[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] 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.
[0:11] 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.
[0:18] 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.
[0:29] So we can speak them back clearly into the microphone, so their folks can hear the question
[0:34] and the response.
[0:35] We also have been approved by the American Planning Association certification maintenance
[0:40] credits.
[0:41] So if you would like those, you can claim those credits after the workshop as well.
[0:48] We're going to have quite a few speakers today, so first up, I'll have Alan Clark, the director
[0:54] of Transportation here at the Houston Galveston Area Council, come and give you our formal
[0:58] welcome. Thank you.
[1:03] Thank you, Adam. I really just wanted to say thank you, you know, we do a lot of
[1:08] planning activities and get to work with all of you in different capacities as a council of
[1:12] governments, but it doesn't really mean much unless what we plan happens, right? And getting that
[1:19] project delivered in your community is what it's all about because without that we're not going to
[1:25] see the safety benefits, the mobility benefits, the economic development and your community.
[1:32] All the things that are important about the work we do only happen when you're able to
[1:39] work with your community with your, with, with, with important agencies like TechStot and
[1:45] others to bring that project to reality. So thank you so much for your time, for the work
[1:50] that you do, it's why our job is fun to do,
[1:54] because we get to see these great things happen.
[1:57] I was told that the simplified blow chart on the far wall
[2:02] will be on the quiz.
[2:05] So I hope you can read legibly and it's at 33rd box to the right.
[2:11] I'm going to give you a clue about one of the questions now.
[2:15] But thank you so much for being here today.
[2:17] I'm not going to take time.
[2:18] The Council of Governments is home to the Metropolitan Planning Organization for those of you who are not familiar with the Houston
[2:25] Galvestonary Council. And we try to work cooperatively with our local governments, our key
[2:30] Transportation Partners like Textot, to make sure our citizens are served as best we possibly can with the resources that we have.
[2:39] And that's certainly true in the Transportation Area. So thank you again for being here today.
[2:49] All right, to get us started, I wanted to introduce Katherine McCrape.
[2:54] She is with the text.heast in district office, believe Katherine has about 20 years experience
[3:00] in the project.
[3:02] Most of those with the district office, Katherine is going to talk to us today about, give us
[3:10] an overview of the project delivery process, process, and with that, I will turn it over
[3:17] to Katherine.
[3:22] Bring this down here because I'm a little short.
[3:26] 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.
[3:34] Today, I'm going to spend the bulk of the time talking to you about Texas process for project development and delivery.
[3:41] 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.
[4:02] They are federal funds, and the federal highway administration has delegated responsibility
[4:08] for those funds to the Texas Department of Transportation.
[4:12] Our commission has suballocated certain funds of those federal funds to the MPO for a local
[4:22] project decision making, but just because the MPO has done projects selection, you still
[4:31] to come back to the state in order to develop and deliver your project. And so I think it's
[4:38] important that you understand kind of from a big picture our process and also I'm going to give
[4:44] you a peek into some of our new processes that we've implemented over the past couple of years.
[4:54] So I teach a class actually teach four classes across the state on a project development delivery
[5:00] 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.
[5:10] So today, some of the key learning objectives that you should realize, you should understand the many steps
[5:17] and their interdependencies to successfully develop and construct projects with text. That you should be able
[5:23] to define how projects are created and how they move through a funnel that's part of a portfolio that we
[5:30] manage at the district and at the state.
[5:33] You should have a good understanding of performance-based planning,
[5:37] understand our quarterly review process,
[5:40] and understand how understand our project delivery and governance process
[5:45] that ensures on time and on budget projects.
[5:51] So here's kind of a snapshot of where we're going.
[5:55] 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.
[6:10] 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.
[6:20] 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.
[6:35] And that's the important thing, the important message that I want to talk to you about today.
[6:44] So, project development delivery, our process is cyclical.
[6:48] We start with operation and maintenance, we're all maintaining our respective systems,
[6:54] and then we identify needs, and so, project selection has occurred within the far left
[7:00] part of that circle, that's where what you did with the MPO, when you went through the call
[7:06] for projects, and use the mid-idger project, and there was consideration by various committees and
[7:13] staff, and then it went through the TAC and TPC and your project was selected.
[7:20] We are in a process now where we are inserting your projects into the transportation improvement
[7:27] program, and I'll get into that in just a little bit.
[7:30] And we're going to begin the initiation process.
[7:32] We're going to take you through a process of initiation, engineering, PS&E, letting and construction.
[7:40] today you're going to be hearing from some subject matter experts in each one of these areas.
[7:47] So,
[7:49] we just take this for a second.
[7:52] I'll walk around with it.
[7:53] So, the interesting thing here is, from a federal perspective,
[8:00] the state starts out with a statewide long-range plan.
[8:02] It's a 24-year plan that lays out the framework for how the state is going to proceed over the next 24 years.
[8:13] It talks about technology, it talks about expected funding, what it does not have is a specific
[8:20] list of projects and specific funding.
[8:22] It just talks about what we think the trends are.
[8:26] If you read it today, we're introducing kind of some of these disruptive technologies, talking
[8:31] about how they're coming, CBAV, these kind of things.
[8:35] When you get down to the next document, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan or the RTP at Houston,
[8:44] Galveston Area Council, the Regional Transportation Plan, that is a 20-year document that identifies
[8:50] projects that are going to be undertaken by the region over the next 20 years and anticipated
[8:57] funding, reasonably available funding, not actual funding.
[9:01] Basically, the MPO takes the 10 year financial forecast in the UTP, the unified transportation program,
[9:10] and they run it out over the next 10 years to develop a reasonably anticipated funding that they can program projects against.
[9:21] The MTP, the UTP, the STIP, and the letting schedule are all
[9:27] physically constrained documents.
[9:30] The Unified Transportation Program is a state-required document.
[9:33] It is a 10-year programming document that identifies projects and the funding that will be used
[9:40] to implement that project.
[9:43] Then the statewide transportation improvement plan program, and you may hear it here as the
[9:49] the Transportation Improvement Program is a four-year federally-required document that generally is
[9:57] constructed authority. Those are guaranteed pretty much guaranteed funds to implement your project.
[10:06] And then of course, text dot does the two-year letting schedule. And so what you're doing is
[10:12] you can just kind of draw an arrow from the 24-year all the way down here, project development occurs
[10:19] throughout this process and we're working towards a letting schedule.
[10:25] Any questions?
[10:37] So, we're going to need processes fit into this letting schedule and these plans and programs.
[10:48] Text that over the past few years has implemented three new processes, the project delivery and governance for
[10:55] performance-based planning which is a response to state and federal requirements and the quarterly review process.
[11:04] Project development and governance, we document our current project development and delivery process and refine it to improve efficiency and facilitate improved staff training.
[11:16] We have a governance committee that manages the portfolio and makes adjustments as necessary.
[11:21] In performance-based planning, which is largely governed by our transportation planning and
[11:27] programming division in Austin, they help to define our planning process and develop scoring
[11:33] criteria and ranking methodology to ensure that we comply with the state requirements and
[11:40] federal requirements for performance-based planning.
[11:43] Probably, you've seen this process more here at the local level when you went through your
[11:49] for projects. If you were following it and you followed the tech and TPC and staff
[11:54] activities, you know that they went through many months worth of work to
[12:01] number one identify the funding that's available to look at the categories that
[12:07] they're going to fund like mobility, alt modes, planning projects, air quality
[12:13] projects, and then they came up with scoring criteria from there and then they
[12:18] release the call for projects, and you, as a project sponsor, probably submitted, you fill
[12:25] voucher application and submitted it and hoped for the best. If you're here, hopefully that
[12:30] means you were awarded some months. A very similar process goes on within text dot between the
[12:37] districts. And so we put together our list of projects and the state uses certain tools to rank
[12:46] evaluate and rank our projects internally as well to determine a portfolio or projects.
[12:53] The, and we'll talk a little bit later about which funds are suballocated to the, yeah, thank
[12:59] you.
[13:02] Which funds are suballocated to the MPO, but suffice to say that the MPO's selected projects
[13:09] just get inserted into our unified transportation program and the state carries them through
[13:16] towards completion. The quarterly review process was initiated a few years ago. It builds a
[13:23] structure into monitoring the progress of individual projects and the health of each district
[13:28] and the department's portfolio. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. All of these solutions
[13:35] are kind of tied into a modernization project called Text.Connect where we're taking all of
[13:45] our legacy systems. You may have heard of DCIS, Rois, if you've dealt with right away. We're
[13:52] taking all of the legacy systems that Text.us is and we're kind of rolling them all into this one
[14:00] program called Text.Connect. It's a slow process. They're rolling it out, module by module,
[14:07] the estimates, PS&E estimates, module just rolled out. And so the MPO does have access, at least
[14:15] to some of the information in Text.Connect, but eventually everything is going to be rolled into
[14:21] Text.Connect, and so we'll have a one-stop shop for managing the projects within our portfolio.
[14:27] And
[14:30] so where do these new processes fit?
[14:35] We integrate project development delivery in three areas, including plan, manage, and deliver.
[14:41] In plan, we look at performance-based planning.
[14:45] In manage, we use the quarterly review process and to deliver a project.
[14:49] We use the our project delivery in governance committee.
[14:57] Switch back over here.
[14:58] So this...
[15:00] This is just another way of looking at those planning and programming documents that I showed you earlier
[15:04] of the RTP, the statewide long-range plan, the UTP, the tip, and the two year-letting schedules.
[15:14] 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.
[15:22] We plan projects, we evaluate them against our strategic goals, and then we bring them
[15:30] through milestones.
[15:31] And they work through a funnel, they advance through a funnel to meet certain development milestones.
[15:37] And as each project meets that milestone, it's working towards the ready to construct and let.
[15:52] So in performance-based planning, we define clear key performance measures.
[15:56] We develop planning targets for each district and MPO.
[16:00] We align those projects with the strategic objectives and support compliance with state legislative requirements.
[16:10] This helps us to ensure that we are consistent with state and federal rules and regulations.
[16:18] We align our planning activities with the strategic objectives, which enables us to improve project performance and tracking.
[16:27] So
[16:32] again, here are your 12 categories of funding.
[16:35] So I talked to you earlier about the fact that all of the federal funding that comes from
[16:41] federal highway administration, DOT, and open, really Congress, as well as the state funding
[16:48] comes into the text.coffers, and it's suballocated to 12 categories of funding.
[16:55] Each category has a specific purpose, for instance, category one is maintenance, category
[17:00] five is congestion mitigation air quality, category nine is your transportation alternative
[17:06] set aside program. The state, as I mentioned earlier, has sub-allocated four categories
[17:12] of funding to MPOs for a local project selection, categories two, five, seven, and nine. And so
[17:21] the MPO also develops a process that's consistent with state and federal criteria in evaluating
[17:27] your projects and ultimately selecting them for funding. So we identify projects. We evaluate
[17:37] them against the performance criteria and then we put them through a sieve basically that
[17:45] is determining the right source of funding for the project. Category 6 is Bridge Funding.
[17:55] Category
[17:56] So here are some examples of potential key performance measures that we look at safety, connectivity, preservation, and congestion.
[18:08] We also consider, as I mentioned on the previous slide, we also consider the economy and the environment because those are federal requirements.
[18:17] And so, but this is basically our commissions strategic objectives.
[18:25] And so, the stakeholders in this performance-based planning process, all of these entities around the UTP,
[18:33] and in the development of the UTP provide input to that.
[18:37] We have a quarterly review process leadership committee over on your right.
[18:43] You'll see that it's made up of our executives.
[18:48] Text that executives and everything from the chief engineer to the executive director.
[18:54] They meet on a quarterly basis to review the health of our portfolio.
[19:02] And so on the quarterly review process districts program a mix of projects to meet their key performance measures.
[19:09] We manage that portfolio to maintain the right volume and mix of projects.
[19:13] And we have defined we have quarterly meetings to review the district's portfolio.
[19:20] This is a time probably if you have a federally funded project that we might be contacting you and saying,
[19:26] Hey, we have concerns about your project.
[19:29] We have concerns about its ability to make the letting schedule.
[19:34] And this is usually what's triggering those concerns because we've internally we've met.
[19:40] And as part of the internal quarterly review process, our TPND, James Koch brings us into a
[19:50] conference room and we spend the day with him going line-by-line project by project, giving
[19:55] him a status and you're going to see a little snapshot of what that portfolio looks like later
[20:02] on, but we go line-by-line project by project, status by status, activity by activity, talking
[20:10] about where we are, what the problems are, what needs to be done to correct it and making adjustments
[20:15] as needed. And he usually wants to do this because, next the following month, he's heading
[20:21] up to Austin to tell the Quarterly Review Leadership Committee, line by line project by project
[20:28] what's going on. And so there's a lot of accountability within the organization to deliver
[20:34] projects on time and on budget.
[20:38] So what does the quarterly review process look like?
[20:42] Again, I just have to use a district portfolio review.
[20:45] And then from there, there is a pre-alignment meeting in Austin
[20:48] where the district meets with the central planning team,
[20:52] which is composed of several divisions,
[20:55] including our transportation planning and programming,
[20:58] finance, environmental, right of way in our professional
[21:01] engineering procurement services divisions. They review the portfolio, assess progress against
[21:08] the letting schedule. We look at the resources needed. If we're having trouble delivering a project,
[21:14] do we need some additional support? We might need to engage PAPS, the professional engineering
[21:19] procurement services, to get the job done. We may need right away division to give us
[21:24] some additional resources. That's the time that we sit and talk with our divisions about what
[21:29] support we need. We assess the projects against the letting schedule and then
[21:34] prioritize those projects based on anticipated letting and then following
[21:40] that there is a leadership committee meets with the central planning team and
[21:45] usually the district engineer for each district and the central planning team
[21:51] along with the leadership committee which I showed you right
[22:04] They will sit down, meet, they will review a consolidated portfolio, get district input and identify
[22:11] and take appropriate actions.
[22:16] Part of the concern is, you've heard it if you don't use it, you'll lose it.
[22:21] That's very much true for federal funds, and you're going to hear later on when Anna,
[22:28] Dr. Ramirez, talks about the TASA program, the Transportation Alternative Settiside Program.
[22:33] So, probably focusing on that program, but the truth is all federal funds expire three years after they've been apportioned.
[22:43] And so, we're always on time on budget is very important because we never want to send federal dollars back to Washington.
[22:52] 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.
[23:01] We want to show them that we need more, not less.
[23:05] And so it's very incumbent upon us to spend the money.
[23:08] 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,
[23:16] but you also need to look at, we're also very much concerned about spending the money in drawing that down
[23:23] and not sending anything back either to Austin or to Washington.
[23:33] That is obligation.
[23:36] So, and what I mean by that is when you get projects, you will develop that project and go through
[23:45] process of schematics, environmental clearance, right away utility adjustments, all of that.
[23:51] Right before we let a project to construction, the month before that we pull, if you have
[23:58] federal funds, the month before that we pull what's called the FPAA Federal Project Authorization
[24:04] and Agreement.
[24:05] That is a one-page agreement between the State and Federal Highway Administration that
[24:10] says we're authorized for you to begin spending and drawing down your federal fund.
[24:15] That when we get that FPA, the project is considered obligated, meaning the federal government
[24:22] has an obligation to deliver those funds to you.
[24:26] They can't be rescinded or they shouldn't be rescinded unless there were extraordinary circumstances.
[24:32] And so they have an obligation to you at that time.
[24:35] And so that's once you get your FPA, the project's kind of off the books.
[24:41] That's what we're trying to get to.
[24:42] We're trying to get to letting and do that.
[24:46] But there's a lot of things you have to do in order to do that.
[24:49] And so the four desired outcomes for managing the portfolio
[24:54] programming, we want the right mix and volume of projects
[24:57] at each stage to ensure that projects can move through that funnel.
[25:02] We looked at and we can meet our planning targets.
[25:06] We're using the funding that we have,
[25:07] and we're not leaving anything on the table.
[25:10] FYI, moving your project a year, although sometimes with with TASA, and others can be problematic,
[25:18] but we would rather move it out, it's easier to accelerate and pull it back in than it is to push it out.
[25:25] And so when we ask you to delay your project, it doesn't mean that we're reducing its priority.
[25:32] It's still very much a priority for us, but we also, I talked earlier about the four documents,
[25:38] the fact that they're fiscally constrained.
[25:43] We have caps. We have budget caps in all four
[25:46] of those documents, the RTP that's up the UTP and the two year letting schedule. If your
[25:53] project is continuing to sit in there and isn't going to make it, it's consuming capacity
[25:58] that needs to be used by something else. And so we do want to move it out so that we can move
[26:03] something into that we can fully expand the funds.
[26:07] Anyway, we look at milestones.
[26:09] We monitor progress of letting projects
[26:11] to ensure that they're on time and on budget.
[26:14] We've hit all the milestones.
[26:17] We look at resources that are needed at the district
[26:19] and division, and we coordinate now stakeholders here
[26:23] is not about the public involvement process.
[26:26] stakeholders here is about the stakeholders
[26:29] internal to textile and the MPO to deliver the portfolio of projects and so the QRP enables
[26:38] the achievement of the four outcomes through regular coordination with all stakeholders.
[26:46] Here is kind of the process. Everything again feeds into the UTP. The ones with the gold circle around
[26:54] are the central planning team, they're the ones that coordinate the portfolio and the funding
[27:02] for it. The MPOs, of course, coordinate through the districts to move projects as an
[27:09] necessary. Some of the risks, if we don't actually manage that portfolio, we don't have
[27:15] the right-sized funnel and we don't have enough projects in the hopper to fully utilize the
[27:20] funding. We don't have timely and accurate data and we're in a hurry trying to get everything
[27:27] at the last minute so they make us do it quarterly and not some other time and we of course
[27:32] want to deliver with integrity. We don't want to prioritize short-term issues of the day
[27:37] over the big picture portfolio.
[27:41] Project delivery in governance is a standardized workflow.
[27:48] It
[27:48] These proactive collaboration and individual projects are delivered on time and on budget
[27:54] to minimize delays and cost overruns.
[27:57] What do they say time as money?
[27:59] It really is.
[27:59] If your project is delayed, the costs go up.
[28:04] The four guiding principles of the project development delivery and governance process
[28:09] is early involvement.
[28:11] Get all the stakeholders together against stakeholders.
[28:13] When I'm talking about stakeholders here, I'm not talking about a public involvement
[28:18] process. I'm talking about an internal process of making sure that environmental and
[28:23] right-of-way are talking to each other because right-of-way can be parallel processing
[28:29] while environmental clearance is happening. And so what can we begin doing? We can begin
[28:35] mapping our right-of-way. We can begin getting our our appraisals together. We just can't mail them.
[28:41] 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.
[28:59] 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.
[29:09] individual permits can take up to a year. Certain agreements such as railroad agreements
[29:15] can easily take up to a year, we typically say 18 months. And so that's a railroad permit
[29:24] will delay a project by 18 months. And so we need to understand that because then we don't
[29:30] want to go out and begin doing the appraisals too soon, either. It's about the right time,
[29:35] you know it's about delivering work at the right time. So we want to parallel process and we want
[29:41] to be visible, making sure that all of the stakeholders internal and here at the MPO and the
[29:47] local governments that we're talking about what the challenges are. We're open about that so that we
[29:52] and begin phasing the work appropriately.
[29:56] deadly.
[30:00] This is just a glimpse that who all has part in the project delivery process.
[30:06] And so some of the risks, if we advance right away activities and right away title, work
[30:12] and appraisals aren't carried out in parallel to environmental.
[30:16] The project could get delayed, accurate tracking of progress in milestones, lack of visibility,
[30:23] could complicate the timeline.
[30:27] We need to advance long lead time activities.
[30:30] We just talked about the individual permit and the railroad agreements.
[30:33] There are other things that may require some long lead times.
[30:36] We need to talk about and identify those early so that we can try to mitigate
[30:40] for them and also phase whatever other work we need that we can be doing.
[30:47] We need to be doing it.
[30:48] And then we need to just continue to collaborate.
[30:51] And so here I call this the long and winding road.
[30:55] This is kind of what it looks like to do a project at text time.
[31:00] From the beginning, we talked about the needs identification.
[31:06] So this would be the MPO data call for projects.
[31:09] And you know that there's a need in your local government.
[31:13] And so you've identified that need.
[31:16] At textile, we look for project authorization.
[31:19] Do we have authority to work on that project
[31:21] even if we don't have construction funding?
[31:24] We get something called developer authority.
[31:26] And that means we can start environmental engineering.
[31:30] Some of the other work that needs to be done
[31:32] in order to advance that project through project development,
[31:36] even before we have construction funding.
[31:40] We look at compliance with the planning documents.
[31:42] we talked about the long-range plan, the UTP, the STIP, and the two year-letting schedule, all of
[31:50] these documents need to be in sync with each other. Nine times out of 10, when we get a call from
[31:57] environmental, they're concerned because they can't get environmental clients because what we say,
[32:03] what we're trying to clear, is it consistent with the RTP in the STIP? And I'll give you a little,
[32:11] Let me give you an example real quick, and I'm going to throw them work under the bus.
[32:17] 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.
[32:28] We got a proof, said, great, good to go.
[32:31] Now, that project will just call it West time, or it wasn't.
[32:34] Um, we said that the original limits were the short little piece right over by the Galleria
[32:41] and then all the rest of it out to state highway six, right?
[32:45] So we had the small piece and we had this big long piece, but we were actually designing
[32:49] an implementing a widening on the whole facility, it's just different years.
[32:55] So it went through the environmental clearance process, it went through schematics, everything
[33:00] was fine, it's consistent with the, with the long range plan and the tip. Now when it
[33:05] gets to Mark to do PS&E, Mark is going to give it to consultants and very, very
[33:12] logically he says, why do I want to give one consultant this small little piece of
[33:18] here and give another consultant this big, huge piece over here? And he says, I'd
[33:23] to divide it in half and go from 610 to about 8 and then about 8 to highway 6 makes perfect
[33:31] sense, right? Very logical. He actually did the right thing and he took back into
[33:36] environmental and said, hey, if I change these limits, is that a problem? And they said,
[33:41] well, no, we cleared it from, you know, 610 all the way to highway 6, you're good to go.
[33:46] You can do anything as long as you deliver, you know, according to the environmental document.
[33:51] What he didn't do though is come back and tell us and planning what he had done.
[33:58] And so the project continues on through design and it gets towards letting and all of a sudden
[34:03] planning again is looking at the letting schedule and we said, whoa, whoa, what's this?
[34:07] What's going on? That's not what's approved.
[34:10] That's not going to give you an FPAA to obligate your project.
[34:16] You know, who changed the project limits?
[34:18] And everybody said, oh, well, so I'm so dead, oh, and work wanted to change it because of this perfectly good reason.
[34:25] 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.
[34:33] That is the importance of concern.
[34:36] That is the importance of communicating and ensuring that we have compliance with the planning documents.
[34:43] we kind of make changes to your project, not only during the, sorry mark, not only during the
[34:50] contracting process and the MPO was done a really good job over the past few calls for
[34:55] projects publishing your applications. And so our contract specialist as Laura will talk about,
[35:03] look at the application and we developed your scopes using the budgets that you submitted and
[35:07] what was approved in the step because they pulled the step they want to ensure that we're compliant
[35:13] with what feds approved, but also if you want to make a change, many times we'll say,
[35:18] hey, you got to go back to the MPO, because we need a change here in this document.
[35:28] Okay, so a process, it depends. To do the MPO has a two meeting process for a tip amendment.
[35:39] The first month is a preview. The second month is approval. Now depending on the
[35:45] change that we're making it might require a step revision, meaning that it might require
[35:50] feds to have another look at that project.
[35:53] And if that happens, we revise the step on a quarterly basis.
[35:58] It's called a step revision.
[36:00] Now depending on when your project was approved by TPC, you may be three more months out.
[36:08] When a project goes through a step revision is a 30-day process for a 30-day public involvement
[36:15] process, and then once the 30 days in, we then transmit that to federal highway administration
[36:22] and our experience is feds take 60 to 90 days to approve a steep revision. So if we need
[36:30] an amendment and a steep revision is required, then we're, worst case, probably six months out.
[36:38] 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.
[36:55] 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.
[37:06] 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.
[37:21] 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.
[37:34] The planning process is about 12 inches of that long work flow,
[37:43] and so now here we're moving
[37:45] into preliminary engineering. We hold the design concept conference. This is a formal
[37:50] form that we use to kind of identify the activities that are going to be required to deliver
[37:56] your project. And so we formalize that with our team. Get everybody in the same room.
[38:02] you'll be in the room at that time,
[38:04] where we can talk about your project.
[38:07] We'll do the data collection that's needed,
[38:09] begin schematic development and approval.
[38:11] We'll be looking at environmental, do we need right away,
[38:16] utility adjustments, and interstate access,
[38:18] justification request.
[38:20] Now, here for project requires a federal decision.
[38:26] It has got to be in the tip and long range plan.
[38:29] And so even we had a project once with the beaver, Becky's.
[38:37] Becky's was going to put the Katie Road, Becky's, maybe you guys know it.
[38:45] It was a 100% locally funded project, not regionally significant.
[38:50] So the determination was, we don't need to put it in the step.
[38:54] It doesn't meet any other requirements to begin there.
[38:58] 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.
[39:09] 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.
[39:20] And so, if you need a federal decision, you need to make sure that your project is in the
[39:27] step, and it's in the right timeframe in the step.
[39:31] We do public involvement and then in some projects we do value engineering.
[39:36] Value engineering is a federal requirement when the project is $50 million or more for a
[39:42] roadway project and $40 million or more for a bridge project.
[39:46] If you think your project is going to be somewhere near that, we all know that the early schematic
[39:55] level budgets, the cost always goes up on a project.
[39:59] And so if you're thinking you're going to be hitting that kind of budget, then you probably
[40:05] need to go ahead and ask for value engineering early on because it is a process and it does
[40:11] take time.
[40:14] Now, we're getting into Mark's area. Mark does the PS&E, the Plan Specifications and Estimates.
[40:21] These are your construction documents.
[40:23] What Mark is looking at is finalizing the alignment in the profiles.
[40:28] He's doing detailed design in the meantime, environmental.
[40:32] The engineers may be working on obtaining the IJR.
[40:37] Our right away is still furiously purchasing right away, we're adjusting those utilities and we're
[40:42] praying that we get railroad clearance because we have an imminent letting date.
[40:48] And so Mark is working very hard to put together the PS&E assembly and design review.
[40:55] Your design is due to the state, your PS&E is due to the state five months prior to letting.
[41:04] And so whatever your wet date is, back it up five months, we need a hundred percent perfectly
[41:11] reviewed text not approved plans. Five months prior to the letting date. And so work backwards
[41:20] from that schedule, build in that five months. Mark will probably talk to you about this, but
[41:26] but the state also likes to see 30, 60, 90 reviews.
[41:30] Until you need to make some build some time in for that.
[41:40] We, so if the state is letting your project,
[41:44] the five month review, we get your 100% plans.
[41:47] We review them, we certify them, we notify Austin.
[41:52] And there's kind of a chain reaction of activities
[41:55] that are going on during that time.
[41:58] Our finance division, 30 days prior to letting, goes to federal highway administration and pulls the FPA.
[42:07] 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.
[42:15] It's automatically delayed.
[42:17] If we can't get the FPA shortly before that, we get that.
[42:25] of the financial clearances are done.
[42:27] We're going to be asking you for your final payment in there.
[42:33] And then the project is advertised.
[42:35] And let me keep going here.
[42:37] The project, so we get the letter of authority.
[42:39] That's the state letter of authority
[42:41] to make sure if it's state funds on there
[42:43] that those state funds are certified
[42:44] and that we've got them obligated,
[42:46] or we go to Feds and get the FPA.
[42:50] We advertise the project.
[42:52] Now, I'll text that recently in the last year or so, I think, has begun putting out
[42:58] mark as at a 50% for contractors to look at of our plans.
[43:06] On the big projects, we have started kind of publishing our plans at about 50% letting the contractors
[43:15] take a look at it. We hope that there's kind of a mutually beneficial activity there.
[43:20] maybe if they see some fatal flaws they can talk to us and if not it gives them a little glimpse.
[43:25] I think their complaint was that we give them less than 30 days to put a bit together but yet it took us
[43:32] a year or two to put the plans all the plans together depending on the size of the project.
[43:37] And so we've started giving them a little glimpse at that hopefully to facilitate a better bid during
[43:43] this bidding process. And so we advertise the project and 21 days later the bids are due.
[43:50] But it used to be in Austin, there was this room,
[43:53] and all of the bids would come in and it a certain time.
[43:57] All of the bids were opened, and of course,
[43:58] the low-bid wins.
[43:59] Now it's pretty much all electronic,
[44:01] but it's the same principle.
[44:04] And then the bids are reviewed.
[44:07] If they're over or above, how much percent?
[44:16] 10%, 10%, if they're over or above 10%,
[44:19] maybe 15%, then the district is required
[44:22] to review the project and write an explanation of why the discrepancy, the difference.
[44:30] And so we'll go through that process and then all of the projects are sent to the Texas Transportation Commission,
[44:39] which is our governing body, and they award the project.
[44:52] So during construction, we issue a notice to proceed to the contractor to a pre-construction conference,
[44:58] are area off.
[45:00] campuses, supervise and inspect the projects. We do contracted administration as needed. Quality assurance and testing, any change orders or process at that time.
[45:12] 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?
[45:20] I was just telling David Hortlow before this meeting.
[45:24] Our finance division, I talked about, we've kind of began modernizing.
[45:30] We about a couple of years ago, Austin also rolled out people's soft.
[45:37] And so all of our financial and other HR stuff is done through people's soft.
[45:43] Finance has automated the collection's process.
[45:47] And so what's really important for you to know about that?
[45:50] is that in article whatever article 14 or something like that of your contract, there is a
[45:57] contact name in there that says, for correspondence, who do you want to contact? We kind of default
[46:04] to the mayor. It's not a person, it's a title, and we usually default to the mayor, but in some
[46:11] larger local governments like the city of Houston sending something to the mayor instead of
[46:16] and that can actually deal with the collection letter is probably not the best idea.
[46:25] And so be sure, when you're doing your contract at the beginning of the project,
[46:29] determine who do we want notices to go to because our finance division now has an automated
[46:35] system for once project close out has happened.
[46:39] If you owe the state money, they will follow the state law and there's a highly prescribed process
[46:46] for collections. They'll send you a letter and tell you UOS money in within 30 days. 30
[46:52] days later, you'll get another letter from us and you'll get a final letter from us and then
[46:57] they will send it to the Attorney General for Collection. And that is now automated. Excuse
[47:04] me, it's not something that the district does anymore.
[47:11] And so with that, you should now understand
[47:14] many steps and interdependencies to successfully develop and construct projects. We go from project
[47:20] initiation and planning. We look at the planning and programming documents. There's a funnel that
[47:26] these projects go through. We do preliminary engineering, PS&E, letting and construction. Define
[47:34] how projects are created and move through a funnel. We talked about the 12 categories of funding
[47:40] 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.
[47:54] Here's the funding categories, categories 2, 5, 7 and 9 are suballocated to the MPO for
[48:03] a local project decision, included in that is the selection of those projects and how
[48:09] that occurs, other than that, the state has its own process for selecting projects.
[48:18] And then you should understand that we have a quarterly review process.
[48:22] 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.
[48:50] to ensure that we let projects on time on budget and that we utilize the funds that we have available.
[48:58] We don't want to leave any funds on the table.
[49:03] You should now understand that we have a project delivery in governance process
[49:07] that involves that includes early involvement, collaboration, parallel processing,
[49:13] where we can, as I said, while you're waiting for you can't buy right away
[49:17] until you get environmental clearance with a few exceptions.
[49:20] But you can be doing some things in right of way like you're mapping in your appraisals while you're waiting on environmental.
[49:28] 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.
[49:36] And so you'll want to continue to parallel process where you can and be visible.
[49:42] be open. If there's a problem, let's talk about it. Let's make some adjustments to that portfolio.
[49:48] It's not that your project is an important. It is. Your project is in this portfolio too.
[49:54] As I started out by saying, we've suballocated those funds, but the state still has responsibility for it.
[50:00] If your project is allocated, certain federal funds, it's in that portfolio and we want to deliver it.
[50:07] 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.
[50:20] Every time we move a project, our district engineer gets a ding.
[50:25] Okay, the district's report card, basically the district's performance report card is the district engineer's performance plan.
[50:33] Okay, district engineer, you know, will it rolls downhill, right?
[50:37] He wants to know, why are we moving projects?
[50:39] Why can't we let these projects, why aren't we scheduling them?
[50:43] You know, in a reasonable amount of time, not an optimistic amount of time.
[50:47] 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,
[50:55] being realistic and not optimistic about when we can deliver that project.
[51:02] any questions? Yes sir.
[51:12] Say that again.
[51:17] Is there an approved? So the answer is yes.
[51:22] There is an approved bitter list for contractors. They get their pre-approved by the state or pre-qualified by the state.
[51:29] Right.
[51:34] Ooh, design build is a whole, another, yeah.
[51:38] Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a whole mother, uh, Bologax.
[51:45] Any other questions about the process as a whole?
[51:47] You're going to be hearing, uh, from subject matter experts, uh, talking about the contracting process and what you can expect.
[51:55] Uh, you're going to get a glimpse into that portfolio.
[51:57] You're going to hear from our, uh, our environmental supervisor about, uh, what you can expect for environmental claims.
[52:04] you're going to be talking to Mark who not only does the PSNE, but he also does the local
[52:10] government coordination. So if you have a federal project that's federally funded,
[52:15] you're going to have to coordinate with him and his group. And then you're going to hear from
[52:21] right of way.
[52:24] Thank you guys.
[52:33] Thanks Katherine for that overview. It's now time in the schedule
[52:38] for a brief break. We have a 10 minute break before we come back and talk about the local
[52:44] government contracting and federal obligation.
[52:47] All right. It's been about 10 minutes.
[52:50] Breaks just over. Up next, we have our presentation by Lord Gimboa from text.com to discuss
[53:00] contracting and local government projects.
[53:04] So
[53:11] I'm Laura Gambo, I'll work with Catherine, I work in the planning section at text.
[53:17] And the person that, after you get the funds, if you need an advanced funding agreement,
[53:22] the person that you come to next.
[53:25] And so that's, I'm here to talk about kind of that process a bit, and come over here
[53:32] a little more.
[53:34] So this is just kind of a brief overview.
[53:36] How many of y'all have been through the AFA process before?
[53:41] All right, quite a few.
[53:46] There we go.
[53:48] Okay, you are already the project.
[53:50] What's next?
[53:52] So, we need a funding agreement if at least one phase of the project development is federally
[53:57] or state funded, managed by the local government being reimbursed by text
[54:03] or locally funded project on the state system.
[54:09] These are the various different types of projects that you may have had funded and that you do need a funding agreement for.
[54:18] And this just kind of gets into why we're even involved.
[54:23] You know, say there's no state money at all on it. It's not on the state system.
[54:28] Text that has through various different laws and statutes.
[54:33] We're sort of the governor of the federal money.
[54:36] And we'll sort of partner in that process.
[54:43] So, the event, funding agreement, is negotiated
[54:45] contract between textile and local government.
[54:48] It defines the scope of the project location and the budget.
[54:52] And who's going to be doing the various responsibilities
[54:54] and the state oversight fee?
[54:57] If we have a full reviewing your plans,
[55:00] and we need to recoup a cost for that, that sort of thing.
[55:06] No.
[55:13] I know a lot of people are wondering why we charge you on oversight fee and that's because
[55:18] state law says that it's against the law for us to spend state resources off system.
[55:26] Now state resources are not only our money, in other words we can't take our money and
[55:30] go improve your roads, but we also can't spend our time because our time is paid for by
[55:36] the state to therefore wear a state resource.
[55:38] 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.
[55:50] 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.
[56:00] the good news for you is that we can charge 80% of our time to the federal government as well.
[56:07] So you're only paying $0.20 on the dollar for our expertise.
[56:15] I'm glad you address that, because we do frequently get people who have never been through the AFA process,
[56:21] and we send them the first draft, and they make the section at the bottom, and they're like,
[56:26] what are we indirect and direct costs? That's not part of what we've budgeted for construction,
[56:30] And that's where we recruit our costs for oversight, or if we're letting the project, it's all there on there.
[56:37] And those are costs of the projects that you need to think about when you submit your project.
[56:43] And you say, this is how much I think it's going to cost.
[56:45] You need to figure those in there.
[56:50] This kind of is a lot of lines and boxes, but he simply tells you the process.
[56:55] So to break it down, essentially, you're going to order the project.
[57:00] We watch the tip actions, so frequently I will contact you and say, okay, we're going to start
[57:07] the graph. Let's make sure of the details. If there's a change in a project, or if you haven't
[57:13] been contacted, and you believe we need an AFA, then I need you to contact me. And my contact
[57:19] information will be at the end of this presentation. But that's how we kind of initiate the process
[57:25] is one of those two ways.
[57:27] So once that happens, we draft, in our office,
[57:32] we'll draft the AFA.
[57:34] We send it to the local government.
[57:35] The local government at this point will view it.
[57:39] It gives us combines other comments
[57:41] and sends it back to us.
[57:43] Then we go back and forth to we agree on that draft.
[57:46] At that point, once I have an agreed upon draft,
[57:50] we send it for division reviews.
[57:52] So if it involves building a bridge,
[57:54] we're going to send it to our bridge division and our design division and maybe even traffic.
[58:00] We, those different divisions in Austin send us back in a review conference they may have.
[58:06] We address those.
[58:08] Then it goes to contract services in Austin.
[58:13] They do a complete review of the whole thing.
[58:15] They make sure it matches the still everything else.
[58:20] They send us back comments.
[58:21] 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.
[58:32] So the process can become somewhat cyclical for all.
[58:37] 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.
[58:47] this doesn't specifically match the scope description of the project.
[58:52] So if with the minor changes we don't come back to y'all with those usually,
[58:56] what they do is, once we're having a copy that's approved for partial execution,
[59:00] we'll send it to y'all for partial and they'll say, and we change this thing here,
[59:05] this there. It just speed this in process up a little more than going back and forth,
[59:10] because especially smaller local governments, if we send it back to you for some
[59:16] little tiny change that doesn't matter to anybody. A lot of small local
[59:20] governments, they'll be like, oh, I need my attorney to look the whole thing
[59:23] over again. If your attorney's being paid by the hour, he's going to hold on to it
[59:28] for a while and come back with some of it. So it's just that if it's not major, that's
[59:32] how we address those. So once we get a copy that's ready to be signed by the local
[59:38] we send that to you. And I'm going to talk about vacuum sign here in a second, but
[59:43] We really prefer, and it speeds the process up greatly, if I will get on the road with
[59:49] DocuSign.
[59:50] We have several open governments that do it in, from the time we send them a signable copy of the
[59:57] AFA to it being signed up.
[1:00:00] In Austin, can be 48 hours versus hard copy wet signatures that draws the whole process out about two weeks.
[1:00:10] That's how quick that speeds it up.
[1:00:14] 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.
[1:00:23] Well, I'm back and forth, and if that person, we soon had a very executed copy, and if
[1:00:31] their funds do we send you a request for payment.
[1:00:34] That's that initial amount that's at the bottom of the budget, on the attachment.
[1:00:40] And it's the request for payment.
[1:00:42] Once you're all sent us payment, then we can proceed with a project.
[1:00:46] 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.
[1:00:57] We can't get the FPAA until we have payment.
[1:01:06] Okay, that goes into the FPAA that I just talked about.
[1:01:12] 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.
[1:01:20] Okay, thank you, sorry.
[1:01:22] It is so easy a caveman can do it.
[1:01:27] Okay, this is just going to send to Digital Signature what DocuSign is.
[1:01:33] The last house I bought was through DocuSign.
[1:01:36] I mean, it's used for everything, it's legal, it's binding.
[1:01:41] It's a very secure way of sending documents.
[1:01:49] It is so much faster.
[1:01:51] And TechSide is getting more and more into this and we're starting to
[1:01:56] use it for totally replace even storing paper documents.
[1:02:01] the digital copy initiates and is kept through this process and it's we can map it
[1:02:09] too. We get some local governments that get concerned because someone approves what we
[1:02:14] send, defer the sign or signs in it. And you can write it through all those people. If you
[1:02:20] tell me who you want to approve it, I'll just line them up in Dockey's sign and this person
[1:02:25] has to approve and then it'll write it to the next person to the next person and the next
[1:02:30] person. And the whole thing, you can do it from an iPhone, from an iPad, from a desktop computer.
[1:02:37] It is so quick and easy.
[1:02:43] All digital signatures legal and Texas, I get this from local
[1:02:46] governments a lot. They're like, were you not sure about that? Yes, they are legal. And here's
[1:02:52] all the codes. You can take a picture of that and take it back to your local government if they don't
[1:02:57] So
[1:03:00] you do not need to purchase any software to use like you sign touch that purchase the right to use it in this manner
[1:03:09] And we send it to you all and all you do is open it. It opens it in the DocuSign format
[1:03:15] I think there's an app you can download for your iPhone or iPad
[1:03:18] 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
[1:03:28] And this is just kind of basically what you'll get when it's sent to you in DocuSign.
[1:03:32] You get something like this.
[1:03:33] It says, hey, you need to take some action on this.
[1:03:36] Whether it's the review action or the signature action.
[1:03:43] And a guide you through the process tells you where to sign.
[1:03:46] You do your little chicken scrap signature with your finger,
[1:03:49] but resembles nothing but a looks like a doctor signing a prescription.
[1:03:56] And we hit finish and it wraps it back to us.
[1:03:58] It tells us you have signed it.
[1:04:00] It's ready to go on to our next person that signs it.
[1:04:07] And DocuSign also scores a copy of that.
[1:04:10] And you can access that copy at any point.
[1:04:14] And that's my contact information.
[1:04:18] If you have, if you need a lawyer for it,
[1:04:20] have problems with one need and a amendment,
[1:04:23] feel free to contact me.
[1:04:25] Any questions?
[1:04:30] No?
[1:04:30] I answered all your questions, point.
[1:04:32] Yes.
[1:04:38] Yes, the loss is a new type of modern agreement, yes.
[1:04:44] Any other other kinds where I use the term AFA,
[1:04:48] but there's non-federal AFAs, there's ones that are state-only money,
[1:04:53] there's donation agreements, volunteer agreements,
[1:04:55] and the loss is the new one.
[1:04:57] And it's purpose is more for smaller projects
[1:05:01] that we will have them to do a bunch of permits for overused
[1:05:05] to do permits for all of them ever came in AFA.
[1:05:08] So like, turn ones when you're joining our roadway
[1:05:12] in your project involves a turn line on our roadway
[1:05:15] or something like that.
[1:05:19] There's some restrictions on how it can be used,
[1:05:21] but it speeds up the process a lot
[1:05:23] at a board's a bunch of the review.
[1:05:26] And if it applies, that's another thing we have to tell you
[1:05:29] which found out in template applies, but if that one applies,
[1:05:33] that is my new favorite tool to use because it is so much quicker.
[1:05:49] Right.
[1:05:53] So, one of the one hiccup is some local governments that can't send us the Resolution
[1:05:59] beforehand because the Resolution is an attachment.
[1:06:04] So, it's workable that if we can get the Resolution beforehand, it gets lighted and
[1:06:13] DocuSign document doesn't have to be later all through to add that, which is a problem.
[1:06:18] It negates the signature, essentially.
[1:06:22] But what we do have this, it's similar to the documents, they have a whole copy
[1:06:26] per out of it, and the action that can't say or prove it, and then they docuSign it after
[1:06:32] accounts after that meeting, but not literally sit down silent in the meeting, although
[1:06:38] you could open up the DocuSign and sign it in the meeting.
[1:06:41] But they just take, but they do that to incorporate into their agenda.
[1:06:51] It's, I would need to get with you and see how we work that in, how yes process works.
[1:06:56] And so, I know some counties, they will get the resolution of proving the project like months before they approve the AFA.
[1:07:04] And then approving the AFA is a separate agenda.
[1:07:06] So, and that's another, let me touch on that while I keep your reservations general, don't put specific dollar amounts in them.
[1:07:19] Don't put very, very narrow project descriptions like we're proving five intersection improvements on these quarters of these intersections.
[1:07:28] Because when the project changes or we let the project in the process a little different, we need a new resolution.
[1:07:35] because you put a very specific dollar amount in there.
[1:07:39] So they only have to amend the whole agreement
[1:07:41] because your resolution doesn't approve how to project that.
[1:07:47] So, what do you want to answer?
[1:07:49] Anything else?
[1:07:52] Are we going to hand it off to one sentence?
[1:08:15] Hello, my name is Juan Fuentes.
[1:08:17] I work for
[1:08:27] deeply demonstrate the portfolio that we run.
[1:08:32] We do this.
[1:08:33] Like we have a quarterly review four times throughout the year, this is like Catherine was discussing
[1:08:39] earlier, all this information goes to Austin and we have a letting meeting once a month as
[1:08:45] well.
[1:08:46] All the information is gets pulled from the portfolio, it is just a sample of some projects that
[1:08:52] we're in there that are pulled, if you take a look, it gives you all the information on who's
[1:08:56] manager, who's the project manager, their environmental manager.
[1:09:08] It gives you the work programs
[1:09:09] with funding sources, federal percent, how much of it is 80 percent, 20 percent. It gives you
[1:09:16] all the main categories. So we know what funding categories we're using and it breaks down
[1:09:21] their cost per category. So we have, you can see at this project 27 million is a category 7.
[1:09:27] It tells you the project class, the PS&E percent, and the environmental date, the acquired date,
[1:09:37] when it's planning to be acquired, it goes right away needed.
[1:09:41] The right away acquisition date, all possibly, the future right away acquisition date,
[1:09:46] has the utility information, the utility of clearance date, the beneath of schematic.
[1:09:52] If there's a railroad, needs to be done.
[1:09:54] If there's a very quiet, like this project, there's a quiet area of faith.
[1:09:58] So it just keeps track of everything while the projects,
[1:10:01] and we sit down with the managers every three months,
[1:10:05] and we're going to line by line project by project,
[1:10:08] trying to fill in these dates, verify if it's going to make us
[1:10:13] letting data not, we also keep a middle system with comments.
[1:10:18] So I have to put all the comments in there and why is going to be delayed,
[1:10:21] Why is that on time and then we use this just to keep track of everything?
[1:10:31] One
[1:10:34] mentioned something else as well and that is that on a monthly basis we have a
[1:10:40] wedding meeting and so we talked about earlier the fact that your PSME 100% plans are due
[1:10:47] to text out five months prior to wedding. We have a wedding meeting which looks five months
[1:10:55] out we're looking ahead five months to say is this project going to make it? Do we have your
[1:11:01] 100% plans? Is the local government environmentally cleared? You know, this is coming into it,
[1:11:07] but we're down to the nuts and bolts when we're taught number five months out. And so not only are we
[1:11:12] looking at our portfolio on a quarterly basis with the hope portfolio, but we also have monthly
[1:11:18] meeting and this is where we get really scared if the answer is no we don't have
[1:11:25] environmental clearance access we don't have 100% plans right away says well we
[1:11:31] still have a few parcels left I don't think we can make it and so again it's that
[1:11:37] realistic not optimistic letting schedule all
[1:11:56] right thanks Lord and one up next we have Mark
[1:12:04] us about engineering, federal and state-funded projects.
[1:12:08] Mark,
[1:12:33] I'm Mark Patterson.
[1:12:35] I'm the director of the consultant contract section with TechSod.
[1:12:39] And one of my responsibilities is to administer, there we go.
[1:12:44] We administer all local government projects, pretty much all local government projects.
[1:12:48] I also am responsible for hiring consultants to develop projects for TechSod.
[1:12:55] I don't know if you looked at that real closely at that spreadsheet that Juan had, looked
[1:13:00] like all the projects were assigned to me, he just, he had, he just sorted it, just
[1:13:06] those projects are assigned in, oh, I do have quite a few projects that are assigned
[1:13:10] to be for implementation and probably half of them are local government projects, which
[1:13:14] probably about 150 of them at any one time, so there's quite a few projects, okay,
[1:13:19] I'm going to walk you through some of the requirements
[1:13:22] if you get federal funds.
[1:13:26] And like all federal funds, there's a lot of strings attached
[1:13:28] to getting federal funds.
[1:13:30] And one of the first deals is, if you ask to get
[1:13:34] reimburse for engineering.
[1:13:39] So you've got a project selected with the MPO.
[1:13:43] You've asked for it to get reimburse for engineering.
[1:13:46] And let's involve with that.
[1:13:49] 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,
[1:13:58] but is it worth my wild to get reimbursed with these federal funds?
[1:14:04] And if you're only going to get reimbursed like $10,000, I don't think it's worth going through all this trouble.
[1:14:10] You might as well just pay for yourself.
[1:14:12] That's my thought on it.
[1:14:13] But anyways, the general requirements are,
[1:14:16] you got to advertise in a paper of highest regional circulation,
[1:14:19] which in this area is usually the Houston Chronicle.
[1:14:22] It needs to be a qualification space selection.
[1:14:26] You need to have a DVE or hub requirement,
[1:14:28] depending on what kind of funds you're going to use.
[1:14:30] It's DVE for federal.
[1:14:32] It's hub for state.
[1:14:34] And there can't be no geographic preference
[1:14:37] for selecting a consultant.
[1:14:39] And that gets kind of back into why you need to advertise
[1:14:42] in a paper of high regional circulation, I get this all the time.
[1:14:46] Well, it's expensive to advertise in the chronicle, and it is.
[1:14:51] I want to just advertise in my local paper, so I like cheaper.
[1:14:55] Well, not everybody gets your, not always consultants.
[1:14:57] Look at your local paper.
[1:15:00] 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.
[1:15:19] We have a very simple selection procedure.
[1:15:22] It's like a page and a half.
[1:15:24] It's not hard.
[1:15:26] It basically highlights these four or five things
[1:15:29] that I've outlined.
[1:15:32] We'll send you a sample for selection procedure.
[1:15:35] You need to put it in your own format.
[1:15:38] You know, maybe with a header of your agency on the top.
[1:15:44] You need to send it back to us.
[1:15:45] And we need to write your letter that says,
[1:15:47] Yes, we reviewed your selection procedure, it looks good.
[1:15:50] Need to do that before you start your selection.
[1:15:55] I think I want to add one other thing to the general requirements.
[1:15:59] You can't have any involvement in this process by elected officials.
[1:16:03] The selection needs to be done by the staff.
[1:16:06] If you have involvement by elected officials,
[1:16:09] then we're going to probably throw your selection out to start over again.
[1:16:13] That can be very time consuming.
[1:16:15] 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.
[1:16:31] Textouts got to prove your contract between the local government and consultant prior to execution.
[1:16:39] We got to prove the scope, the contract format and the fee for all contracts we're going to reimburse you.
[1:16:45] Now, if you're not going to get reimbursed, we'd usually like to see the scope, so that we
[1:16:50] can make sure that what you're requiring of the consultant and what text out requiring of
[1:16:55] the consultant are the same thing.
[1:16:57] If not, we get a lot of complaints by the consultants that they're being asked to meet two different
[1:17:03] agendas by two different masters.
[1:17:08] Again, we've done this a lot, so we can send you a standard, the local government of samples,
[1:17:13] standard contract. The contract must be either lump sum or cost plus fixed fee. The local
[1:17:19] government and the consultant negotiate a contract and submit to text up for review.
[1:17:24] Text.reviews and approve the draft contract and we'll meet if necessary. A lot of times
[1:17:30] you could do it just reviewing stuff via email. The local government that consultant
[1:17:36] finalized negotiations and send the contract to text.
[1:17:42] Text. Here in the Houston district
[1:17:44] would submit, submit the contract to us and audit office review.
[1:17:51] What they're looking for there is text.
[1:17:54] Dot does a lot of contracting with consultants.
[1:17:58] So we have a list of, we have current contracts with consultants that maybe it's more
[1:18:03] likely we're using the same consultants you're using.
[1:18:06] And so we can make sure that you're going to get the best deal, that you're getting the overhead
[1:18:09] rate that we're getting, that you're getting the same hourly rates that we're getting.
[1:18:13] So we're going to help you in this process and it is a federal requirement.
[1:18:19] So we're going to help you, we need to submit that to the ROT office for you to make sure
[1:18:23] you're getting the best rates in overhead.
[1:18:27] If audit approves, text sets, submits for final approval and then we, we're offering running.
[1:18:33] The local government executes the contracts and we schedule a kickoff meeting.
[1:18:38] We do need a copy of the fully executed consultant contract because remember you're getting
[1:18:43] reverse. Also, female agreements to consultant contracts require prior approval. And the way
[1:18:49] it works with, with getting reimbursed is, this is a, yeah, it's a reimbursement. All of
[1:18:56] the stuff is a reimbursement deal. So you got to spend the money, then you get reimbursed.
[1:19:00] So, so if you hire a consultant, he sends a bill in. You get, you got to reimburse the
[1:19:07] consultant 100% of the bill, turn around and submit the bill back to us with the proof that
[1:19:11] paid the consultant and will reimburse you the 80%. But it's important to know that you've
[1:19:16] got to spend 100% before you get reimbursed. Kind of a texture cash flow.
[1:19:24] Okay.
[1:19:26] Let's get an engineering plan preparation. We'll have a design kick-up meeting. We'll assign
[1:19:32] it a project manager. We have 14 project managers that work on our section. They're all professional
[1:19:38] engineers and most of them are pretty experienced with doing these kind of projects.
[1:19:42] We typically have plan reviews at 30, 60, 90, 95, doesn't say it in the slide, and 100% completion.
[1:19:52] The 95% we, well, during all these interim submissions, 30, 60, 90, we have various sections that text out.
[1:20:00] We'll submit your plans over to our traffic people, our signing pavement marking people, our bridge section,
[1:20:06] They'll all review your plans at 30, 60, 90.
[1:20:10] We also have a plan review section.
[1:20:13] That's why you submit the 95% plans too.
[1:20:16] And they review, they review all the paperwork mainly.
[1:20:20] They look at, on any of these projects,
[1:20:23] you're required to, you're a whole raft of forms.
[1:20:28] You need to fill out for the final letting.
[1:20:32] We require, as Katherine mentioned,
[1:20:34] a five month review of the final plans
[1:20:36] that does include that the advertisement time.
[1:20:39] And so there's a required advertisement time,
[1:20:42] I can't remember what it is like, it's like 30A's
[1:20:44] or that that include that's included in this time,
[1:20:47] the five months.
[1:20:50] Plans will use text.specification and plan format
[1:20:53] for text.lettings, local specifications
[1:20:56] and plan format can be used for local leddings.
[1:21:00] Local leddings require text.par approval
[1:21:03] and adherence to local led guidelines.
[1:21:06] typically we do not let just everybody local letter project. We have a risk assessment process
[1:21:15] where we assess our risk, text, text, text risk of doing a project with a local government.
[1:21:22] And typically if you're a really small local government, you don't have a lot of resources.
[1:21:26] You don't have a big staff like the city of Houston.
[1:21:29] And all likelihood, you're going to have text.lager project.
[1:21:33] And the reason for that is, because the federal rules for this state,
[1:21:38] that nothing released text.
[1:21:39] Of our responsibility for these projects.
[1:21:42] And since if we're responsible for administering the project,
[1:21:46] then you have a very small staff, then yeah, we just don't want to take the risk.
[1:21:52] Yes, sir?
[1:21:53] Question.
[1:21:58] Excuse me?
[1:22:06] Okay.
[1:22:11] It kind of depends what you're doing, and it kind of gets back to what Laura was talking
[1:22:15] about with that specific, that new agreements she was telling us about, we have a lot
[1:22:20] of projects where people want to do something on our road, like the county wants to come in
[1:22:24] and put a right turn lane in, and they're not asking for any money from us, but we're going
[1:22:30] to end up with a right turn lane that textot's going to have to maintain when we're finished.
[1:22:35] Okay. So how do we do that? Well, typically we let the county do it if we're confident
[1:22:42] in their ability to execute. Now if you're a real small local government and we don't think
[1:22:47] you can execute it, we might say, hey look, we know that you want this done, you give us
[1:22:53] the money and we'll do it for you. It does require an agreement, but it doesn't, it's not
[1:22:59] what we call a local let. Local let is where you're getting federal or state funds for
[1:23:03] project. You're getting reimbursed.
[1:23:07] Sure,
[1:23:11] yes. Which one?
[1:23:14] Fondran, West Park, West Park.
[1:23:26] For local projects, for local
[1:23:27] projects, you can use your own format. And that's what we've
[1:23:30] typically done, you can. And that's what we've typically done
[1:23:33] with the city of Houston. So the question is can you use
[1:23:37] your own format? Well, a lot of local governments don't
[1:23:41] have a real set format. And if you don't, and you want to
[1:23:45] text us format, you can use that for local, for a local, for a local, for a local at
[1:23:51] project, if you so desire. No, no, no, I think it's in the agreement. It's in the
[1:23:57] agreement for West Park that you can, you can do that. That's part of our local
[1:24:01] letting deal. Have you been to the local government projects class?
[1:24:07] Okay. Well, they'll cover it in that class. And yeah, basically allow local
[1:24:11] governments to use their own specifications.
[1:24:13] Now, all your specifications have to meet federal requirements.
[1:24:18] And that's why we require you to produce a project manual for local projects.
[1:24:24] And in that project manual, you kind of demonstrate how, if you want to use any special
[1:24:28] specifications that are specific to your local government, how they meet the federal requirements.
[1:24:39] I'm doing it.
[1:24:40] I'm doing it.
[1:24:40] Another question.
[1:24:41] Yes, sir.
[1:25:03] Basically, we're not interested in your, we're not interested in how much you're paying them.
[1:25:07] We might be interested in the scope, the scope.
[1:25:10] Now, if you've already got a contract with them, we'll just work with you.
[1:25:13] But if you wanted to bring a contract before you started to us and have us get some joint input,
[1:25:20] that would be great.
[1:25:21] If you've already got, like for you guys with the City of Houston, you've got a project
[1:25:26] that you've already developed, you already have a consultant on board, and you're going
[1:25:31] to do yourself, and now you've got federal funds,
[1:25:34] we'll just work with you on those.
[1:25:39] Any other questions?
[1:25:44] Design standards and specification.
[1:25:47] The design must match the design criteria
[1:25:49] and text-outs operation and procedures manual
[1:25:51] and ashto guidelines.
[1:25:53] That's in the agreement.
[1:25:55] Deviation from Design criteria requires an exception
[1:25:57] slash waiver approved by text-outs.
[1:26:01] A desperate facility must meet ADA standards.
[1:26:04] Bicycle facilities must meet the Astro Bicycle guidelines.
[1:26:14] Construction.
[1:26:17] As we mentioned, projects may be let in managed by text.org or the local government.
[1:26:22] Local networks are reimbursed in a monthly basis, depending upon the percentage contract
[1:26:26] completion.
[1:26:27] And these work just like I mentioned with the consultant reimbursement.
[1:26:32] You've got to spend the money, you're a contractor, you know, you're a contractor, you
[1:26:39] pay it, you turn around and submit that bill to text sign you get reimbursed 80%.
[1:26:47] Statelets, if it's a statelet project, the local government's 20% match for the entire
[1:26:52] project is due 60 days prior to letting.
[1:26:55] In typical, we'll do this, I'll write you a letter, and we'll have a table line, it'll
[1:27:01] show all the costs for the project, it'll show the construction costs, the design costs,
[1:27:07] the review costs, any other costs, and have a break down of which costs may be 100% your
[1:27:14] cost and all the ones that we're splitting.
[1:27:17] There's certain costs in these projects that are not not eligible for reimbursement,
[1:27:21] like if you wanted to replace a water line or something as part of the project, we could
[1:27:26] do it as part of the project, but you would have to pay.
[1:27:29] This is a good question.
[1:27:57] Well, typically if we start the project from scratch, we can cover that in the end of
[1:28:02] project development. And a lot of the design criteria are fleshed out when we have a design
[1:28:07] concept conference, which is usually around 30%. Where we always have, where we typically
[1:28:13] have an issue is a project like Muhammad was talking about, where you guys have already started
[1:28:17] it. Well, then we have an issue. Can you, can you, or can you not meet our design criteria?
[1:28:23] It's what you read on, because it's in our agreement, can you meet it or not? And then we'll
[1:28:27] let's just, well, we'll work with you to assess whether you can meet it or not. Typically, if you
[1:28:31] have right away, yeah, you have enough right away, you have enough room, we'd like you to
[1:28:37] meet at the middle of the Ash took design criteria. Preferably text-outs design criteria,
[1:28:43] but minimum Ash took,
[1:28:50] let's see, where do we leave this? Okay, field changes must be approved
[1:28:53] by text-outs, that's for local-let projects.
[1:28:58] Text-outs charges of construction management
[1:29:00] fee for text-out-let projects, as Catherine mentioned. We also charge an oversight fee for
[1:29:05] local, local, let projects.
[1:29:08] Now, why do we do that?
[1:29:09] Well, somebody's got to be out there from TechStot
[1:29:11] who monitors your project and make sure you get reimbursed.
[1:29:15] I mean, sorry, make sure that your contractor's doing the work
[1:29:18] and that we can reimbursed you.
[1:29:21] So somebody's going to have a little oversight
[1:29:23] from TechStot because you're going to send your build
[1:29:25] to somebody and that somebody needs to,
[1:29:27] it TechStot needs to make sure the work's been done.
[1:29:29] So we charge you an oversight fee.
[1:29:32] It's not as much, of course,
[1:29:33] as if we were managing the project ourselves.
[1:29:37] Uh, textot in the local government must agree on the final acceptance of the completed project.
[1:29:43] Um, many federal requirements must be met for textot and local lip projects.
[1:29:49] Like I said, there's a lot of strings attached with receiving, uh, state or federal funds for projects.
[1:29:55] Finally, I'd encourage you all to go to this local government project procedures class that we, that we mentioned.
[1:30:00] 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.
[1:30:08] 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.
[1:30:20] Any questions?
[1:30:29] So the question is, context.letter project office system, yes, yes we can.
[1:30:43] Okay. Yeah.
[1:30:53] So the question is, what are the advantages of text out versus the local government
[1:30:56] letting a project?
[1:31:00] I get law kind of feedback from people from our construction people
[1:31:04] and I get, yeah, about whether or not it's easier for a local government to do it or for us to do it.
[1:31:10] I'd say if a project is kind of a lot of involvement with a local community,
[1:31:15] it might be better for you guys to do it because you're more used to dealing with a local community.
[1:31:21] So it's got a lot of community interests, like this project, well, we've got coming up
[1:31:27] on Memorial Drive, yeah, that might be a good project for you guys to do.
[1:31:32] Maybe for us, if you've got a big bridge project,
[1:31:37] maybe that would be a better project
[1:31:38] for textile.
[1:31:40] But it's just, whatever you guys want to do, if you guys have already done the engineering
[1:31:45] for a project and it's all in your format, yeah, you don't want it to go to the expense
[1:31:50] of redoing the project and putting it into text us format, and we can't implement a project
[1:31:55] that's done in your format, has to be done in text us format.
[1:32:00] So, I don't know, any projects is just way the pros and cons.
[1:32:11] It's usually pretty quick.
[1:32:15] The issue I have more is getting your permission, so I've got a lot of projects where you
[1:32:22] get complaints from our area offices. We sent the change where the local government, we've asked
[1:32:27] them to approve it and we can't get the approval. And a lot of times on those projects if
[1:32:32] it's a text out project, we may just proceed without your approval. We want to get your approval
[1:32:39] because we're spending 20% of your funds in addition to our project, our funds rather,
[1:32:44] or the state and federal funds. Some projects that we had an overrun, if we're overbudget,
[1:32:49] But prior to letting, we may be spending 100% of your funds on a change order, so we really
[1:32:55] want to get your buy-in, but we can't wait forever.
[1:33:04] We just need it, you know, now you're back to the other deal, you're spending the federal
[1:33:09] and state dollars, right?
[1:33:10] So yeah, if you're going to spend those, then yeah, we need our approval.
[1:33:15] We're looking the other day, and we've changed our agreements, and the agreements now say,
[1:33:21] For local, it says exactly what we said on local government projects.
[1:33:25] You need to submit the change order to us to approval.
[1:33:28] It doesn't say the same thing for state projects.
[1:33:31] I don't necessarily need your approval according to the new agreement format.
[1:33:35] I used to say that.
[1:33:37] We changed it.
[1:33:40] The reason?
[1:33:40] I don't know.
[1:33:41] Maybe we're having trouble getting approvals.
[1:33:48] I
[1:33:52] didn't see it either.
[1:33:54] I think we're going to continue as good state or practice to send you all the change order.
[1:33:58] But then again, especially for federal projects, if there's a delay, federal funds don't participate in delays.
[1:34:09] So for delayed implementing a change order, it delays the entire project.
[1:34:14] Well, we're going to pass that cost on to you, the local government, because the feds aren't going to reimburse us either.
[1:34:22] Does anybody have another question?
[1:34:35] you can use the city piece and design criteria as long as they need
[1:34:38] to ask to a design criteria.
[1:34:42] That makes sense.
[1:34:46] So,
[1:35:00] the question is, when you can,
[1:35:02] when can you use the city piece and design criteria.
[1:35:05] Well, you can.
[1:35:07] You didn't, we didn't agree that you could use the city
[1:35:09] to use the design criteria.
[1:35:10] We agreed that, you could use the askedo design criteria.
[1:35:13] So, long as the city piece and design criteria meet
[1:35:15] the askedo design criteria, we're good.
[1:35:18] If they don't, do we need to have a conversation about it?
[1:35:22] Why can't you meet the design criteria?
[1:35:23] Are you constrained on the right away?
[1:35:26] What's your reason why you can't meet the astro design criteria?
[1:35:30] Remember, we have an agreement, and you agreed to use the ashto.
[1:35:39] Yes.
[1:35:45] Yes.
[1:35:45] Yes, sir.
[1:36:03] Okay.
[1:36:23] It could be Mike, but then you need to have, you need to make sure that you can meet all the other
[1:36:28] criteria. Can you meet the D.B. goals for a local at project? And I guess you, you know,
[1:36:34] you've done these recently.
[1:36:38] Can you meet all the other criteria?
[1:36:55] I think that would be
[1:36:55] better addressed by one of the subsequent speakers, but I've been thinking that, yes, you would
[1:37:00] be. I think as soon as you get those federal funds,
[1:37:06] you're subject to our scrutiny.
[1:37:09] And if, so if you're still buying the right away after you receive the federal funds,
[1:37:15] Now, if you've done it before, I don't know, you might, like I said, I might need to be addressed
[1:37:20] by one of the subsequent speakers, but I'm thinking, yeah, I'll see another projects where,
[1:37:25] yeah, they've asked how they acquired the right away for this project four years ago
[1:37:30] before they could receive federal funds. Is that the new norm? I don't know.
[1:37:36] But I have seen it happen.
[1:37:40] It's something
[1:38:03] that's going to cost additional funds.
[1:38:07] Something that's going to cost additional funds.
[1:38:09] It's just because you're moving a firehead or if the contractors are not going to
[1:38:13] cost you more money, then I don't think we'd be that interested.
[1:38:18] We're interested in stuff where it's going to cost additional funds and we're going to
[1:38:23] have to reimburse for it.
[1:38:24] That's what we're interested in.
[1:38:26] And it's different from the contract.
[1:38:28] It's outside the contract you have with your contract.
[1:38:37] And then we're interested.
[1:38:43] Anything else?
[1:38:46] Thanks, everybody.
[1:38:55] Thanks, Mark.
[1:38:57] All right.
[1:38:57] Up next, we have Anna Ramirez.
[1:39:01] Here to talk about the transportation alternative
[1:39:03] set of size or toss of program.
[1:39:28] I think I'll say.
[1:39:29] Well, I'm going to start with a story about pitfalls.
[1:39:35] What not to do?
[1:39:37] And this is a project that, believe it or not, started in 2012.
[1:39:45] At that time, Tessa, or the PED-Bike funding project, was called Transportation Alternatives Program.
[1:39:52] And I'm going to just walk it over here and say that this project right here, North, is kind of to the left.
[1:40:01] was a project that seemed, you know, very promising.
[1:40:04] It connected all those other shared use paths.
[1:40:09] It was, when it says Cat 3,
[1:40:11] I think it's really Cat 9, T-Tap, Tessa, Cat 9.
[1:40:17] And so this project, the time when it was selected in 2012,
[1:40:21] there was an amendment in 2013.
[1:40:24] The AFA that Laura just talked about was in 2014.
[1:40:30] to years after I got selected, we're hoping you would let and we would start construction
[1:40:37] in 2018. That's six years right there. This is for maybe a World War Project. This is like
[1:40:45] a think of a shared use path as a really wide sidewalk. A 10 feet.
[1:40:53] So then happened.
[1:40:56] Share this
[1:40:57] project,
[1:41:00] what happened here was a this project over here, used to go through the river
[1:41:08] here, and it had to have a bridge. But in that area, which is in the clear lake area,
[1:41:16] there basically have a lot of people that have cell boats go figure. And the clearance
[1:41:24] to go through those bridge right here, this river was that we didn't have enough clearance
[1:41:30] for all those cell boats to go through it. So the cell group community came out and said,
[1:41:36] I know, I know how. And we could not move forward on this pipeline that we've been talking to
[1:41:45] you about about getting into contract, the design review and all that good. So we could be
[1:41:54] We had a script problem and it ended out that this project that was elected in 2012 lost the funding.
[1:42:04] The funding was taken away because this project was not able to move forward.
[1:42:09] It was an important gap for it.
[1:42:12] But if you don't use it, like Catherine said, you lose it.
[1:42:16] So they lost the funding.
[1:42:21] So what happened next?
[1:42:23] When your construction started, stay tuned because for this project,
[1:42:32] 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.
[1:42:40] 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.
[1:42:53] Well, going to have, there's people here that live in this house is right here said,
[1:43:01] not in my backyard. I don't want to show you stuff behind my house. Who would think
[1:43:09] that people who now want to have like a trail, like a buffalo by a trail? But for whatever reason,
[1:43:15] These people had said, now in my backyard, and this segment here, was recently in April,
[1:43:24] so made for an amendment, and it was changed.
[1:43:31] So, still tuned,
[1:43:35] where are our lessons learned?
[1:43:38] For TASA, the transportation alternatives, say TASA, like I said before, it was TE, this project
[1:43:45] that I just talked to you about was transportation enhancement 2012.
[1:43:49] 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.
[1:43:58] Transportation alternatives program.
[1:44:01] And then now that's called a transportation set aside.
[1:44:04] And that's part of the surface transportation block grant that used to be called STP.
[1:44:10] You just have to follow those things.
[1:44:14] And basically, for the public funding, interestingly enough, there's not one but two
[1:44:22] call for projects.
[1:44:25] There's the agency's call for project, which is included in the tip, and then there's a
[1:44:31] state call for projects.
[1:44:33] And they're a little bit different.
[1:44:34] From the state perspective, they find public infrastructure for nine urban communities
[1:44:41] are you know, real small and smaller urban communities are less than 200,000.
[1:44:46] For, you know, the NPR, obviously, you know, they do the urbanized area kind of a bit different
[1:44:52] and the NPO in 2015, they include some transit for the state, is mostly pet.
[1:45:00] 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.
[1:45:12] Even if it's a slow sidewalk or a trail, you cannot just get creative and change your scope of work.
[1:45:21] Now, from a faith-like perspective, the state, another difference is that the state pays
[1:45:28] only for construction.
[1:45:29] The only eligible activities construction only, except for this last cough cough
[1:45:35] project that ended August 2015, they had safer to score funding that had remaining
[1:45:43] safety movements that didn't include some engineering, but the state is construction only
[1:45:48] A.J.C. is, you can have P.S. and E in right away another other basis of project development.
[1:45:57] Now, the most important part is that TASA is really for this funding, the TASA funding is for transportation.
[1:46:05] So, there is a transportation funds. So, I will understand that other amenities might be important,
[1:46:11] or that other things might be needed to put in the sidewalk, or the shared use path.
[1:46:16] 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.
[1:46:24] Meaning that from the state perspective, if you're in a small community and you need to re-grade your ditches,
[1:46:30] because you have open ditch or you need to put a pipe.
[1:46:34] Some drainage, you can only do 30% of that, because we know the drainage is a high cost ticket item.
[1:46:40] And so that's going to take up all of the limited head-by-finding that is available.
[1:46:45] 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.
[1:46:55] Now, those call for projects agree that you have to think about connectivity and access.
[1:46:59] 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.
[1:47:07] Obviously, there's an importance in connecting to transit.
[1:47:13] Be it the first lesson to transit centers, park and rides,
[1:47:18] thinking about continuity in the network,
[1:47:20] thinking about gut fillers, and very importantly,
[1:47:23] thinking about the logic terminology.
[1:47:27] So let me go back to the funding.
[1:47:32] So, Tessa, like Catherine was saying, is real restrictive.
[1:47:37] The reason for it is, like we said, we have a three-year timeframe, but not only that.
[1:47:45] It's not only the timeframe, but the fact that there's not enough projects.
[1:47:51] So if there's a project that God delayed, what does that mean?
[1:47:55] That means that we got to accelerate somebody else.
[1:47:58] And is there somebody ready to go?
[1:48:01] You know, sometimes that's just not the case.
[1:48:04] And so it makes it a bit harder to find a substitute.
[1:48:10] The other thing is sometimes for TASA,
[1:48:15] they're going in and they look maybe,
[1:48:16] can we do some sum back funding?
[1:48:19] Can we, you know, transfer from category nine
[1:48:21] and then move it at category five?
[1:48:23] But category five, which is congestion,
[1:48:25] communication or quality, you gotta think about admissions reductions.
[1:48:29] So if you're really reconstructing a sidewalk, the feds are going to say,
[1:48:33] well, how many admissions reduction is there for reconstruction?
[1:48:37] There might be some associated with a new sidewalk, but to reconstruct,
[1:48:43] maybe not so much.
[1:48:44] So makes it harder on us to get that federal approval that is needed.
[1:48:48] 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.
[1:49:00] It doesn't mean that your project is going to last.
[1:49:03] It means that the funding that is available for the whole state or for an area where labs.
[1:49:09] Which means that what we need is to hear from you earlier and say, you know what, I have delays.
[1:49:14] I have the laser and that way we can reprogram your project.
[1:49:19] We can make it, you know, delayed and try to accelerate somebody else.
[1:49:23] You could have the laser because very commonly, sometimes the developers, especially local
[1:49:31] governments, they already went in and pulled the sidewalk.
[1:49:36] They already put the sidewalk in place, the developers, and then they come back to us and
[1:49:41] have a new map and that doesn't look like the map that they submitted to a J.C. and the
[1:49:46] car for projects. And there's a rule you know what the developer, the developer here
[1:49:50] and there we already have those segments. So I'm just going to take my money and the money
[1:49:55] that I got and I'm going to put the same linear feed somewhere else. But that's all fine
[1:50:00] and then you got to come back to the J.C. and make sure they approve it. The other thing
[1:50:06] think of our is outreach. You want to make sure that you reach out to the community because
[1:50:13] you don't want to have that pitfall of having community really against your project. The other
[1:50:20] thing that's important in terms of the change of scope is something that Mark touched upon.
[1:50:26] If you decide to the local standards and you say, I'm project ready, I'm 95% complete. But remember,
[1:50:35] one sense of federal funds for their life is a whole project.
[1:50:39] Then that means you're not at 95% complete.
[1:50:43] That means you have to go back and do it
[1:50:45] to text that standards.
[1:50:47] And that, you know, you have to go somewhere
[1:50:49] without even something that you want to do it or not.
[1:50:53] So, some of the things in terms of bike design standards,
[1:50:56] we do up to Ashdo.
[1:50:58] But some of you, on my think, will lack to is even better.
[1:51:01] That may be the case, but your leaves have to be the minimum of ash, though.
[1:51:07] You have to need whatever federal highways and, in terms of a proof control devices and anything
[1:51:15] that's been approved in the METCV, in terms of pad bank.
[1:51:21] One of the things that we have a lot of issues with is right away an easement for sidewalks.
[1:51:27] Sometimes there is a corner club. You have a lot of utility there. You utility is there. Sometimes
[1:51:32] is a fact that an easement can take about a year to resolve and that really delays projects.
[1:51:38] Utility coordination, some of the utilities may be willing to move things for a roadway but not for a
[1:51:43] sidewalk. So if you can avoid, if you can go around and go around them, if you don't have an
[1:51:54] to make sure that you're up to par.
[1:52:00] The idea here is that if your project is not ready,
[1:52:03] we have to swap it.
[1:52:05] We swap it in the district through the infield,
[1:52:07] but then also they have to think about
[1:52:09] so we don't have a lot in task-offending.
[1:52:13] These are projects through the whole state.
[1:52:15] But task-offending is limited,
[1:52:17] so we don't have as many projects to pick and choose from.
[1:52:21] So it's very important again to think about reaching to us earlier on to have a disability
[1:52:27] and have those conversations with text on. Any questions? Go ahead.
[1:53:01] Well, when you
[1:53:03] think about the benefits, the benefit is the motion has been done differently here at HAC
[1:53:09] than it has on at the state. At HAC it's really a process that they go that eventually gets approved
[1:53:16] TPC. So, that would be more of an HAC policy question. I don't know if Adam, you want to answer that.
[1:53:32] And those, you know, that has changed from 2015 to 2018 and that that HAC strives to work through those
[1:53:41] eligibility and effectiveness and looking at federal house performance measures as well
[1:53:46] when they think about the evaluation criteria.
[1:54:27] Okay. So, let me see,
[1:54:28] So I can see two scenarios.
[1:54:31] One is why does a community reach to text that for a project?
[1:54:38] One of the questions that is that,
[1:54:40] what if, you know, some people that welcome back,
[1:54:45] make them true, text that roadways,
[1:54:49] to be a bit of a barrier.
[1:54:51] And everybody,
[1:54:55] so some people make them true,
[1:54:56] it takes that roadways to be really wide, have a lot of volumes,
[1:54:59] so I consider them to be a barrier.
[1:55:02] But they want to cross them, because, you know,
[1:55:06] as thick as the county, the citizens don't
[1:55:09] and so many identified limits, because they're not,
[1:55:12] you know, it's not like, you know,
[1:55:13] I'm just right away here, I'm sitting in, you know, county road.
[1:55:16] And so, since it's a, I right away,
[1:55:18] they're going to come to us and say,
[1:55:19] hey, we're really thinking it's in a foreign connection.
[1:55:22] How can we work together to make it safer for the community?
[1:55:25] And that happened this past last couple of projects.
[1:55:28] We've got just regular community members reaching out to us and saying, I want a cross-ite
[1:55:33] 10 and I don't know how to do that. Can we do something safely? And in that way, we do collaborate with them.
[1:55:40] There's other projects, two, seven days, which is in this area that basically, you know, on some projects,
[1:55:49] 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,
[1:55:55] We wanted on straight because that's where we, I mean, you build that thing, but I'm not going to
[1:56:03] write on it. And you're thinking, but it's off straight. You don't have to worry about the speed.
[1:56:08] You don't have to worry about the volume. But in some areas, that's not context sensitive.
[1:56:13] That's not what the users are want to do. And in some areas, they might say, you know, that I don't
[1:56:25] over the right, so it just really varies and it's very context sensitive. The one thing to remember is,
[1:56:31] and I think we're not going to touch on it a bit later, if you put a bike line, now that triggers
[1:56:37] a public hearing, it's made a lower project. It's a public hearing. We have to have a judge clerk
[1:56:44] a clerk and that would be about 60,000 just for the public hearing to put in the striping to do the
[1:56:59] Thank you.
[1:57:09] All right.
[1:57:10] Now, it's time for a last short break before we come back and finish out the rest of the
[1:57:17] presentations.
[1:57:18] We'll be back in 10 minutes.
[1:57:20] We have two more presentations left.
[1:57:25] First up, we're going to have the presentation on environment, the environmental clearance
[1:57:29] process.
[1:57:31] And for that, I have a Mr. Nisha Robinson,
[1:57:42] how you doing?
[1:57:43] Just keep that microphone.
[1:57:45] Let's see.
[1:57:46] Yes, here.
[1:57:48] That one's okay.
[1:57:49] Good afternoon.
[1:57:51] My name is Denise Robinson.
[1:57:53] I'm the Environmental Manager for the Houston District.
[1:57:56] And we're going to discuss a little bit about the environmental
[1:57:59] clearance process for your projects.
[1:58:02] This is a very, very important process.
[1:58:06] 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.
[1:58:17] We have 15 staff that we work diligently with you to ensure that we're moving forward.
[1:58:23] You never know until we get boots on the ground to determine exactly what we're dealing with.
[1:58:28] 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.
[1:58:50] So, the purpose is to talk about environmental, environmental clearance.
[1:58:55] We have three, basically, classifications that we look at, the first is categorical exclusion.
[1:59:01] This is an opportunity to do an analysis of a project that has very low impact.
[1:59:08] The next is environmental assessment, the third is environmental impact statement, and we'll
[1:59:15] go through these in general again,
[1:59:17] but giving you more of the high points.
[1:59:20] We do a lot of interagency coordination,
[1:59:23] and this is critical for the success of your project.
[1:59:27] So with that, if we have any idea that you're doing
[1:59:31] something that may trigger Coast Guard
[1:59:35] or working with the Corps, engineers,
[1:59:38] then we need to try to start doing what we call
[1:59:42] our pre-application process,
[1:59:43] And that will then allow us to afford them with the potential of what your project will be.
[1:59:50] And then allows them to start providing representatives from their areas to help us to navigate through the system.
[2:00:00] 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.
[2:00:11] But when it gets to us, we really try to take on the ship of it and help you to navigate through the system.
[2:00:17] So environmental clearances are the process that is required. We're also the projects that you guys are going to be dealing with.
[2:00:23] We have an aspect of screening, scoping, and then complete evaluation of the projects.
[2:00:29] And the main purpose is to assess the potential impacts of the plan project on the environment
[2:00:34] as well as the people that are surrounding.
[2:00:37] And what we try to do is to obey to minimize anything that could have ever impact.
[2:00:44] So the Council of Environmental Quality, CQ, has provided guidance through a memorandum
[2:00:50] of understanding in the MoU, and that's for the regulations for implementing the procedural
[2:00:55] provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act.
[2:01:00] We follow NEPA, and that's from start to finish, and that's the only way that we can
[2:01:06] operate.
[2:01:10] So, the Texas Department of the TechSite utilizes the following classification, as I stated
[2:01:14] earlier, categorical exclusion, and that is a very detailed list of the Act.
[2:01:20] We look at the activities that your particular project may have, and with that we step through
[2:01:25] see if it will fit into what we call a lease or low impact projects in that set as well
[2:01:35] we have C22s as well as open-ended D. And again, as we're evaluating your projects and
[2:01:42] the activities that those projects may encompass, we step through our checklist to determine
[2:01:47] what may be included and make that determination. The environmental assessment as well as
[2:01:53] doing the environmental impact statements.
[2:01:56] And that's the, the long one.
[2:01:58] If you don't know any more about that process,
[2:02:02] just always understand that big red dot
[2:02:04] is the hazard sign.
[2:02:07] And it takes, or can take a very long time
[2:02:10] to actually get that project completed.
[2:02:16] That's one of the processes that we have created
[2:02:19] where we can look at.
[2:02:21] I'm gonna go through it a little bit more in detail
[2:02:23] as we get for it.
[2:02:24] it breaks down the listing.
[2:02:29] So the CE level will projects or projects that do not individually
[2:02:32] or cumulatively have a significant environmental effect. And normally do not require any additional
[2:02:40] or further need an environment. I mean, that will. So the C-22 projects that are entirely within
[2:02:50] the right away. So these are what we call our simple projects that we're not really doing much
[2:02:56] to it, it could be something as small as coming in and replacing the lights and doing
[2:03:01] reforceation.
[2:03:02] It's not something that's very difficult.
[2:03:07] However, we have a programmatic agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office.
[2:03:13] And with that, that project cannot one trigger a section four.
[2:03:19] That's something like with the Parks and Recreation, a section 106.
[2:03:23] that will be something that's historical, endangered and threatened species, and then the
[2:03:28] Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harvard Act.
[2:03:34] Yes,
[2:03:40] I'm sorry I can understand it.
[2:04:48] If it's our project, we're going to overlook that anyway.
[2:05:28] They come again on the project.
[2:05:31] We do have CVs that will trigger a perfect request, a plan.
[2:05:36] And we have a little bit of a whole process.
[2:05:38] But if you're triggering that permit and understanding
[2:05:40] if any of that technical permit, just an issue of arts,
[2:05:43] which allow them to think that you have to,
[2:05:48] but if you want to write ID,
[2:05:50] they're trigger hours to you.
[2:05:52] So I think
[2:05:57] part of it,
[2:06:03] is basically, you know, kind of a permanent document.
[2:06:26] Do you want their projects to make sure that they
[2:06:28] look at that and get with us to determine how they can best execute what needs to be assessed
[2:06:36] as they're moving forward with their project.
[2:06:39] So our project must be classified as an open-ended D by the activities of their project.
[2:06:46] So with that we can have, when we're looking at it, it means that it didn't really
[2:06:50] mean to C E and it doesn't mean that E E. But with that we had to look at that classification
[2:06:57] and activities that's being done, we can step through in at the end of the day our environmental
[2:07:03] failures and Austin assist us with making those determinations.
[2:07:11] So there's a number of criteria that are reviewed in order to make that assessment and meet that
[2:07:19] classification. So it opened deep criteria and here we go. So you do not have substantial controversy
[2:07:26] on the environmental grounds. So starting with environmental, when you're looking at the impact that
[2:07:35] you're having on a particular quarter, if the community is not excited about what you
[2:07:44] get ready to do is very unlikely we can do an open-ended dec. So if it has significant impacts to
[2:07:51] plan, the growth of land use, you have relocation that's
[2:07:57] significant that you are impacting or displacing
[2:08:02] individuals, again, very unlikely you'll be able to do an open-ended
[2:08:06] D. And you do not, for an open-ended D, criteria you do not have a
[2:08:11] significant impact on the natural cultural recreation or historic
[2:08:14] and other resources. There's not a significant impact on the air
[2:08:18] nor is a water quality, and there's not a significant impact on the travel plans, meaning
[2:08:25] how that court is designed, we're going to impact that significantly, then an open-ended
[2:08:30] D would not be an option.
[2:08:33] Otherwise, either individually, and significantly, significant environmental impacts will trigger
[2:08:41] the inability to use that open-ended D.
[2:08:45] So, for an EA, it's a primary purpose of an EA is to help fix that determine whether
[2:08:50] or not you have an environmental impact statement, which is the EIS, and we'll report with
[2:08:56] that, or if not, if that's not needed.
[2:09:00] So, an EA is prepared when a project cannot be processed as a CE, and does not clearly require
[2:09:07] the preparation of an EIS.
[2:09:08] So it hasn't gone over to the big red dot, but we still have some things that we have to look at.
[2:09:17] It does not clearly require the preparation of an EIS or an EA with assistance determining the need.
[2:09:23] So with that, the end result is either to say that the project in itself was found not to have significant impact.
[2:09:32] impact. So that's a big word there significant and again through the evaluation that we look
[2:09:40] through to determine what that term significant would include.
[2:09:47] So for EIS, in order to do what
[2:09:52] EIS that is, a new control access freeway would be a trigger, a highway project, a four
[2:09:58] more lanes on a new location, new construction or extension of a separate roadway for buses
[2:10:04] or highway occupancy vehicles are not located within the existing highway facility, new construction
[2:10:13] or extension of fixed rail transit facilities such as Reptrial, Light Rail, Pemeter Rail and then
[2:10:21] the Automated Guideway Transit. So, there in that picture is one of our big EIS that's going
[2:10:29] And right now, we see an agency I'll pay from a 45.
[2:10:35] So for EIS, this is a level of project and documentation.
[2:10:40] Typically takes years, we take the way that we're at months,
[2:10:45] because is years.
[2:10:47] And it's a lot of coordination and an extreme amount
[2:10:51] of assessment that has to be done to ensure that we're not
[2:10:56] environmentally impacting the human as well as the property
[2:10:59] that we are working on that particular quarter.
[2:11:03] So some examples of the pieces of the process
[2:11:05] is a notice of intent, which has to go out
[2:11:08] first, participating in incorporating agency
[2:11:10] environment, coordination, plan, and schedule,
[2:11:15] scoping meetings.
[2:11:16] That's with the agency and the public.
[2:11:19] Public meetings, those are very extensive.
[2:11:25] There's a lot that goes into the public meetings,
[2:11:28] because we have to ensure that the public
[2:11:29] is aware of the changes that are being made and proposed.
[2:11:34] But we don't go to the public to say these are our decisions.
[2:11:37] We have alternates on alternatives that we're presenting at that time as well.
[2:11:42] So we have, after that, we have the preparation of the draft and criminal impact and
[2:11:46] which is a DIS, public hearings.
[2:11:48] After we have our public meetings and with EIS is a given that they're controversy.
[2:11:55] 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.
[2:12:11] At the public hearing and then you prepare for the final environmental impact statement.
[2:12:18] At that time, shortly thereafter, then there's a preparation of a ride, which is a record of decision.
[2:12:26] 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.
[2:12:37] As I was speaking earlier about permits, this is the part that a lot of people neglect to remember or to think about.
[2:12:46] Sometimes they look at a body of water or river that's in the city and we have a bridge over it.
[2:12:55] And we are not necessarily determined whether or not it's inevitable.
[2:12:59] 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.
[2:13:14] But 30 to 60 days, but if not, if we're triggering an IP, then that's going to take a couple
[2:13:24] more months.
[2:13:25] So we're looking at anywhere from 18 to 18 months to two years.
[2:13:30] So we have to be very cautious of that.
[2:13:33] Again, that's where the design is important.
[2:13:37] That's where we need to know what that bridge design looks like.
[2:13:40] We need to know if you're getting into the water.
[2:13:42] We need to know what you're doing on the side so the banks, we put an end riff wrap for how far
[2:13:49] are you going? So all of that is really, really important as we're stepping through what we call
[2:13:56] the environmental clearance process. So this type of permit is for the coastblood, I'm sorry,
[2:14:03] that type of permit is required when work is being done in our over, now with the water or our
[2:14:12] bridges, dolphin, and fender system. So you guys know that we have item bridge, that's an example right there.
[2:14:22] We have fenders that have been compromised as well as the dolphins there. So with that, that
[2:14:32] does require IP and it does take a time anywhere from 18 months to two years to get that taken for
[2:14:40] also modification of any existing structures, any bridges that are already existing that are
[2:14:49] inevitable waters. And we're not always 100% in being able to determine what a inevitable
[2:14:57] water is. And, um,
[2:15:00] 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.
[2:15:15] 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.
[2:15:29] 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.
[2:15:43] So that's your easiest or if you will exemption type of permit that's there.
[2:15:48] All need for requirements and other agency permits,
[2:15:52] Coast Guard must be completed prior to the issue
[2:15:59] of that Coast Guard permit taking place.
[2:16:02] Delineations are performed to determine waters
[2:16:05] at a jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act.
[2:16:08] Permits required for any work done in special aquatic sites such
[2:16:11] as wetlands, and sometimes as hard for us to determine
[2:16:14] what that wetland is.
[2:16:15] 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.
[2:16:27] And that cannot necessarily can be done.
[2:16:30] Google Earth or anything else.
[2:16:32] We have to literally get out on the ground and see what we're looking at.
[2:16:36] Pervits are required for work to be done below the ordinary watermark of rivers, streams, and channels, just as I spoke about earlier.
[2:16:43] So, for nation warming, that's part of the course program for permits, and that impacts
[2:16:53] below the set thresholds.
[2:16:55] So, their process takes typically three to six months.
[2:16:59] We've been working very diligently to try to get that process streamlined, but again, there's
[2:17:07] a lot that goes into that, and then the other type of permit is individual permits, and
[2:17:12] this requires is required for impacts
[2:17:14] rate of then the set thresholds.
[2:17:17] And that process averages about 18 months
[2:17:19] to two years.
[2:17:23] So that is a summary of what our environmental
[2:17:26] parents process.
[2:17:27] And it very simple here, but it is something
[2:17:30] that we take a lot of time.
[2:17:32] We do a lot of group meetings, if you will,
[2:17:37] from the consultants to the staff,
[2:17:39] to make sure that we actually
[2:17:41] hoping these projects out as they should be so that we can address any of our mental issues that
[2:17:47] may occur that we're trying to mitigate those impacts and more importantly we're trying to
[2:17:54] note in advance what it is that we really need to do so Ken says why is important to provide
[2:18:01] this that information and get with us so that we can step through and make those assessments.
[2:18:07] Yes, sir.
[2:18:26] What obligations they have would take stock?
[2:18:37] They still have to oversee the permanent, we want to do any of the, if it's your local
[2:18:45] let, we want to be involved in that.
[2:18:47] But your final reports, your tech reports and everything has to be sent to us for final
[2:18:52] reviews.
[2:18:55] I'm sorry.
[2:18:57] No, that part, first you have to provide the, we have to do some type of scoping together, okay?
[2:19:05] So even though you would be responsible for the, the, the let, we still have to sit down and do our scoping together.
[2:19:12] So that we can make sure that you're following our standards,
[2:19:35] we've funded.
[2:22:15] All
[2:23:22] right, I believe we have one last presentation.
[2:23:25] on right away.
[2:23:34] One last presentation on right away acquisition by Miss Angela Leach J. Row from
[2:23:41] textile.
[2:23:55] Can everyone hear me fine? Good afternoon. My name is Angela Leach J. Row and I'm one
[2:24:01] of the right away project delivery managers with textile in right away. As you notice this afternoon,
[2:24:10] There's a lot of different steps before we get to this process to actually the right-of-way process.
[2:24:16] For instance, Katherine is talking about earlier about the step.
[2:24:19] The step needs to be in place.
[2:24:21] Also, the advanced finding agreement needs to be in place.
[2:24:25] Once steps all done, I will usually get notified by one of Mark's project engineers and projects coming up.
[2:24:35] So with that, before we can actually get started, the main thing that most local governments
[2:24:42] are looking forward to is when we're going to get the statutory letter to proceed.
[2:24:47] So with that, there's a lot of steps within that process. So once we're aware of the project,
[2:24:57] unfortunately I can't just go ahead and write a letter for you guys to be able to start.
[2:25:01] 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.
[2:25:15] They have them place federal funds on the project and grant authority to proceed.
[2:25:21] Once I receive that information, then I will send a letter to the local government to tell them to proceed.
[2:25:26] Within that process, however, while you're waiting, you can do, you can do, you can do
[2:25:34] title work in a prison work prior to that point.
[2:25:38] And just one of those things that we actually want to keep the project progressing to
[2:25:43] meet the elect date.
[2:25:44] So if you're able to, do your title work, do your prison work.
[2:25:50] We actually work through the local government with the provider that you have selected
[2:25:55] to do the project. So a lot of times with that information, the provider will, I guess the
[2:26:04] local government will select an initial appraisal and review appraisal. Once that information
[2:26:10] is done, then it's sent to text.com and we have our appraisers take a look at that and
[2:26:17] then gets approved by text.
[2:26:19] Once that's in place, and you can actually start acquiring.
[2:26:27] But I actually forgot one thing.
[2:26:30] When I talked about the step in and place, the AFA environment
[2:26:34] also has to be in place.
[2:26:36] We actually had situations that local governments
[2:26:41] had started the process before environmental clearance
[2:26:44] 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,
[2:27:00] Most likely, you will not be eligible for those funds because you didn't fall the process.
[2:27:08] With that said, you pick your provider, you get your initial appraisal review appraisal,
[2:27:20] Tech start approves that you already have the statutory letter proceed, and then you can actually start acquiring your parcels.
[2:27:32] 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.
[2:27:40] may be needed to this process. I'm probably the most, I'm the primary person, you'll probably
[2:27:45] be talking, speaking with. And so one of the things that I did do do is when you're starting
[2:27:54] to do your informational letter to the property owners, and then you do your initial offer packets,
[2:28:05] and one of the things that I offer is to review the initial offer packets that you put together
[2:28:09] to make sure that you have all the information intact.
[2:28:14] And usually, once I look at one and we're in agreement, then you can go ahead and continue
[2:28:19] with that acquisition process.
[2:28:22] Hopefully, with your initial offer letter, you know, with the 30 days, hopefully the property
[2:28:27] on her will like the price value on their property and the parcels closed.
[2:28:35] 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,
[2:28:44] before you start asking or requesting for your reimbursement on your parcels.
[2:28:51] So when she have that parcel closed, go ahead and start your reimbursement process information.
[2:29:00] Again, I'm there textiles there to walk you through that process.
[2:29:05] I usually deal with the local government on that, in official basis, to walk them through
[2:29:10] the process.
[2:29:11] So, if you're new, we'll lead to through that process.
[2:29:15] A lot of times, there could be different parcels, there could be some easements, some
[2:29:21] class, different situations, a lot of times, they're really unique, and we usually rely
[2:29:29] to our text auto-turning on that type of information.
[2:29:35] One of the other things I just remembered too before you can start this whole process is that
[2:29:41] we have to have approved maps.
[2:29:44] If the maps aren't approved, again, we don't proceed forward, and a lot of times what happens
[2:29:50] is that the local governments will have a consultant that the whole work with and once the
[2:29:58] consultant has completed the...
[2:30:01] 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.
[2:30:19] If not, then we sent out a final offer letter.
[2:30:25] Within that time, we can also do a counter offer.
[2:30:29] One of the things that's very critical with the counter offer is that they have supporting
[2:30:33] documentation submitted, and they also have to have a sign letter from the property owner
[2:30:39] in that packet.
[2:30:42] I'm going to say the counter offer doesn't work during the final offer phase we're going
[2:30:50] to do a dual path and it's going to go to ED.
[2:30:55] Usually with the ED process that is handled through the local government, however let's
[2:31:02] say if you have updated appraisals, the updated appraisals can come to text.
[2:31:06] thought for review and approval.
[2:31:12] I've been doing this for about five years,
[2:31:17] and it's been
[2:31:19] interesting to still have learning process.
[2:31:21] And so with that, if anyone needs any assistance,
[2:31:27] you know, I walk you through the process.
[2:31:29] One of the things that we also take a look at is text
[2:31:33] has really been evolving into performance management and tracking. So one of the things that we do
[2:31:40] ask the local government to do is to send a project status sheet. And that kind of relates to what
[2:31:47] one was talking to earlier about the quarterly reviews that we do at text. To see and review the progression
[2:31:55] of the project, if we're doing really well, the project may get moved up, if we're having a little bit
[2:32:03] difficulty you might get pushed back. But with the project status sheet that is required
[2:32:10] from the local government, we used that information in our quarterly meetings and also in
[2:32:18] our letting meetings, which Katherine had talked about earlier. And this information is actually
[2:32:23] uploaded into our dashboard system, so everyone's able to review it at any level of the organization.
[2:32:39] I'm trying to think it's late and afternoon.
[2:32:43] I can't really think of anything else, but yeah, many questions, hopefully not.
[2:32:53] Um, but, um, you know, my name is, um, if you want to write it down, it's, um, my email address
[2:33:01] 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
[2:33:14] and walk you through their process for local government acquisition.
[2:33:24] It's 713-802-5753.
[2:33:35] Hi.
[2:33:49] Okay.
[2:33:50] With the reimbursement, let's say once you're a parcel, once you have acquired your parcel,
[2:33:58] 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.
[2:34:07] And that's basically the 80% that Mark was talking about earlier, and you can do that after each parcel closes.
[2:34:18] Okay, yes. Okay. At the very beginning, yes, we have, we'll have to have approved maps.
[2:34:27] 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.
[2:34:43] And that's when I'll send out a statutory letter to proceed to the local government for them to proceed with acquisition.
[2:34:56] Actually, when it comes to your appraisals, once the local government, whoever appraisers
[2:35:10] are working with, they'll have an initial appraiser, a review appraiser.
[2:35:14] Once that's completed, then that paperwork will be sent to text odd, and I'll be
[2:35:20] the third review, and final review.
[2:35:24] Yeah, we're doing, yeah, reimbursements.
[2:35:30] Well actually,
[2:35:31] I guess I do, I forgot about that. Yeah, so when the reimbursement package is submitted to text
[2:35:37] thought, I do review it and make sure that the local government means all the requirements
[2:35:41] for the reimbursement, and it's really important to follow the federal guidelines, but also follow
[2:35:48] the right-of-way guidelines within TechStot.
[2:35:55] Yeah, and I think, like I said earlier, we actually had a local government that they
[2:36:00] follow the federal guidelines, but they didn't follow the right-of-way guidelines for
[2:36:04] TechStot, and they were not eligible for reimbursement.
[2:36:18] Yeah,
[2:36:28] and that is based on also with your project status sheet that you can send
[2:36:32] usually weekly or bi-weekly to text.
[2:36:37] And we're reviewing that the whole time through.
[2:36:46] Got it?
[2:36:47] Thank you.
[2:36:54] I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out.
[2:36:57] Thanks a lot to text.
[2:37:00] Staff for coming and trying to educate us so that we can make sure
[2:37:04] projects get developed and get implemented in a timely manner.
[2:37:11] So just to close things out, this, the presentations will be posted online, we'll send out a link.
[2:37:17] If you sign me in, we'll make sure we send out a link to those.
[2:37:20] And we'll make sure that for the livestream folks that you can search our HJC website and get straight to the materials.
[2:37:29] With that, we'll close it up and thanks a lot for coming out.