fta-2012-004-tpm-sgr-synopsis-and-instructions.doc

FTA-2012-004-TPM-SGR

PROGRAM APPLICATION INSTRUCTION/OPPORTUNITY SYNOPSIS

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

Section 5309 Bus and Bus Facilities Program Funds: State of Good Repair (SGR) Initiative ACTION: Notice of Funding Availability for FTA Section 5309 Bus and Bus Facilities Program Funds, State of Good Repair Initiative: Solicitation of Project Proposals

FTA will announce final allocations on the FTA website and to subscribers of Section 5309 program update emails at http://www.fta.dot.gov/sgr. Applications must be submitted electronically through the GRANTS.GOV “APPLY” function.

DATES:

Complete proposals for the State of Good Repair program must be submitted by 11:59 pm EDT on March 22, 2012. All proposals must be submitted electronically through the GRANTS.GOV APPLY function. Any agency intending to apply should initiate the process of registering on the GRANTS.GOV site immediately to ensure completion of registration before the submission deadline. Instructions for applying can be found on FTA’s website at http://fta.dot.gov/sgr and in the “FIND” module of GRANTS.GOV.

Award Information:

Improving and maintaining America’s buses and bus facilities in a good physical condition so that they can successfully accomplish their performance objectives is a key strategic goal of DOT and FTA. Subject to the availability of funds, FTA will make available approximately $650 million to improve of the condition of transit capital assets by providing financial assistance for recapitalization of buses and bus facilities. As part of the program, FTA will prioritize the replacement and rehabilitation of intermodal facilities that support the connection of bus service with multiple modes of transportation, including but not limited to: rail, ferry, intercity bus and private transportation providers. In order to be eligible for funding, intermodal facilities must have adjacent connectivity with bus service. In addition, FTA will prioritize funding for the development and implementation of new, or improvement of existing, transit asset management systems. Public transportation asset management means a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improving physical assets with a focus on both engineering and economic analysis to identify a structured sequence of maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum possible cost.

Eligible Applicants:

“Direct Recipients” within the meaning of FTA’s Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula program, States, or Indian Tribes are eligible to submit proposals for this initiative. Proposals for funding eligible projects in rural (nonurbanized) areas must be submitted as part of a consolidated State proposal with the exception of nonurbanized projects to Federally recognized Tribes. States and Direct Recipients may also submit consolidated proposals for projects in urbanized areas. Proposals shall contain projects to be implemented by the Recipient or its sub-recipients. Eligible sub-recipients include public agencies, private non-profit organizations, and private providers engaged in public transportation.

Eligible Projects:

Projects eligible for funding under the SGR Bus initiative are capital projects. Eligible projects include, but are not limited to, the purchase, replacement, or rehabilitation of, buses and vans and related equipment (including Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), fare equipment, and communication devices that are compliant with the FCC’s mandatory narrow-banding requirements); replacement or the modernization of bus maintenance and revenue service (passenger) facilities; replacement or modernization of intermodal facilities; and the development and implementation of transit asset management systems. This year, FTA will also consider expansion requests for bus maintenance facilities and/or new equipment requests to the extent the expansion or equipment is necessary to address current capacity constraints that are limiting the agency’s ability to maintain vehicles and equipment in a state of good repair. All proposals must address the objectives identified in the Program Purpose subsection above.

Funds made available under this initiative may not be used to fund operating expenses, preventive maintenance, or any other expanded capital eligibility items (for example, security drills, debt service reserve, mobility management). Funds also may not be used to reimburse projects that have incurred previous expenses absent evidence that FTA issued a Letter of No Prejudice (LONP) for the project before the costs were incurred.

Instructions:

Project proposals must consist of two files: (1) the SF 424 Mandatory form (downloaded from GRANTS.GOV) and (2) the supplemental form. Proposer must use the correct supplemental form and attach it to their submission in GRANTS.GOV to successfully complete the application process. A proposal submission may contain additional supporting documentation as attachments. Mail and fax submissions will not be accepted.

Applicants should receive three e-mail messages from GRANTS.GOV: (1) confirmation of successful transmission to GRANTS.GOV, (2) confirmation of successful validation by GRANTS.GOV and (3) confirmation of successful validation by FTA. If confirmations of successful validation are not received and a notice of failed validation or incomplete materials is received, the applicant must address the reason for the failed validation, as described in the notice, and resubmit before the submission deadline. If making a resubmission for any reason, include all original attachments regardless of which attachments were updated and check the box on the supplemental form indicating this is a resubmission.

Applicants are instructed to initiate the process of registering on Grants.gov immediately to ensure completion of registration prior to the deadline for submission. Please note that the registration process can take a minimum of three to five business days, or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely manner.

The instructions below specify how to respond to the fields on the mandatory supplemental form, which can be found on Grants.gov under this announcement.

Submitting an Application in Grants.gov

In the following screenshots, the asterisk and arrow are your visual indicators of where to click based on the instructions above the screenshot.

On the Grants.gov home page, click the Find Grant Opportunities link on the left hand navigation menu

The Find Grants Opportunity screen is displayed. You can search for grant opportunities by clicking on the Basic Search link (arrow) or the Browse by Agency link (asterisk).

If doing a Basic Search enter a keyword(s), a Funding Opportunity number or a CFDA number then click Search. In this situation, we recommend using “FTA-2012” as the Search term

The Search Results page is displayed. All the available opportunities are displayed. Note: You may see more funding opportunities as they become available. Using other search terms may result in opportunity announcements that do not belong to FTA.

To view an opportunity synopsis, click on the name link from the Opportunity Title column shown above.

The “Synopsis” page displays details about the opportunity. To apply for this opportunity applicants are encouraged to first download and complete the Applicant and Proposal Profile form. To download the application package, click the Application link at the top right corner of the Synopsis page to download the Grants.gov mandatory form.

The Selected Grant Applications for Download screen is opened in a new window browser. In the table at the end of the page (shown below), click the download link located in the Instructions and Application column.

Clicking the download link, as shown above, will open and display the Download Opportunity Instructions and Application screen. To download the SF424 application click link number 2. Download Application Package.

The Grants.gov Application package downloads an SF-424 which opens as a PDF file.

In the two blue boxes below the Application Filing Name, you must move the SF424 Mandatory Form and the Attachments from the “Mandatory Documents” to the “Mandatory Documents for Submission.” To move the forms, simply highlight each of the forms, then click the Move Form to Complete button (see the arrows).

The Attachments Form you just moved over to the Mandatory Documents for Submission box is located at the end of the SF424. You MUST attach the corresponding Supplemental Form (a.k.a. applicant profile) or your proposal will not be accepted by FTA. For example, if you are applying for a Grant Opportunity for Clean Fuels Program, you must attach the Clean Fuels Program Supplemental form in the Attachments Form section of the SF424. If you do not attach the correct Supplemental form, FTA will mark your submission as invalid and your proposal will not be reviewed by FTA.

In most instances applicants will be submitting two forms: the SF424 Mandatory form required by Grants.gov and attaching the FTA Applicant and Proposal Profile (a.k.a. supplemental form) that will be attached to the SF424 Mandatory form as shown above.

If the supplemental form is not attached or a wrong form is attached, your application may be rejected.

Please save all completed documents to a local drive before attempting to upload or submit the application in Grants.gov. If the “Save & Submit” button is not available, first save the completed SF 424 Mandatory form. Once saved, then you may attach the Applicant and Proposal Profile form.

Click the “Check Package for Errors” button to check for required fields that are still blank. The FTA Applicant and Proposal Profile has a similar validation button at the top.

Important tips about Supplemental Forms

· Only attach one supplemental form to the SF424. Submitting more than one supplemental form to an SF424 will only accept the first supplemental form in FTA’s evaluation system (Discretionary Grants System).

· Do not print and attach a scanned version of the supplemental form or your submission will come back as invalid. The Discretionary Grants System (DGS) tool is unable to read the data unless it is saved as a PDF file.

· When attaching files to the SF424 form, file names are allowed a maximum of 50 characters in Grants.gov. Special characters are not allowed.

· All fields on a supplemental form must be filled out, unless instructed otherwise. Leaving fields blank will mark your submission as invalid.

· Use the Validate Form button located at the top right hand corner of the supplemental form to make sure no required fields were left blank.

Download the Applicable Supplemental Form

· Please ensure you download and use appropriate Supplemental Form for the opportunity you are applying for. Forms can be downloaded from Grants.gov and from the FTA website. The following table provides links to supplemental forms and program information on the FTA Public Website:

Bus & Bus Facilities: http://www.fta.dot.gov/grants/13094_3557.html