Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Works

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Charles F. Soules, Director of Public Works
CC:	Diane Stoddard, Casey Toomay, Brandon McGuire, Mark Thiel
DATE:	March 4, 2015
RE:	Federal Fund Exchange

The City of Lawrence has historically received Federal Transportation Funds distributed to Kansas in an amount of approximately $1 million/year.  The city has used these federal funds on projects such as:

• Kasold – Clinton Parkway to 31^st street
• Iowa – Harvard to Irving Hill
• 23^rd & Iowa – Reconstruction
• Participation in SLT Multi-use Path from Louisiana to Iowa
• Participation in the 23^rd Street Bridge at Haskell

These projects had committed the availability of federal funds for the last few years.  The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has informed us that for FFY 2015 the city has $468,104.44 available federal funding (see attached letter and funds available chart).

KDOT has developed an “Exchange” program in which cities can exchange federal funds at ninety percent (90%) for state transportation funds.  For FFY 2015, that would provide the city $421,294.

State Funding has the advantages of:

• Can be used on any transportation need whereas the Federal Program must be used on arterial/collector streets.
• Federal projects come with a lot of “red tape” for both the city and contractor, which increases costs
• Federal projects are administered and bid by KDOT but the city is still responsible to fund.
• Federal projects are subject to Davis-Bacon Wage Rates.
• Federal projects take two (sometimes 3) full time inspectors on a single project.

The Exchange Program allows the city to develop the design, bid, administer, and construct the project on our schedule and provides the city more flexibility on the type of project we want to build.

Staff recommends proceeding to request KDOT develop the Exchange Agreement for FFY 2015.  The agreement will come back to the Commission for discussion and consideration.

Action

Authorize staff to request that KDOT develop the Exchange Agreement for FFY 2015.