Dear CAGTC Members,
The fiscal year 2020 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) has been posted on MARAD’s website, it has not yet been published in the Federal Register. In its FY20 appropriations bill, Congress made $225 million available for PIDP grants, a decrease from last year’s $292.7 million which was the inaugural round of the program. The full NOFO can be found here and applications are due May 18, 2020.
The notice contains several changes compared to the 2019 NOFO, with some key provisions highlighted below:
- The FY20 NOFO establishes three merit criteria:
- Effect on the Movement of Goods: USDOT will evaluate the extent to which projects will improve the safety, efficiency, or reliability of the movement of goods through a port or intermodal connection to a port.
- Leverage of Federal Funding: Among otherwise comparable applications, USDOT will prioritize projects that maximize leverage of federal funding through state, local, and private sector contributions. Ratings will be assigned to each project based on the calculated non-federal share of the project's future eligible costs. USDOT notes that this evaluation criterion is separate from the statutory minimum non-federal share of 20% which does not define the competitiveness of a PIDP project.
- Net Benefits: USDOT will group projects into ranges based on their estimated benefit costs ratio and net present value to assign a level of confidence to each project.
- Additional consideration will be given to projects based on: project readiness, domestic preference, opportunity zones, and projects addressing rural needs consistent with the ROUTES program. For awards under $10 million USDOT will prioritize projects for ports that handled less than 10,000,000 short tons in 2017.
- Funding restrictions:
- Of the total $225 million available, at least $200 million will be reserved for grants to coastal seaports or Great Lake ports. A change from 2019 when the program set aside $92.7 million for the top 15 coastal seaports based on TEU.
- The minimum award size is $1 million (compared to $10 million in 2019), there is no maximum award size.
- No more than 25% of funds ($56.25 million) may be awarded to a single state.
- $56.25 million will be reserved for projects requesting exactly $10 million. The NOFO specifies that it is within USDOT’s discretion to award applicants less than they requested and therefore any awards to these applicants will be counted against the reserved amount even if the award is less than $10 million. Applicants requesting $10 million may include project alternatives that could be awarded higher or lower amounts than exactly $10 million.
- No more than $22.5 million may be awarded to development activities that do not result in construction. According to the NOFO, development-phase applications will be evaluated against the same criteria as capital grant applications and will be considered less competitive.
- Eligible projects: the FY20 NOFO provides more specific eligibility requirements than the previous NOFO, limiting funding to the following projects: port gate improvements, road improvements within and connecting to the port, rail improvements within and connecting to the port, berth improvements, fixed landside improvements in support of cargo operations, and utilities necessary for safe operations. Other project components may be eligible if they support the project types previously listed.
- Review and selection process: PIDP evaluation will consist of an intake, a technical review phase and a senior review phase. The NOFO notes that if projects have not substantively changed from prior submissions to BUILD or other USDOT programs, staff may rely on previous analyses. It also states USDOT may seek additional information from applicants throughout the review process to complete project analyses.
- Application limit: consistent with the FY19 NOFO each lead applicant may only submit one application.
Additionally, USDOT’s Build America Bureau will publish a request for information (RFI) in tomorrow’s Federal Register for the Regional Infrastructure Accelerator Demonstration Program. The program was created by the FAST Act to help develop improved infrastructure priorities and financing strategies for projects eligible for funding under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). According to the RFI, Regional Infrastructure Accelerator(s) will act as a resource and help facilitate project delivery within a designated geographic region while promoting investment in covered infrastructure projects. While the program was authorized in 2015, it was funded by Congress for the first time through the FY20 appropriations bill, which provided $5 million. The RFI requests responses to guide the implementation of the program, specifically soliciting feedback on its structure, geographic diversity, qualifications, approach, and measures of success.
The RFI can be found here and responses (which are limited to 10 pages) will be due 30 days after publication of the notice.
Thank you,
Cecile
Cecile Entleitner
Manager, Member Communications & Policy
Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors
1625 K Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
tradecorridors.org
(202) 828-9100