental

1406
02:07:03,800 --> 02:07:07,980
failures and Austin assist us with making those determinations.

1407
02:07:11,640 --> 02:07:19,640
So there's a number of criteria that are reviewed in order to make that assessment and meet that

1408
02:07:19,640 --> 02:07:26,660
classification. So it opened deep criteria and here we go. So you do not have substantial controversy

1409
02:07:26,660 --> 02:07:35,560
on the environmental grounds. So starting with environmental, when you're looking at the impact that

1410
02:07:35,560 --> 02:07:44,100
you're having on a particular quarter, if the community is not excited about what you

1411
02:07:44,100 --> 02:07:51,740
get ready to do is very unlikely we can do an open-ended dec. So if it has significant impacts to

1412
02:07:51,740 --> 02:07:57,580
plan, the growth of land use, you have relocation that's

1413
02:07:57,580 --> 02:08:02,100
significant that you are impacting or displacing

1414
02:08:02,100 --> 02:08:06,580
individuals, again, very unlikely you'll be able to do an open-ended

1415
02:08:06,580 --> 02:08:11,420
D. And you do not, for an open-ended D, criteria you do not have a

1416
02:08:11,420 --> 02:08:14,840
significant impact on the natural cultural recreation or historic

1417
02:08:14,840 --> 02:08:18,760
and other resources. There's not a significant impact on the air

1418
02:08:18,760 --> 02:08:25,140
nor is a water quality, and there's not a significant impact on the travel plans, meaning

1419
02:08:25,140 --> 02:08:30,820
how that court is designed, we're going to impact that significantly, then an open-ended

1420
02:08:30,820 --> 02:08:32,520
D would not be an option.

1421
02:08:33,640 --> 02:08:41,020
Otherwise, either individually, and significantly, significant environmental impacts will trigger

1422
02:08:41,020 --> 02:08:43,340
the inability to use that open-ended D.

1423
02:08:45,360 --> 02:08:50,940
So, for an EA, it's a primary purpose of an EA is to help fix that determine whether

1424
02:08:50,940 --> 02:08:56,500
or not you have an environmental impact statement, which is the EIS, and we'll report with

1425
02:08:56,500 --> 02:09:00,180
that, or if not, if that's not needed.

1426
02:09:00,660 --> 02:09:07,220
So, an EA is prepared when a project cannot be processed as a CE, and does not clearly require

1427
02:09:07,220 --> 02:09:08,960
the preparation of an EIS.

1428
02:09:08,960 --> 02:09:16,740
So it hasn't gone over to the big red dot, but we still have some things that we have to look at.

1429
02:09:17,060 --> 02:09:23,020
It does not clearly require the preparation of an EIS or an EA with assistance determining the need.

1430
02:09:23,400 --> 02:09:32,960
So with that, the end result is either to say that the project in itself was found not to have significant impact.

1431
02:09:32,960 --> 02:09:40,320
impact. So that's a big word there significant and again through the evaluation that we look

1432
02:09:40,320 --> 02:09:44,620
through to determine what that term significant would include.

1433
02:09:47,690 --> 02:09:52,350
So for EIS, in order to do what

1434
02:09:52,350 --> 02:09:58,970
EIS that is, a new control access freeway would be a trigger, a highway project, a four

1435
02:09:58,970 --> 02:10:04,410
more lanes on a new location, new construction or extension of a separate roadway for buses

1436
02:10:04,410 --> 02:10:13,530
or highway occupancy vehicles are not located within the existing highway facility, new construction

1437
02:10:13,530 --> 02:10:21,010
or extension of fixed rail transit facilities such as Reptrial, Light Rail, Pemeter Rail and then

1438
02:10:21,010 --> 02:10:29,730
the Automated Guideway Transit. So, there in that picture is one of our big EIS that's going

1439
02:10:29,730 --> 02:10:32,730
And right now, we see an agency I'll pay from a 45.

1440
02:10:35,980 --> 02:10:39,900
So for EIS, this is a level of project and documentation.

1441
02:10:40,160 --> 02:10:45,000
Typically takes years, we take the way that we're at months,

1442
02:10:45,200 --> 02:10:46,680
because is years.

1443
02:10:47,540 --> 02:10:51,520
And it's a lot of coordination and an extreme amount

1444
02:10:51,520 --> 02:10:56,580
of assessment that has to be done to ensure that we're not

1445
02:10:56,580 --> 02:10:59,980
environmentally impacting the human as well as the property

1446
02:10:59,980 --> 02:11:03,040
that we are working on that particular quarter.

1447
02:11:03,700 --> 02:11:05,520
So some examples of the pieces of the process

1448
02:11:05,520 --> 02:11:08,420
is a notice of intent, which has to go out

1449
02:11:08,420 --> 02:11:10,700
first, participating in incorporating agency

1450
02:11:10,700 --> 02:11:14,640
environment, coordination, plan, and schedule,

1451
02:11:15,460 --> 02:11:15,960
scoping meetings.

1452
02:11:16,780 --> 02:11:19,000
That's with the agency and the public.

1453
02:11:19,680 --> 02:11:22,180
Public meetings, those are very extensive.

1454
02:11:25,520 --> 02:11:28,260
There's a lot that goes into the public meetings,

1455
02:11:28,300 --> 02:11:29,920
because we have to ensure that the public

1456
02:11:29,920 --> 02:11:33,660
is aware of the changes that are being made and proposed.

1457
02:11:34,660 --> 02:11:37,600
But we don't go to the public to say these are our decisions.

1458
02:11:37,640 --> 02:11:41,740
We have alternates on alternatives that we're presenting at that time as well.

1459
02:11:42,380 --> 02:11:46,180
So we have, after that, we have the preparation of the draft and criminal impact and

1460
02:11:46,180 --> 02:11:48,520
which is a DIS, public hearings.

1461
02:11:48,680 --> 02:11:55,600
After we have our public meetings and with EIS is a given that they're controversy.

1462
02:11:55,600 --> 02:12:11,720
So then you have to go and provide your last version, quote unquote final, schematics to the public to say these are the alternatives that we have decided and that we're moving forward with.

1463
02:12:11,900 --> 02:12:17,560
At the public hearing and then you prepare for the final environmental impact statement.

1464
02:12:18,480 --> 02:12:25,400
At that time, shortly thereafter, then there's a preparation of a ride, which is a record of decision.

1465
02:12:26,560 --> 02:12:35,940
And then that note, after that record of decision and everything as finalized, then it goes to the 139 for notice for the public to know that this decision has been made.

1466
02:12:37,640 --> 02:12:46,900
As I was speaking earlier about permits, this is the part that a lot of people neglect to remember or to think about.

1467
02:12:46,900 --> 02:12:54,760
Sometimes they look at a body of water or river that's in the city and we have a bridge over it.

1468
02:12:55,640 --> 02:12:58,660
And we are not necessarily determined whether or not it's inevitable.

1469
02:12:59,520 --> 02:13:14,680
So with that we rely on these two agencies to look at that very intently to determine whether or not we can get a permit and sometimes it's a very simple permit which doesn't take again.

1470
02:13:14,680 --> 02:13:24,520
But 30 to 60 days, but if not, if we're triggering an IP, then that's going to take a couple

1471
02:13:24,520 --> 02:13:25,080
more months.

1472
02:13:25,540 --> 02:13:30,480
So we're looking at anywhere from 18 to 18 months to two years.

1473
02:13:30,640 --> 02:13:33,100
So we have to be very cautious of that.

1474
02:13:33,820 --> 02:13:36,440
Again, that's where the design is important.

1475
02:13:37,240 --> 02:13:40,680
That's where we need to know what that bridge design looks like.

1476
02:13:40,860 --> 02:13:42,880
We need to know if you're getting into the water.

1477
02:13:42,880 --> 02:13:49,960
We need to know what you're doing on the side so the banks, we put an end riff wrap for how far

1478
02:13:49,960 --> 02:13:56,520
are you going? So all of that is really, really important as we're stepping through what we call

1479
02:13:56,520 --> 02:14:02,740
the environmental clearance process. So this type of permit is for the coastblood, I'm sorry,

1480
02:14:03,220 --> 02:14:12,640
that type of permit is required when work is being done in our over, now with the water or our

1481
02:14:12,640 --> 02:14:20,280
bridges, dolphin, and fender system. So you guys know that we have item bridge, that's an example right there.

1482
02:14:22,000 --> 02:14:31,580
We have fenders that have been compromised as well as the dolphins there. So with that, that

1483
02:14:32,500 --> 02:14:40,660
does require IP and it does take a time anywhere from 18 months to two years to get that taken for

1484
02:14:40,660 --> 02:14:49,640
also modification of any existing structures, any bridges that are already existing that are

1485
02:14:49,640 --> 02:14:57,540
inevitable waters. And we're not always 100% in being able to determine what a inevitable

1486
02:14:57,540 --> 02:14:59,820
water is. And, um,

1487
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:14,540
And if we have to rely on the expertise as well as their mapping to tell us exactly that flow of water. The application process requires at least 60% of the design, as I was sharing with you earlier, to move forward for the actual pruning process.

1488
02:15:15,160 --> 02:15:26,560
So they want to know exactly what you're doing, they want to know how what it works, they want to know everything that's going on in that area so that we can address that for that permit request.

1489
02:15:29,090 --> 02:15:42,630
So there's two types of permits we have the typical turnaround time, that's 12 months, and then we have the exemption, which allows us to do work over the waterways that's smaller than 21 feet in length.

1490
02:15:43,510 --> 02:15:48,930
So that's your easiest or if you will exemption type of permit that's there.

1491
02:15:48,930 --> 02:15:52,050
All need for requirements and other agency permits,

1492
02:15:52,350 --> 02:15:58,250
Coast Guard must be completed prior to the issue

1493
02:15:59,090 --> 02:16:01,730
of that Coast Guard permit taking place.

1494
02:16:02,910 --> 02:16:05,090
Delineations are performed to determine waters

1495
02:16:05,090 --> 02:16:07,870
at a jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act.

1496
02:16:08,230 --> 02:16:11,830
Permits required for any work done in special aquatic sites such

1497
02:16:11,830 --> 02:16:14,650
as wetlands, and sometimes as hard for us to determine

1498
02:16:14,650 --> 02:16:15,950
what that wetland is.

1499
02:16:15,950 --> 02:16:26,990
So back to boots on on the ground and getting out there to just determine because things change and as those changes are occurring we have to determine exactly what that is.

1500
02:16:27,570 --> 02:16:30,210
And that cannot necessarily can be done.

1501
02:16:30,770 --> 02:16:32,630
Google Earth or anything else.

1502
02:16:32,890 --> 02:16:36,210
We have to literally get out on the ground and see what we're looking at.

1503
02:16:36,230 --> 02:16:42,570
Pervits are required for work to be done below the ordinary watermark of rivers, streams, and channels, just as I spoke about earlier.

1504
02:16:43,690 --> 02:16:53,070
So, for nation warming, that's part of the course program for permits, and that impacts

1505
02:16:53,070 --> 02:16:55,090
below the set thresholds.

1506
02:16:55,410 --> 02:16:58,970
So, their process takes typically three to six months.

1507
02:16:59,210 --> 02:17:07,710
We've been working very diligently to try to get that process streamlined, but again, there's

1508
02:17:07,710 --> 02:17:12,230
a lot that goes into that, and then the other type of permit is individual permits, and

1509
02:17:12,230 --> 02:17:14,550
this requires is required for impacts

1510
02:17:14,550 --> 02:17:16,470
rate of then the set thresholds.

1511
02:17:17,270 --> 02:17:19,810
And that process averages about 18 months

1512
02:17:19,810 --> 02:17:20,990
to two years.

1513
02:17:23,350 --> 02:17:26,350
So that is a summary of what our environmental

1514
02:17:26,350 --> 02:17:27,310
parents process.

1515
02:17:27,770 --> 02:17:30,530
And it very simple here, but it is something

1516
02:17:30,530 --> 02:17:32,650
that we take a lot of time.

1517
02:17:32,830 --> 02:17:36,910
We do a lot of group meetings, if you will,

1518
02:17:37,070 --> 02:17:39,650
from the consultants to the staff,

1519
02:17:39,750 --> 02:17:41,450
to make sure that we actually

1520
02:17:41,450 --> 02:17:47,150
hoping these projects out as they should be so that we can address any of our mental issues that

1521
02:17:47,150 --> 02:17:54,130
may occur that we're trying to mitigate those impacts and more importantly we're trying to

1522
02:17:54,130 --> 02:18:01,110
note in advance what it is that we really need to do so Ken says why is important to provide

1523
02:18:01,110 --> 02:18:06,370
this that information and get with us so that we can step through and make those assessments.

1524
02:18:07,250 --> 02:18:08,290
Yes, sir.

1525
02:18:26,480 --> 02:18:30,160
What obligations they have would take stock?

1526
02:18:37,640 --> 02:18:45,120
They still have to oversee the permanent, we want to do any of the, if it's your local

1527
02:18:45,120 --> 02:18:47,100
let, we want to be involved in that.

1528
02:18:47,280 --> 02:18:52,620
But your final reports, your tech reports and everything has to be sent to us for final

1529
02:18:52,620 --> 02:18:53,160
reviews.

1530
02:18:55,620 --> 02:18:55,880
I'm sorry.

1531
02:18:57,380 --> 02:19:04,960
No, that part, first you have to provide the, we have to do some type of scoping together, okay?

1532
02:19:05,240 --> 02:19:12,540
So even though you would be responsible for the, the, the let, we still have to sit down and do our scoping together.

1533
02:19:12,540 --> 02:19:15,260
So that we can make sure that you're following our standards,

1534
02:19:35,520 --> 02:19:36,160
we've funded.

1535
02:22:15,100 --> 02:22:15,580
All

1536
02:23:22,110 --> 02:23:24,950
right, I believe we have one last presentation.

1537
02:23:25,890 --> 02:23:27,590
on right away.

1538
02:23:34,800 --> 02:23:41,160
One last presentation on right away acquisition by Miss Angela Leach J. Row from

1539
02:23:41,160 --> 02:23:41,620
textile.

1540
02:23:55,820 --> 02:24:01,340
Can everyone hear me fine? Good afternoon. My name is Angela Leach J. Row and I'm one

1541
02:24:01,340 --> 02:24:10,360
of the right away project delivery managers with textile in right away. As you notice this afternoon,

1542
02:24:10,980 --> 02:24:15,780
There's a lot of different steps before we get to this process to actually the right-of-way process.

1543
02:24:16,300 --> 02:24:19,140
For instance, Katherine is talking about earlier about the step.

1544
02:24:19,280 --> 02:24:20,900
The step needs to be in place.

1545
02:24:21,640 --> 02:24:24,340
Also, the advanced finding agreement needs to be in place.

1546
02:24:25,420 --> 02:24:35,520
Once steps all done, I will usually get notified by one of Mark's project engineers and projects coming up.

1547
02:24:35,520 --> 02:24:42,240
So with that, before we can actually get started, the main thing that most local governments

1548
02:24:42,240 --> 02:24:46,520
are looking forward to is when we're going to get the statutory letter to proceed.

1549
02:24:47,740 --> 02:24:55,620
So with that, there's a lot of steps within that process. So once we're aware of the project,

1550
02:24:57,360 --> 02:25:01,760
unfortunately I can't just go ahead and write a letter for you guys to be able to start.

1551
02:25:01,760 --> 02:25:14,020
One of the things I have to do is actually the review that executed aFA, and then I actually have to submit a request to the right away program office in Austin.

1552
02:25:15,260 --> 02:25:20,880
They have them place federal funds on the project and grant authority to proceed.

1553
02:25:21,280 --> 02:25:26,780
Once I receive that information, then I will send a letter to the local government to tell them to proceed.

1554
02:25:26,780 --> 02:25:34,620
Within that process, however, while you're waiting, you can do, you can do, you can do

1555
02:25:34,620 --> 02:25:38,160
title work in a prison work prior to that point.

1556
02:25:38,500 --> 02:25:43,260
And just one of those things that we actually want to keep the project progressing to

1557
02:25:43,260 --> 02:25:44,320
meet the elect date.

1558
02:25:44,520 --> 02:25:49,380
So if you're able to, do your title work, do your prison work.

1559
02:25:50,300 --> 02:25:55,840
We actually work through the local government with the provider that you have selected

1560
02:25:55,840 --> 02:26:04,620
to do the project. So a lot of times with that information, the provider will, I guess the

1561
02:26:04,620 --> 02:26:10,460
local government will select an initial appraisal and review appraisal. Once that information

1562
02:26:10,460 --> 02:26:17,220
is done, then it's sent to text.com and we have our appraisers take a look at that and

1563
02:26:17,220 --> 02:26:18,680
then gets approved by text.

1564
02:26:19,340 --> 02:26:26,480
Once that's in place, and you can actually start acquiring.

1565
02:26:27,560 --> 02:26:29,660
But I actually forgot one thing.

1566
02:26:30,100 --> 02:26:34,420
When I talked about the step in and place, the AFA environment

1567
02:26:34,420 --> 02:26:36,180
also has to be in place.

1568
02:26:36,580 --> 02:26:40,480
We actually had situations that local governments

1569
02:26:41,120 --> 02:26:44,480
had started the process before environmental clearance

1570
02:26:44,480 --> 02:27:00,380
What's completed before, there we see the statutory letter to proceed, and that's one of the things that you really want to avoid because when it comes to the part of being able to get your reimbursement,

1571
02:27:00,380 --> 02:27:07,420
Most likely, you will not be eligible for those funds because you didn't fall the process.

1572
02:27:08,740 --> 02:27:20,400
With that said, you pick your provider, you get your initial appraisal review appraisal,

1573
02:27:20,400 --> 02:27:30,420
Tech start approves that you already have the statutory letter proceed, and then you can actually start acquiring your parcels.

1574
02:27:32,020 --> 02:27:40,800
One of the things that I do, there's a lot of local governments that have been given the opportunity to start doing this process.

1575
02:27:40,800 --> 02:27:45,900
may be needed to this process. I'm probably the most, I'm the primary person, you'll probably

1576
02:27:45,900 --> 02:27:53,100
be talking, speaking with. And so one of the things that I did do do is when you're starting

1577
02:27:54,360 --> 02:28:04,580
to do your informational letter to the property owners, and then you do your initial offer packets,

1578
02:28:05,320 --> 02:28:09,960
and one of the things that I offer is to review the initial offer packets that you put together

1579
02:28:09,960 --> 02:28:13,780
to make sure that you have all the information intact.

1580
02:28:14,660 --> 02:28:19,640
And usually, once I look at one and we're in agreement, then you can go ahead and continue

1581
02:28:19,640 --> 02:28:21,740
with that acquisition process.

1582
02:28:22,520 --> 02:28:27,500
Hopefully, with your initial offer letter, you know, with the 30 days, hopefully the property

1583
02:28:27,500 --> 02:28:35,300
on her will like the price value on their property and the parcels closed.

1584
02:28:35,300 --> 02:28:44,420
If when the parcels close, one of the things that we like for people to do is not wait for your total project to be completed,

1585
02:28:44,920 --> 02:28:51,280
before you start asking or requesting for your reimbursement on your parcels.

1586
02:28:51,720 --> 02:28:59,300
So when she have that parcel closed, go ahead and start your reimbursement process information.

1587
02:29:00,580 --> 02:29:05,160
Again, I'm there textiles there to walk you through that process.

1588
02:29:05,560 --> 02:29:10,680
I usually deal with the local government on that, in official basis, to walk them through

1589
02:29:10,680 --> 02:29:11,080
the process.

1590
02:29:11,260 --> 02:29:14,960
So, if you're new, we'll lead to through that process.

1591
02:29:15,440 --> 02:29:21,400
A lot of times, there could be different parcels, there could be some easements, some

1592
02:29:21,400 --> 02:29:29,660
class, different situations, a lot of times, they're really unique, and we usually rely

1593
02:29:29,660 --> 02:29:33,640
to our text auto-turning on that type of information.

1594
02:29:35,320 --> 02:29:41,500
One of the other things I just remembered too before you can start this whole process is that

1595
02:29:41,500 --> 02:29:43,360
we have to have approved maps.

1596
02:29:44,940 --> 02:29:50,420
If the maps aren't approved, again, we don't proceed forward, and a lot of times what happens

1597
02:29:50,420 --> 02:29:58,420
is that the local governments will have a consultant that the whole work with and once the

1598
02:29:58,420 --> 02:29:59,980
consultant has completed the...

1599
02:30:01,080 --> 02:30:18,940
We have a preliminary maps. They get to have to come to text out for text out approval. So, anyway, that's pretty much the process you do. You do your initial offer letter 30 days. Hopefully the property owner will accept.

1600
02:30:19,540 --> 02:30:24,120
If not, then we sent out a final offer letter.

1601
02:30:25,080 --> 02:30:28,700
Within that time, we can also do a counter offer.

1602
02:30:29,120 --> 02:30:33,900
One of the things that's very critical with the counter offer is that they have supporting

1603
02:30:33,900 --> 02:30:39,240
documentation submitted, and they also have to have a sign letter from the property owner

1604
02:30:39,240 --> 02:30:41,960
in that packet.

1605
02:30:42,700 --> 02:30:50,480
I'm going to say the counter offer doesn't work during the final offer phase we're going

1606
02:30:50,480 --> 02:30:54,580
to do a dual path and it's going to go to ED.

1607
02:30:55,420 --> 02:31:02,380
Usually with the ED process that is handled through the local government, however let's

1608
02:31:02,380 --> 02:31:06,600
say if you have updated appraisals, the updated appraisals can come to text.

1609
02:31:06,600 --> 02:31:09,880
thought for review and approval.

1610
02:31:12,680 --> 02:31:14,780
I've been doing this for about five years,

1611
02:31:17,000 --> 02:31:19,040
and it's been

1612
02:31:19,040 --> 02:31:20,920
interesting to still have learning process.

1613
02:31:21,320 --> 02:31:26,580
And so with that, if anyone needs any assistance,

1614
02:31:27,340 --> 02:31:28,960
you know, I walk you through the process.

1615
02:31:29,420 --> 02:31:33,380
One of the things that we also take a look at is text

1616
02:31:33,380 --> 02:31:40,940
has really been evolving into performance management and tracking. So one of the things that we do

1617
02:31:40,940 --> 02:31:47,520
ask the local government to do is to send a project status sheet. And that kind of relates to what

1618
02:31:47,520 --> 02:31:55,140
one was talking to earlier about the quarterly reviews that we do at text. To see and review the progression

1619
02:31:55,140 --> 02:32:03,080
of the project, if we're doing really well, the project may get moved up, if we're having a little bit

1620
02:32:03,080 --> 02:32:10,100
difficulty you might get pushed back. But with the project status sheet that is required

1621
02:32:10,100 --> 02:32:18,380
from the local government, we used that information in our quarterly meetings and also in

1622
02:32:18,380 --> 02:32:23,560
our letting meetings, which Katherine had talked about earlier. And this information is actually

1623
02:32:23,560 --> 02:32:36,780
uploaded into our dashboard system, so everyone's able to review it at any level of the organization.

1624
02:32:39,620 --> 02:32:41,880
I'm trying to think it's late and afternoon.

1625
02:32:43,080 --> 02:32:51,620
I can't really think of anything else, but yeah, many questions, hopefully not.

1626
02:32:53,760 --> 02:33:01,200
Um, but, um, you know, my name is, um, if you want to write it down, it's, um, my email address

1627
02:33:01,940 --> 02:33:14,560
is Angela, that's A-N-G-E-L-A dot L-E-A-C-H at text.gov, and I'm available to answer any questions

1628
02:33:14,560 --> 02:33:20,740
and walk you through their process for local government acquisition.

1629
02:33:24,040 --> 02:33:29,780
It's 713-802-5753.

1630
02:33:35,320 --> 02:33:35,480
Hi.

1631
02:33:49,280 --> 02:33:49,600
Okay.

1632
02:33:50,020 --> 02:33:56,740
With the reimbursement, let's say once you're a parcel, once you have acquired your parcel,

1633
02:33:58,000 --> 02:34:05,740
That's when you can submit the paperwork which I can provide you a list through email of what's required for you to send in.

1634
02:34:07,000 --> 02:34:14,860
And that's basically the 80% that Mark was talking about earlier, and you can do that after each parcel closes.

1635
02:34:18,050 --> 02:34:24,410
Okay, yes. Okay. At the very beginning, yes, we have, we'll have to have approved maps.

1636
02:34:27,870 --> 02:34:42,610
Okay, yeah, we have approved maps, we have environmental clearance, and then we'll get a release authority to proceed and we'll get that granted through the right away program office.

1637
02:34:43,030 --> 02:34:52,230
And that's when I'll send out a statutory letter to proceed to the local government for them to proceed with acquisition.

1638
02:34:56,960 --> 02:35:10,200
Actually, when it comes to your appraisals, once the local government, whoever appraisers

1639
02:35:10,200 --> 02:35:14,360
are working with, they'll have an initial appraiser, a review appraiser.

1640
02:35:14,900 --> 02:35:20,500
Once that's completed, then that paperwork will be sent to text odd, and I'll be

1641
02:35:20,500 --> 02:35:22,740
the third review, and final review.

1642
02:35:24,980 --> 02:35:26,640
Yeah, we're doing, yeah, reimbursements.

1643
02:35:30,940 --> 02:35:31,580
Well actually,

1644
02:35:31,680 --> 02:35:37,220
I guess I do, I forgot about that. Yeah, so when the reimbursement package is submitted to text

1645
02:35:37,220 --> 02:35:41,980
thought, I do review it and make sure that the local government means all the requirements

1646
02:35:41,980 --> 02:35:48,640
for the reimbursement, and it's really important to follow the federal guidelines, but also follow

1647
02:35:48,640 --> 02:35:52,420
the right-of-way guidelines within TechStot.

1648
02:35:55,040 --> 02:36:00,680
Yeah, and I think, like I said earlier, we actually had a local government that they

1649
02:36:00,680 --> 02:36:04,360
follow the federal guidelines, but they didn't follow the right-of-way guidelines for

1650
02:36:04,360 --> 02:36:07,260
TechStot, and they were not eligible for reimbursement.

1651
02:36:18,280 --> 02:36:18,880
Yeah,

1652
02:36:28,200 --> 02:36:32,960
and that is based on also with your project status sheet that you can send

1653
02:36:32,960 --> 02:36:36,880
usually weekly or bi-weekly to text.

1654
02:36:37,940 --> 02:36:42,040
And we're reviewing that the whole time through.

1655
02:36:46,970 --> 02:36:47,330
Got it?

1656
02:36:47,650 --> 02:36:48,330
Thank you.

1657
02:36:54,960 --> 02:36:57,440
I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out.

1658
02:36:57,820 --> 02:36:59,940
Thanks a lot to text.

1659
02:37:00,220 --> 02:37:04,600
Staff for coming and trying to educate us so that we can make sure

1660
02:37:04,600 --> 02:37:10,340
projects get developed and get implemented in a timely manner.

1661
02:37:11,020 --> 02:37:17,260
So just to close things out, this, the presentations will be posted online, we'll send out a link.

1662
02:37:17,440 --> 02:37:20,620
If you sign me in, we'll make sure we send out a link to those.

1663
02:37:20,620 --> 02:37:28,260
And we'll make sure that for the livestream folks that you can search our HJC website and get straight to the materials.

1664
02:37:29,140 --> 02:37:32,020
With that, we'll close it up and thanks a lot for coming out.