Printable Version of this memo (.pdf, 0.5 mb)

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration

MEMORANDUM

Section 1121 of MAP-21 revised section 147 of title 23 U.S.C. from a discretionary program to create a new formula based program for the construction of ferry boat and ferry terminal facilities. Concurrently, MAP-21 also created a new passenger ferry discretionary program under the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The FTA is in the process of developing project eligibility and selection criteria for this new program. If there are any potential applicants for FTA's new ferry program in your State, please direct them to the information that will be available at http://www.fta.dot.gov/map21.

The FHWA Administrator has approved the first distribution of the FBP funds to eligible ferry boat operators based on the 2010 National Census of Ferry Operators. Please notify your State DOTs that these funds may be requested for allocation and obligation.

As a result of the continuing resolution, 48.77 percent of the funds for FY 2013 are being made available at this time. As these funds are subject to this year's 94.65 percent obligation limitation, we are now making $30,911,402 available for distribution.

The attached table (Attachment 1) shows the distribution of these initial funds by State and ferry boat operator. The funds may only be used by the specified operator in the amount identified. The operator may develop a project for a publicly owned or operated or majority publicly owned ferry boat or ferry terminal facility. If the operator is a private operation, they should work with the public entity that owns or operates the boat or facility to develop a project to meet Federal requirements. The available funding will be tracked on a website at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/specialfunding/.

The listed ferry boat operators were determined only to be preliminarily eligible for the program. Before obligating funds to any project, divisions must confirm that the ferry operator and the route meet the eligibility requirements provided in 23 U.S.C. 147 and 129(c) and described in the implementing guidance. Divisions should contact this office when they determine that a ferry boat operator is not eligible for the program. The funds identified for such operator will be redistributed to the remaining eligible operators based on the formula.

The MAP-21 program implementation guidance can be found at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/guidance/guidefbp.cfm. In addition, attached is the revised "Federal-aid Highway Funding of Ferry Boats and Ferry Terminal Facilities" (Attachment 2) (.pdf, 0.2 mb) which gives basic information about funding ferry boat projects with Federal-aid.

If a ferry operates between more than one State, the ferry operator may elect to transfer funds to the other State to implement a project on the related ferry facility. Funds may not be transferred among operators.

The maximum Federal share for a project in any State or Puerto Rico under this program is 80 percent. The maximum share in U.S. Territories is 100 percent. The sliding scale Federal share does not apply to this program. Other matching flexibilities such as donations and "soft match" may be considered. Guidance can be found at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/federal-aidessentials/catmod.cfm?id=13.

Please submit a request to this office to make the funds available in FMIS to the appropriate State when the project is ready to be obligated. The request should include the confirmation that the ferry operation is eligible, the operator for which funds are requested and the purpose for which the funds will be used.

These funds are available until expended but are subject to August redistribution. Therefore, any funds that will not be obligated by the end of FY 2013 must be returned to this office. The funds will be available for obligation again the following fiscal year.

Attachments (2)
Attachment 1
Attachment 2 (.pdf, 0.2 mb)