Applications
vying for a slice of roughly $14 million in project funds are being accepted through
Friday by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) for its fall 2015
Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program.
“The number of projects selected
will depend greatly on the number submitted and their associated request
amounts, as well as how those projects score after a multi-phase review process,” Mike Spadafore, KDOT’s Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator, recently told TI News Daily.
KDOT
administers the TA Program, which provides funding for a variety of alternative
transportation projects.
Spadafore said that possible projects may include on- and
off-road pedestrian and bicycle facilities; infrastructure for non-driver
access to public transportation; or projects that enhance mobility, improve the
scenic, environmental or archaeological assets in the state, preserve historic
transportation structures, or provide Safe Routes to School.
There
are also many eligible project sponsors, he said, including: local governments; regional transportation authorities; transit agencies; natural resources or public land agencies; and school districts, local education
agencies and schools, which may vie for Safe Routes to School projects only.
Also
eligible are “tribal governments, and any other local or regional governmental
entity with responsibility for oversight of transportation or recreational
trails — other than a metropolitan planning organization or a state agency — that
the state determines to be eligible,” Spadafore said. “Nonprofit
organizations are not eligible as direct grant recipients for TA Program funds
unless they qualify through one of the eligible entity categories.”
Earlier
this fall, KDOT held a workshop that provided an overview of the TA
Program and made related guidance available to workshop participants from
around the state who were eager “to capitalize
on this opportunity,” Spadafore said.
KDOT’s detailed guidance, which
includes the application form, eligibility requirements, state and federal
requirements, and a proposed timeline of activities, among other information,
is available online at www.ksdot.org.
“KDOT
hopes to see even more activity in the coming years through projects funded by Transportation
Alternatives, as well as through the array of other funding sources available for
these kinds of non-motorized projects,” Spadafore said.
He
added that KDOT is encouraged to see the applications that have come in to the
department having multiple project sponsors.
“We
know that the collaboration efforts will only strengthen our transportation
system as a whole,” Spadafore said.
KDOT
expects to announce TA Program project awards in the spring.
