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MISSOURI DIVISION |
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEPTEMBER 2000 POST EARTHQUAKE HIGHWAY RESPONSE AND RECOVERY SEMINAR HELD IN ST. LOUIS MISSOURI
FUNDING THE RESPONSE & RECOVERY BY DWIGHT HORNE
MR. MOSELEY: Next is Dwight Horne who is the Director of the Office of Program Administration with the Federal Highway Administration in Washington D.C. Dwight has a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida in Gainsville. He's been with the FHWA for 29 years.
MR. HORNE: The office of Program Administration is a part of the Office of Infrastructure. Within the office of infrastructure, we also have the Offices of Bridge Technology, Pavement Technology, and Asset Management.
The FHWA Emergency Relief Program has gone into the big business cycle in recent times. We only kick in the emergency relief program in the Federal Highway Administration when there is a disaster. In 1989, we had less than $100 million that we were authorized for the emergency relief activities. We had a spike in FY 1994 almost up to $900 million. So over the course of the 1990s, we're averaging over three to $400 million a year for disasters.
I was told in the 1980s, the number was averaging somewhere around that hundred million dollar range.
We also have to keep track of how many eligible disasters we have each year. This number has been on the rise. In FY 1999, we had 30 eligible disasters. So far as of a couple weeks ago, we had ten for FY 2000. So we're getting off a little light this year.
Hurricanes are typically a source of a lot emergency relief activity. In the west I get a little concerned because heavy snows because of the melting and possible subsequent flooding especially when there is abnormally warm periods during the spring.
We typically talk about our activities under Title 23, Section 125 that is the emergency relief portion of the code. The emergency relief program is a special program that's created out of the highway trust fund and it comes off the top before the funds are distributed to the States. So in October, we immediately get our base money of $100 million to operate on for the year.
The purpose of this program is to repair and reconstruct damaged federal-aid eligible highways and roads including those on federal lands. In the program we assist the states and local jurisdictions in the repair or reconstruction of the damaged federal-aid highways. A federal-aid highway is one functionally classified as other than a local road or a rural minor collector. Damage may be caused by natural disasters or by catastrophic failure from external causes. We participate in costs that restore the roadways and bridges to their pre-disaster condition. The damage must be directly related to an eligible event that has a Governor's disaster proclamation and a request for a presidential declaration or the president, based on the magnitude of the disaster, has already made a declaration. The state has to apply for ER funding. It´s not automatic...f they don´t apply we don't volunteer to give it.
Functional classification, this is an example of a functional classification map showing the different classification of roads. The interstate system is normally considered to be a part of the primary system, and but for the purposes of functional class, it is a separate functional class. Some of the types of natural disasters, we have floods, we have the flood that you normally think of rainfall that has occurred, heavy flow, a dam has burst, heavy flow, but
We have some special situation floods that we have gotten involved in over the years. One is up in North Dakota called the Devil's Lake Basin. The water level started rising about ten years ago and has continued to do so. On some roads in the basin, we were involved in raising the grade to keep them above water. Recently we realized that we raised some of the roads so high that they have become unstable dams. We have curtailed our activities and have asked the Corps of Engineers for assistance in evaluating the stability of the roadbeds.
In hurricanes and tornadoes you typically you get wind and rain damage. Replacement or repair of signals and signs are eligible for ER if the program disaster conditions apply. Damage from earthquakes is also eligible for ER assistance. We have periods where we get landslides that take out sections of road. One of the last ones we had was in Idaho that was tough for the state to address alone. We also had one not long ago in the western part of North Carolina on I-40. The area of catastrophic failure is defined as having an external cause that is not attributable to gradual and progressive deterioration of the feature and not the result of an inherent flaw of the design. We typically think of barge hits on bridges as an external cause. Another example of an external cause is when a gasoline tanker hits, burns a bridge and does significant damage to the bridge. There was an unusual one in Minnesota where someone decided to destroy rest areas by burning down a series of them along the highway.
The purpose and intent of the ER program is to supplement the states and local resources in repairing damage resulting directly from the eligible events. It's not intended to pay for all of the repairs or relieve a jurisdiction from its maintenance responsibilities. You can't just let your facility deteriorate and expect ER to put it back in pristine condition. It doesn't replace other funding but it's a supplement to other funding. It's not for correcting non-disaster related deficiencies and it's not to add capacity to the system. For events to be eligible, there needs to be serious damage. In some cases, even in a presidential declared disaster, there may be wide widespread damage in an area but the actual damage to the road system is not very great so the ER program would not kick in. Further, the damage has to be beyond heavy maintenance and collectively all damaged sites have to exceed the repair and/or replacement threshold of $700,000. What that means is we typically look at the monetary magnitude of the damage. So once the accumulated repair costs start approaching the $700,000, we start thinking the event may become eligible ER funding and we apply that judiciously. Sometimes it doesn't have to be a minimum of $700,000.
We have also look at small federal-aid program states such as Delaware. We may not require a small state to reach the $700,000 threshold to declare it eligible for the ER program. We also have the territories in the Pacific and the Virgin Islands. We look at the threshold number a little differently for them than we do for the states.
The FHWA division administrator in each state has the authority for approving ER funding in a state. This was delegated a couple of years ago while we were restructuring. Before the approval can be given, the division administrator needs certain things such as the governor's proclamation, a request for a presidential proclamation, or a presidential declaration and a copy of the damage survey summary report where as appropriate. Often times these things are worked out in advance between the state DOT and the FHWA division administrator.
The request from the local governments must be submitted through the State DOT. The State DOT can combine all of the local government requests with its request and then submit one overall request to the FHWA. The combining all requests helps FHWA make one determination and also helps a state exceed the $700,000 qualifying threshold much quicker.
The funding for ER each year is $100 million out of the highway trust fund. It's a permanent authorization meaning that year after year after year we get $100 million set aside for disasters. However, we typically request and receive additional money over this amount through supplemental appropriations from congress. Further, we are limited to $100 million per event per state per year. So you could have a Hurricane Floyd event hits several states and each one state could be eligible for a $100 million for that particular disaster alone. The $100 million is also for those roads on public lands managed by the Forest Service, the Bureau of Labor Management, Indian reservations, or military reservations. For the territories (American Samoa, the Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam) there is $20 million cap per year.
During the past couple of years congress has not given us a supplemental appropriations so our backlog has reached $720 plus million. Were waiting for congress to decide how to address this. Recently, we almost got $600 million out of the military appropriations bill. When the bill went into conference for some reason the supplemental amount was dropped.
We´re keeping track of how much money we have approved or said is eligible for ER reimbursement so we can keep congress advised and informed how much we need to cover the states´ costs. Hopefully one day soon, we'll get additional funds for the emergency relief pot. On October 1, we´ll get another $100 million. With our $720 million backlog, $100 million doesn´t go very far.
The per-year cap is currently $100 million but congress can change it by legislation. The ceiling was raised for special events in the past. California has been the recipient of that a couple times.
The federal share within the first 180 days of a disaster the "emergency repairs" can be funded at 100 percent. Emergency repairs are defined as restoring essential traffic, minimizing the extent of damage to the facilities, and protecting the remaining portions of facilities from further damage. So items related to those things can be funded at 100 percent within first 180 days. For "permanent repairs" and for work completed after the first 180 days, there is a cost sharing. For the Interstate system that´s 90 percent. For all other federal-aid roadways it´s 80 percent.
For the federal share, we can use what we call a sliding scale. Sliding scale is available to those states that have a high percentage of lands in federal ownership. States in the west like Arizona and Nevada have a high percentage of federal lands compared to state land so they can get an increase above the 80 or 90 percent federal share. Roads that are on public lands get 100 percent Federal funding regardless if the work is classified as emergency or permanent work.
For permanent repairs, we have a provision that basically says that you use your current design standards for the replacement facility. We´ll allow that when you're making extensive repairs. Roadways are limited to the existing number of lanes so no capacity additions or changes in the type of surfacing. So you cannot improve the surface type at the expense of an ER declaration.
You can replace bridges with the current geometric and construction standards for the type and volume of traffic to be carried over its design life. We take a position that a new bridge should be more durable and more damage resistant and we would rather not see you modify a relative new substandard bridge paid for with ER funds to add capacity in a relatively short time afterwards.
Title 23 is one of our references. It gives us the ER program authority and responsibilities. The 23 CFR, Code of Federal Regulations is another reference. If you have some questions about the FHWA emergency relief program, you can contact the Division Office in your state or go to the FHWA public website at www.fhwa.dot.gov, to get an electronic copy of the Emergency Relief Manual. Look under FHWA Programs, Infrastructure, Office of Administration and the Emergency Relief Manual is listed there where you can click on it to get it.
I want to also thank Allen Masuda, the FHWA Missouri Division Office and MoDOT for this conference. I think it's been a great conference, great hospitality, and I'll come back again. Thank you.
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