Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
Planning • Environment • Real Estate
| SUBJECT: | Information: Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program |
| FROM: | James Shrouds, Director, Office of Natural Environment Susan Borinsky, Director, Office of Human and Natural Environment |
| TO: | Division Administrators Federal Lands Highway Division Engineers Federal Transit Regional Administrators |
| DATE: | September 19, 2002 |
Attached is a summary of eighth-year activities that were funded under the CMAQ program in fiscal year (FY) 1999. This report was developed by the Office of Natural Environment in consultation with the FTA. The following report summarizes FHWA's review and analysis of CMAQ information and data collected from all 50 States plus the District of Columbia. Major findings include:
The nationwide obligation rate of CMAQ funds rose to 75.5 percent, up from 59.9 percent in FY 1998. There was a substantial increase in dollars obligated from $683 million to $1.14 billion, or 67.5 percent, to a level never before reached by the CMAQ program. That this record level of obligations did not result in a higher obligation rate is due to the large increase in funds available for obligation under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).
The percentage of CMAQ funds obligated for transit was higher than that of any other category in FY 1999. The total CMAQ funds obligated toward transit accounted for 51.6 percent of the total amount of funds obligated nationwide, a 70 percent increase in CMAQ share from FY 1998 (from 30.1 percent to 51.6 percent). Traffic flow improvement projects were the second largest category at 23.3 percent, a 50 percent decrease in CMAQ share from FY 1998.
For all other CMAQ funding categories, funding levels increased showing an 80 percent increase in dollars obligated. Due to the large increase in transit obligations, the overall obligation shares for these categories decreased to 29.0 percent in FY 1999, compared to 34.8 percent in FY 1998. There were 15 experimental pilot projects reported in FY 1999, compared to two in the FY 1998 CMAQ annual report. In addition, the FY 1999 report include four public/private partnership projects. The FY 1999 report is the first to list projects under the public/private partnership category.
In FY 1999, approximately 72 percent of CMAQ funded proposals reported emissions benefits. Of these, 653 proposals out of a total of 1045 (62 percent) submitted had performed a quantitative analysis for volatile organic compounds, a precursor to ozone, to demonstrate emission benefits. This is up from 59 percent in FY 1998 and slightly down from 65 percent in FY 1997.
Also, in FY 1999, approximately 575 of the funded proposals (55 percent) had performed a quantitative analysis for nitrogen oxides, 345 of the funded proposals (33 percent) had performed a quantitative analysis for carbon monoxide, and 52 of the funded proposals (5 percent) had performed a quantitative analysis for PM-10.
The Fiscal Management Information System data used by FHWA in tracking Federal-aid obligations by State compare very favorably (within 1 percent accuracy) with the total cumulative obligations reported by States in their CMAQ annual reports for FY 1999.
Copies of this report have been distributed to all FTA regional offices and FHWA resource centers, and to each of the FHWA division offices. We ask your assistance in further disseminating this report to other interested parties including metropolitan planning organizations, and other interested parties upon request.
cc: Directors of Field Services
