Unobligated funds released for states. Good for cyclists?

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it was making over $470 million in unspent earmarks immediately available to states

President Obama has vowed to veto any bill that comes to his desk with earmarks and would support legislation to permanently ban earmarks. But $473 million in highway earmarks from FY2003-2006 appropriations acts remain unspent years later. Those acts contain provisions that authorize the Secretary to make the unused funds available for eligible surface transportation projects.  Effective today, state departments of transportation will have the ability to use their unspent earmarked highway funds, some of which are nearly 10 years old, on any eligible highway, transit, passenger rail, or port project. 

 

States must identify the projects they plan to use the funds for by October 1, and must obligate them by December 31, 2012.

The details of this plan are still unclear (to me at least). It appears that each state will be able to redirect these earmarks towards any project they want - instead of what they were earmarked for. This could be good for cyclists, if money that was sitting unspent quickly finds its way to eligible bike/ped projects. But it could also be bad if money already earmarked for bike projects get redirected to other items. And there are such earmarks at risk now.

In DC, things can probably only get better, but then DC isn't sitting on much money. There's only $56,000 in play - money that appears to be left over from the 9th Street NE bridge and South Capital Street projects. I don't think that the second project includes the South Capital Street Trail, but if so, bike advocates should ensure that it stays there. If it's truly left over money, $56k could buy a lot of bike racks or a new CaBi station.

In Maryland, there's a little over $4M available. $680,000 of it is for the Intercounty Connector - which may be related to the bike trail. Another $742,000 is for the Long Branch Village Center Access Improvements project in Silver Spring, MD. Though the money was set aside in 2006, none of it has been spent and it does appear to be bike related.

One objective is to improve vehicular, bike, and pedestrian accessibility and circulation between the existing public facilities at Village Center.

Farther out, there's also over $700,000 unspent on the unbuilt St. Mary s College of Maryland Pedestrian Overpass.

But it's Virginia where the real risk - and opportunity - lies. With nearly $10M in earmarks, there is a lot of money at play. Unfortunately, much of that money is already set aside for biking, which means that it could be lost. Top of the list is $983,928 for land acquisition for the pedestrian trail "over the George Washington Memorial Bridge" which I assume is for a new connection to the Mt Vernon Trail.  We should make sure that isn't lost. Also in Arlington County, there's $390,000 for the Jefferson Davis Highway (Rt 1) Improvements, $79,000 for Columbia Pike Improvements and $60,000 for the South Glebe Road improvements, any of which may include bike infrastructure. There's another $983,928 for Fairfax County Trail improvements in Great Falls. All of this money is now in play - and at the state level, and that may not be good. But, $558,000 earmarked to widen I-66 within the Beltway - something unlikely to happen for example - may become available and might find it's way into bike programs.

This is all kind of new and so it's impossible to know what will happen.  Virginia's DOT has been asked about it, but they aren't yet ready to answer.

At this time, [VDOT spokeswoman Tamara] Rollison was unable to say how Virginia's share may be spent, but she said she was working with a transportation program manager to determine how the state will proceed.

"Obviously, any bit of money is good news," she said. "It's good for us to be able to add to projects in the transportation network regardless of the amount. Sometimes small projects can do big things — there is always a call for that. But trying to build a tunnel or express lanes — it's not going to go too far. There are a an awful lot of needs out there, big and small."

Anyway, it may mean bike advocates have to refight for money they alread won. Or it could mean an opportunity to get more - if we're "shovel ready." We really won't know until October. 

Comments

[charlie]

why do I suspect that land acquisition is in Rosslyn next to the Mt. Vernon trail.

[Greenbelt]

I still can't believe they built a gazillion dollar super wide highway in MD and didn't build the complete parallel bikeway they promised. Would be even more upsetting if they're sitting on unspent funds for the purpose.

[T]

Maybe Maryland could use the money to expand the width of the Purple Line path under Air Rights Bldg/tunnel by Bethesda. I mean 5 feet across is not going to cut it.

I'm not sure I followed the post on MVT. My understanding was VA doesn't really spend any money on MVT of GWP because they're under NPS jurisdiction. Now if NPS had some unspent projects then perhaps we could convince them to build a bridge over the GWP area rather than continously moving the crosswalk. I mean that's just a death trap there. I hate crossing it.