Under the existing New Starts program, once a sponsor has submitted a request to enter preliminary engineering, together with its project justification materials, FTA conducts an extensive evaluation to develop a "project justification rating." The evaluation includes a quantitative review of New Starts criteria, including an assessment of mobility improvements, environmental benefits, cost-effectiveness, and operating efficiencies for the project. Under the statute, the Secretary is authorized to approve grants or loans for fixed guideway capital projects if she finds that the project is justified based upon the evaluation and other specified factors.36 While the statute requires that the criteria be satisfied, it does not dictate how the evaluation should be conducted. FTA has an established process for conducting the evaluations to serve the statutory purpose of protecting the government by ensuring that the proposed project is justified on a quantitative basis.
Representatives of several of the agencies interviewed regarding certain transit PPP projects expressed concern that FTA's risk assessment requirements would foreclose the possibility of using PPPs for projects currently in the pipeline. One agency suggested that FTA should be willing to enter into the FFGA prior to completion of Final Design so long as the sponsor can prove to the Project Management Officer that the Federal risk has been minimized.
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36 49 USC 5309(e)(1)(A).