 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration |
MEMORANDUM |
| Subject: | Action: Canceled: Ferry Boat Program (FBP) FY2015 Full Year Distribution of Funds [CFDA No. 20.205] |
Date: | November 30, 2016 |
| From: | /s/ Original signed by: Gregory Murrill Acting Director, Office of Program Administration |
Reply to Attn. of: | HIPA-10 |
| To: | Division Administrators | ||
Section 1121 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) revised Section 147 of Title 23 U.S.C. to create a new formula based program for the construction of ferry boat and ferry terminal facilities. Under MAP-21, FBP funds are distributed to eligible entities based on the number of passengers carried, vehicles carried, and total route miles.
The Federal Highway Administrator has approved the full year distribution of FBP funds for fiscal year 2015 to ferry boat operators that have been determined to be preliminarily eligible based on the 2010 National Census of Ferry Operators. Please notify your State DOT that they may now request allocation of these funds for projects that are ready to be authorized.
The obligation authority of the authorized funds is limited to 94.3% for FY 2015. Under the provisions of Section 1102(f) of MAP-21, Redistribution of Certain Authorized Funds, only the amount of funds for which obligation limitation is provided will be made available and the remaining funds will be distributed to the States. As a result, $63,181,000 in FBP funds is available for FY 2015.
The attached table (Attachment 1) shows the distribution of funds by State and ferry service. The funds may only be used by the specified ferry service in the amount identified. The ferry service may develop a project for a publicly owned or operated or majority publicly owned ferry boat or ferry terminal facility. If the service is a private operation that demonstrates they are under the control of a public entity, 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 posted at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/specialfunding/fbp/.
The listed ferry services are determined only to be preliminarily eligible for the FBP program based on the 2010 National Census of Ferry Operators and on reviews by divisions and State DOTs. When requesting an allocation of funds, divisions must confirm that they have reviewed the ferry service and have determined that the operator and the route meet eligibility requirements in 23 U.S.C. 147 and 129(c) and described in the MAP-21 implementing guidance at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/guidance/guidefbp.cfm. Divisions should contact this office if they determine that a ferry service is not eligible for the program. The funds identified for such service will be redistributed to the remaining eligible services based on the statutory formula.
If a ferry operates between more than one State, the ferry service may elect to transfer funds to the appropriate State to implement an eligible project on the ferry system. 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%. The maximum share in U.S. Territories is 100%. 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 https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/federal-aidessentials/catmod.cfm?id=13.
When a project is ready to be obligated and the division has confirmed that the ferry service and project are eligible, please submit an allocation request to this office to make the funds available in FMIS. The request should identify the operator and the purpose for which the funds will be used and include confirmation that the ferry operation is eligible.
These funds are available to eligible entities for three fiscal years following the fiscal year in which the funds were initially made available for allocation. FBP funds from FY 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 that remain unobligated on September 30, 2019 will be withdrawn and redistributed in FY 2020 to eligible entities from which no funds were withdrawn.
FBP funds are subject to the annual August Redistribution of Obligation Limitation.
If there are any questions and for allocation of funds, please contact Joseph Taylor at Joseph.Taylor@dot.gov or (410)779-7146.
cc:
HIPA-1 (Murrill) HIPA-10 (Kleskovic; Bartz; Taylor) HIF (Lawndy)
HIPA Official Mailbox
Division Administrators
HPLS (Arnade), HPLS (Steinhoff)