Alltech, the Kentucky-based animal feed supplement company has filed for its design review permit at the City of Tulare to build their new complex near the Agricenter. The city planning commission will hear the design review application in late November to construct a 10,600 sq. ft. single story office, a 59,000 sq. ft. two-story warehouse, and a 50’ tall silo on an 8.45-acre parcel, includes associated on-site parking and landscaping. The office building will house sales, administration, and lab. The warehouse will include product storage, a blending operation, and a coating operation for livestock feed supplements. The facility will serve the natural food supplement needs of area agribusiness. The site is located on the west side of Laspina Street, south of Paige Avenue and zoned M-1 (Light Industrial).

City of Lemoore has more new home subdivisions builders this month. Planner Holly Smyth says besides Lennar,Paul Daley and Raven Homes the city has two new builders who have invested in new home subdivisions that include Woodside Homes and Wathen Castanos who pulled permits for 53 new homes, the most in three years.

On the industrial front the city is annexing 195 acres of industrial land into the city limits in the next few weeks.The property is located along Hwy 41 south of the city.

Also pending is a decision by the Board of Supervisor about a plan by  land owners to cut up some farm land into smaller parcels with home sites to make them more marketable  located north of Leprino West. Leprino is objecting.

City of Dinuba is preparing to demolish four Ave 416 buildings soon issuing permits to knock down an antique store, a home,a tile shop and a market building on the way to the widening of the busy road all the way to the city limits and on to the Kings River bridge.

Porterville: Tulare County is issuing  an EIR for the new proposed jail adjacent the new Porterville state funded courthouse The EIR says the county facility will house 514 prisoners and have a staff of 172. The project sits on 36 acres.

Fresno: Walmart has taken out a grading permit to build a new store at 6855 N. Willow – a partially built shopping center with a Walgreens and TMobil store.

The FoodsCo on Kings Canyon in Fresno in will get a new fueling station as more grocers get gas.
Selma: The community will get a 12,000 sf performing arts center being built by local builder Dwight Nelson valued at $800,000.
Mendota: Logolso Farms is building a new 12,000 sf packing facility  valued at near $400,000.The company grows grapes.

No Longer Town Divided With Three New Crossings

Tulare received some good news this month. The California Transportation Commission approved the city application for matching funds to build a new 2000ft pedestrian bridge across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that divides the town.The $6.8 million project that will begin design work in January will connect the two sections of the cross town Santa Fe Trail that dead ends now in midtown and will be the third major crossing of these busy tracks in Tulare.The projects are a major stimulus to the local economy.

With 20 freight  trains a day there can be a 25 minute delay for people trying to get from the west side of town to the east where virtually all the city services,health care, shopping and most businesses are.UP plan a double track soon as well.According to the city application,lack of a grade separation in the Downtown area has not only been a safety hazard, it has depressed prices in the poorer west side town, the proverbial ‘other side of the tracks.’

One grade crossing at Cartmill on the north end of town was just completed.In November the city will go out to bid on the Bardsely grade separation, a tunnel under the tracks that will carry cars and trucks through the busiest part of town.

Construction work on both the new Santa Fe Trail bridge and Bardsley underpass could be going on simultaneously in 2014 says city engineer Mike Whitlock. Construction of the Bardsley grade separation will begin in early 2013 and take 18 months while the pedestrian bridge will start in late 2013 and take a year. The wide spanning bridge will look similar to the Goshen pedestrian bridge over 99.

“The trail is heavily used by people walking and biking to work, to the Library or shopping, as well as for recreation.  The J Street over-crossing will give trail users a safe way to cross both a busy street and a busy rail line.” says city analyst Laurel Barton.
The Santa Fe Trail is planned to run 4.5miles through the city with about 2 miles of the paved walking and biking trail built out already. But users are stopped cold at, the town will be joined.The trail is planned to go well south of Tulare as well to join up with the Santa Fe trial in Visalia under construction right now in south Visalia.
Both cities acquired the right of way when the track was abandoned several decades ago.
Funding the bridge is the state allocation of $3.38 million in Prop 18 funds and $3.4 million in local, voter approved Measure R monies.
The city says the project will lead to increased safety,public convenience ,improved air quality and environmental justice  benefits that will help increase property values on the West side of town with improved access.
Boosting rail traffic  on the UP line is an expected  construction of a double track in part to access the old grain mill on the west aide town south of the new Bardsley under crossing.
Funding of the three new crossing in Tulare fills a great need says the city application with 16 miles between cross track grade separations currently. The city is also expecting more development on the west side of town so the crossing will help facilitate commerce and jobs for the community.

Coming just a few days before the big Presidential debate touched on the subject of US Navy ship strength,the news here is that the Navy is not just playing “battleship” but is offering a more flexible hybrid ship able to launch both rotary aircraft the the Joint Strike Fighter heading in the next few years to the West Coast. Local hope that West Coast  base is NAS Lemoore. An announcement is expected soon.The new assault ship will be based in San Diego.

The newest amphibious assault ship America (LHA 6) was christened Oct. 20 at a ceremony in Pascagoula, Miss.

“When America joins the fleet, we’ll be a stronger, more flexible, and a better Marine Corps team. We need this ship,” said Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson during the ceremony.

The 844-foot ship will be a flexible, multi-mission platform necessary to quickly respond to incidents worldwide and provide forward presence and project power as part of joint, interagency, and multinational maritime expeditionary forces.

America also marks the first of the Navy’s newest class of amphibious assault ships replacing the Tarawa class. It is considered to be the next generation “big-deck” amphibious ship. The new ship will be more capable to support current and future aircraft such as the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey and Joint Strike Fighter.

“It’s kind of like a mini-aircraft carrier,” said Lynne Pace, the ship’s sponsor prior to breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow.

As an amphibious ship, its mission will include embarking, transporting, controlling, inserting, sustaining and extracting elements of a marine air-ground task force, and support forces by helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft.

“To the crew, you are charged with a very special responsibility between now and the commissioning of this ship. You will set the standard of excellence. You will set the personality,” Ferguson told the ship’s crew.

This is the fourth ship in Navy history to be named America. The first was a 74-gun ship-of-of-the-line that was used by the Continental Navy that was then presented to the king of France as a gift in appreciation for his country’s support to the new nation. The preceding America was a Kitty-Hawk class aircraft carrier that played key roles between the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., laid the keel in July 2009 and plans to deliver the ship in 2013 after conducting a series of sea trials.

The USS America will be homeported in San Diego.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced a proposed rule to remove the Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle from the list of threatened species.
The delisting will be important to landowners, flood control agencies, and irrigation districts as well as municipalities and other agencies throughout the Central Valley as they will no longer be required to seek prior authorization for the incidental take of the once rare beetle.
The beetle depends upon the valley elderberry bush that  grows along streams, rivers, flood control channels and  irrigation ditches particularly in the Central Valley.  To insure the beetle survives these agencies must preserve the habitat for the beetle, the bush.
The federal notice said that at the listing in 1980, it was known from 10 occurrence records at 3 locations:Merced County, Sacramento County, and Yolo County. Currently, it is known from 201 occurrence records at 26 locations, including much of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys from Shasta County in the northern Sacramento Valley to Kern County in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The listing as endangered came after loss of  some 90% of the Valley’s original riparian habitat.
In 2010, the USFWS  received a petition from the Pacific Legal Foundation requesting that the Service remove the
valley elderberry longhorn beetle, which is currently listed as a threatened species under the Act, from the Federal
List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. In 2011, USFWS  published a 90- day finding on the petition, which
concluded that the petition contained substantial information that delisting the beetle may be warranted.
“Today’s announcement is good news for California’s economy, for property rights, and for honesty and integrity in environmental regulations,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff, “The beetle isn’t endangered or threatened, so heavy-handed restrictions on landowners and businesses aren’t needed in order to help the beetle.”
Finding some elderberry bush in their way has cost development projects in the region both time and money to mitigate a take of the species if a bush had to be removed.
The Porterville Recorder noted last week that “As a way to mitigate projects in Porterville, the city in 2008 created a safe haven for the insect’s habitat — a mitigation site, which requires the maintenance and monitoring of 58 elderberry trees.
Over the past decade the city has spent an excess of $500,000 on the site along the Tule River off of Highway 190 just west Avenue 274.
City Manager John Lollis said any action to delist the bush would be welcomed by the city.”
The public comment period on the proposed rule is scheduled to close on December 3, 2012.

More Signs Of Recovery: Tulare County’s unemployment rate dropped to 14.1%, the lowest since September 2008 before this “great recession” hit.The rate dropped from 15% in August 2012 and 15.4% in September 2011. By category,the biggest jump year over year is 300 more jobs in the local hospitality industry.

And Housing Stirs: Visalia home building permits for new single family homes are up 31% from the same time last year as a few home builders are busy. Home grown Mangano Homes is proposing to build the first new home subdivision in the city permitted in a couple years says planner Brandon Smith. The project, a 73 unit  subdivision called Tumblerose will heard by the Planning Commission Nov 13.The subdivision is located at Riggin and Linwood.

Retail Too: National home decor retailer Kirkwoods will open later this month in a 7000 sf building in line with Target at the Packwood Creek shopping center says the center’s developer Patrick Orosco. Tennessee-based Kirkwoods has 300 stores across the country. Orosco tells an interesting story.”We actually built this building four years ago for Kirkwoods but the downturn in the economy sunk the plans and Kirkwoods themselves went through a restructuring.Now they are back and its kind of emblematic of how the economy is recovering and amazing we had the same vacant building ready for them four years later.” Orosco says there are active tenant negotiations going on now for existing space left in the south Mooney center and says stay tuned for more.

Want to be in a real Hollywood movie? Here*s your chance.

Producers will hold a casting call for a feature film from 10a.m. *
noon this Saturday, October 19, at the Tulare County Library Main
branch, located at 200 W. Oak Street in Visalia. The casting call will
be held upstairs in the library*s *blue room.*

Written by Andrew Rothschild, directed by Andy Landen, and produced by
Ashleigh Phillips, Giles Andrew and Jessica Latham, the movie “Sequoia
National Park”  tells the story of 21-year-old Reilly MacGrady. She*s
like any other teenager, an angelic face obscured by various failed
attempts at severity: a nose ring, dyed black hair, heavy eyeliner.

She also has the requisite teenage contempt for her parents, though in
this case, not entirely misguided. Left unsupported in the face of
cancer, Reilly takes control and decides to take her own life in Sequoia
National Park, Reilly*s favorite place in the world and the place of
her last happy memory. On the way, she meets a boy, Ogden, who disrupts
her plan and her conviction to not stick around. Meanwhile, her
dysfunctional family races against the clock to reach her in time.

*Sequoia (the movie) is painfully funny and honest,* said Latham,
who will be in Visalia to hold a casting call for several acting roles
in the film and to finalize some last minute film locations details.
*It*s a story about life and love and how the very relationships
that tear us apart might also be the only thing that can save us.*

Director Andy Landen said the scenic beauty of Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Parks and the Sierra Nevada mountains made shooting this film
on location in Tulare County the logical creative choice.

*Not only is Sequoia National Park a gorgeous setting cinematically,
the park has an ethereal, magical feel to it,* Landen said.  *There
is an energy *a pulse amongst those giant trees. I can see why our
protagonist Reilly ultimately finds her salvation in Sequoia.*

Landen was born in a small town in the Canadian province of Ontario and
completed an MFA in directing at the University of Southern
California*s Film School.  While at film school, he won the
prestigious Coca-Cola Filmmakers Award, which saw his short shown in
over 30,000 movie theaters in the US. Landen loves to create visually
stunning, character driven films that blend drama with humor and speak
to the truth about life and beauty that can be found in all of its
awkward, sad and happy moments.

The film *Sequoia National Park* has already found a lot of local
support from the Tulare County Film Commission.

*We are interested in this production for several reasons,* said
Eric Coyne, Tulare County Film Commissioner. *While still considered a
fairly low-budget production, a significant amount of that money will be
spent here locally on lodging, meals and other supplies.

*This film also specifically calls out where it takes place, and
showcases Sequoia National Park, the community of Three Rivers, rural
Tulare County and Visalia.*

Currently the film is in its final stages of pre-production, and is
looking for a number of key essentials:

–       30-40 local actors, males and females between the ages of 18 to
70 from all walks of life, willing to be in the film and act as extras.

Producers plan to hold casting “auditions” from 10 a.m. * noon on
Saturday, October 20 at the Tulare County Library Main branch, located
at 200 W. Oak Street in Visalia. The casting call will be held upstairs
in the library*s *blue room.*

People interested in auditioning, but who either can*t come to this
Saturday*s casting call or don*t want to wait until then, can submit
a digital head shot and their resume by email to:
sequoiaextras@gmail.com

*The producers say they will consider people who are not formally
trained as actors to appear as extras in the film,* Coyne said.
*Just email a good picture of yourself, with name, address and
phone number, and a brief statement about why you want to be in the film
and why you think they should consider you for a role. This is a good
opportunity, because while extras will not be paid for appearing, I
understand they will be credited in the film. That doesn*t always
happen.*

August Hotel Occupancy Up In Visalia: South Valley tourism is looking up. Occupancy at Visalia metro area hotels was up 4.2% in August compared to the same month a year ago and Bakersfield was up 4.6% – while Fresno bucked the trend and was down 2.6% says Smith Travel Research. The latest numbers for Visalia are an improvement in the trend line year to date -down 1.1 in occupancy. But August, the biggest travel time of the year, saw the Visalia metro area with 71.9% occupancy compared to 69% in August 2011 and 5.7% more rooms sold.

Sierra Club Filing Lawsuit Against County General Plan: The Kern Kaweah chapter of the Sierra Club is filing a lawsuit Sept 28 says their attorney Babak Naficy, claiming that the County’s General Plan Update, adopted Aug 30, violates the requirements of California’s General Plan law and the California Environmental Quality Act. The advocate group Tulare County Citizens For Responsible Growth “recently made a $10,000 donation to support the Sierra Club’s Tulare County General Plan legal fund” the Three Rivers-based group wrote on their website.The organization supports directing growth into existing communities and protecting agricultural land and open space.

VWR Can Start Shipping From Visalia: Despite an appeals court ruling against the City of Visalia, the 500,000sf VWR International distribution center opposed by the Teamsters Union, can open their doors for business says city attorney Alex Peltzer. ”Our understanding  is that they are days away from a final OK by our building department for a certificate of occupancy” says Peltzer. They have a temporary certificate now, he says, and once the final is Ok’d, the pharmaceutical company could begin shipping product right away.While the Teamsters got a Fresno appeals court to agree to have a lawsuit reinstated in Tulare County Superior Court ,the union’s request to order an injunction on operations was thrown out. The company is closing several unionized facilities prompting the lawsuit claiming the city did not properly follow CEQA rules.The facility will employ 100.

California August Milk Production Falls 5.8%: Those hot August days helped reduce milk production in California in August by 5.8% compared to the same month in 2011 while across the US production fell 0.2% says USDA. The California reduction came despite the fact USDA said there were 10,000 more cows milking than a year ago, just opposite the conventional wisdom who said there was massive liquidation. The decline in production is welcome in that it appears to have improved prices. Cheese on the CME hit $2 this week, the highest level since July a year ago. That’s the best news of the year for hard hit dairy operators who have faced both sky-high feed costs and low milk prices for much of this year. Also, corn is down from $8.40 a bushel to $7.40 in the past month.

On September 25 the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a $75 million plan to relocate 512 low security inmates to a vacant correctional facility in Taft,in the southern San Joaquin Valley, cutting LA’s daily prisoner housing cost by more than half. The move comes as Los Angeles seeks to close its violence-plagued Men’s Central Jail and relocate up to 3000 inmates in several phases.

“We believe Coalinga is next in line” says that Fresno County community city manager Darrel Pyle, adding that Coalinga city staff is already in advanced discussions with LA County to accept another round of prisoners next year relocating up to 526 of them to the vacant Claremont Correctional Facility. The complex has been closed for more than a year after the city lost a Department of Corrections contract. That loss has had the city scrambling to find new inmates to  fill the place.

Also in line is the City of Delano Correctional Facility, says Pyle, with all three cities moving to forge a Joint Powers Authority to help manage costs.

The LA deal would bring some 98 jobs back to Coalinga – lost last summer as well as an estimated $11.5 million in economic activity estimates Pyle.

The backfilling of these vacant corrections’ facilities comes as local jurisdictions including Los Angeles have had to shoulder the burden of the court mandated transfer or release of thousands of prisoners that have impacted local jails that are now overflowing – including Fresno.

The state prison population peaked at 173,000 in 2006 but saw a gradual decrease to 163,000 in late 2010. Even so, California penal institutions were operating at 175% of their design capacity. Poor health care delivery prompted the U. S. Supreme Court to order the transfer or release of more than 30,000 prisoners within two years. Now,Governor Brown’s realignment of the criminal justice system has accelerated the prison population’s decrease.
In response to the Supreme Court mandate, California now sends many lower-level offenders to local custody instead of to state prison. Since the advent of realignment on October 1, 2011, the total in-custody prison population has fallen by 12%, from 161,000 to 141,000 at the end of February 2012.

If the pressure is on at local jails like LA and Fresno – some places like Coalinga and Avenal in western Kings County have seen a decline in city income because of the loss in state funding and correctional jobs.

Avenal city administrator Steve Sopp says in the past three years the state prison population in town has declined from 7500 to 4500 with losses to the city of revenue and jobs.

If the inmates are not in state prison they are now in overcrowded local jails with officials like Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer having to handle the spillover into the streets and an increase in crime.

This summer Fresno reported an increase of 50% in homicides with Dyer pointing in interviews to a failing criminal justice system and bad economy as contributing factors.

A recent news report said” The Fresno County jail’s door has swung open again. Just days after opening a new floor of the jail, the sheriff’s office has started releasing inmates again because the place is too full.”

Back in Coalinga, city manager Pyle says the city expects up front funding from LA County to upgrade the Coalinga facility to handle more inmates.

LA County has offered Taft nearly $500,000 at the outset of the contract to pay start-up expenses says Pyle.LA county is now paying $112.84 per day to house the inmates that will cost them $61 per day in Taft.

Curbing obesity among Mexican-heritage children in California’s Central Valley is the focus of a new center set to open its doors Thursday in the Fresno County town of Firebaugh.

Called “Ninos Sanos, Familia Sana” (Healthy Children, Health Family), the center is a collaborative effort of the University of California, Davis, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and local communities and organizations.

“Opening this center really gives us an opportunity to work with the community — to be there for children and families and show we are committed to promoting good nutrition and physical activity,” said Adela de la Torre, professor of Chicana/o studies and director of the Center for Transnational Health at UC Davis. “We want to help them learn the best approaches to preventing obesity now and in the long term.”

Part of a five-year, $4.8 million study aimed at identifying effective approaches to combating obesity, the center will address a problem that affects more than four in 10 children born to parents of Mexican heritage, putting them at greater risk of early diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Planning for the study, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began last year. The study will conclude in 2016.

During the study, 400 Firebaugh children and their families will receive practical tools, education and incentives to help them eat healthy diets and get sufficient exercise. Interventions will include:

• $25 monthly in vouchers for families to buy fruits and vegetables at participating markets;
• classroom instruction for children on nutrition and physical activity;
• 10 family education nights per year in which parents will learn how to select and use fresh ingredients to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their children; and
• twice-yearly health screenings to monitor weight, blood pressure, body-mass index, skinfold thickness and waist circumference.

At the same time, 400 children and families in the town of San Joaquin will receive:

• twice-yearly health screenings
• a series of forums designed to assist parents in supporting their children’s education

The San Joaquin community will also benefit from these outreach
activities:

• UC Davis will collaborate with area schools to enrich the science curriculum.
• A community mural project will depict the rich cultural heritage and history of the community. (The mural, painted on an outdoor wall of a community learning center in San Joaquin, will be unveiled on Sunday, Sept. 16).

At the study’s conclusion, de la Torre and her research colleagues will have data to show whether the food vouchers and health education programs tested in Firebaugh are effective, using San Joaquin as a control. San Joaquin families and schools will then receive much of the same intervention used in Firebaugh, with assistance from UC Cooperative Extension specialists.

Both Firebaugh and San Joaquin are located in Congressional District 20, an area with the nation’s lowest human development index, an international measurement of wellbeing based on longevity, standard of living and other factors.

“The irony here is that their parents may harvest vegetables in the fields — some of the richest agricultural land anywhere in the world — but their children rarely share in this bounty,” de la Torre said. “We need to provide better access to fresh vegetables and fruit in stores and teach these families how to prepare these foods in easy and convenient ways, to make these good foods part of their lives. That is what this program is about.”

An agricultural economist, de la Torre has studied Latino health issues in the U.S. and Mexico for more than 25 years.

Throughout the study, an advisory committee made up of school, community and parent representatives from each community will provide feedback on program strategies, approaches, concerns and solutions to the barriers that prevent children from maintaining healthy weights.

Participants include parents who have volunteered to have their families take part; grocery stores; health professionals (Sablan Medical Clinics); a nonprofit, community-based program of promotoras, or outreach workers (Proteus, Inc.); school teachers and administrators (Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District and Golden Plains Unified School District in San Joaquin).

Also participating are about 20 educational specialists, economists, nutritionists, psychologists, physicians, and graduate and undergraduate students from UC Davis and the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Lucia Kaiser, Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition and a co-investigator on the study, said:

“This project is an exciting opportunity for UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension to pull a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, nutritionists and other professionals to work in partnership with an underserved community to prevent a pressing health problem — childhood obesity.”

White House Press Release
WASHINGTON Sept 21,  Today, as part of his We Can’t Wait initiative, President Obama announced that two nationally and regionally significant surface transportation projects in California will be expedited to put Americans to work building a 21st century infrastructure and providing California with more transportation choices.  These projects will improve local and regional connectivity, providing for the safe and efficient movement of people, goods and services. Early, intensive coordination among agencies is expected to save up to 6 months on project schedules.
As part of a Presidential Executive Order issued in March of this year, the Office of Management and Budget is charged with overseeing a government-wide effort to make the permitting and review process for infrastructure projects more efficient and effective, saving time while driving better outcomes for local communities.  The Administration’s efforts to continuously add more transparency, accountability, and certainty into the permitting and review process will enable project developers and private investors to more efficiently modernize our nation’s infrastructure.   Additional expedited infrastructure projects will be announced in the coming weeks.
“Investments in infrastructure are putting people back to work in California by building and modernizing our transportation systems,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This is good news for the local economy, and it’s one more sign of President Obama’s commitment to help communities across the country move forward with these critical projects as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
California High Speed Rail – Central Valley Construction
State: California
Coordinating Agency: Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration
Target date for completing Federal permit and review decisions: October 2013
The Fresno to Bakersfield section of the California High Speed Train (HST) System extends approximately 114 miles in California’s Central Valley and is a portion of Phase 1 of the HST system.  Stations are planned at Fresno and Bakersfield, and a third Kings/Tulare Regional Station is being considered near Hanford.
The high-speed train project will support job creation in a region that is currently experiencing some of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Once operating, projections estimate 4,500 boardings daily in Fresno and 5,100 in Bakersfield, with travel time between Fresno and Bakersfield estimated at 37 minutes.
Early, intensive coordination for project environmental reviews has supported a project schedule that is projected to save up to 6 months, enabling the project to meet funding deadlines and an aggressive construction schedule.
San Francisco Downtown Ferry Terminal
State: California
Coordinating Agency: Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration
Target date for completing Federal permit and review decisions: July 2014
The Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal expansion project will improve waterside and landside facilities at the city’s busy Ferry Terminal.  The project, managed by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, will expedite boarding for more than 10,000 daily passengers, provide better access to jobs and entertainment centers downtown, and improve connections to area pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities.  Ferry Terminal improvements will also expand the region’s ability to provide vital transportation services in the event of an emergency.
The project is funded in part by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), which is using new project management tools to engage other Federal agencies in order to improve the efficiency of environmental reviews and to facilitate greater interagency collaboration in the process. These innovations, in addition to leveraging lessons learned from prior projects, are projected to shave several months off the project schedule.