The Federal Transit Administration has made a commitment to grant the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) more than $5bn for the final phase of the Silicon Valley BART Extension project.
“This is very big news, not just for VTA, not just for the project, but for the entire community, the entire valley, the entire Bay Area region,” said Carolyn Gonot, VTA’s General Manager/CEO.
In a press conference to announce the news Friday, August 2, Gonot described the letter the FTA sent as notification of the funding commitment.
“It talked about their belief that VTA has the ability to deliver this $12.7bn dollar project. Not every agency gets that letter,” she said to a cheering response of those in attendance who support the project.
VTA Board Chair and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez offered a special thank you to the Biden-Harris Administration. “This is the second largest investment that the federal government has made in any single transportation project in the country’s history,” said Chavez.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, also a VTA Board Member called the funding commitment a national bet on Silicon Valley, and the innovation economy. “It’s the people of Sant Clara County who got us to this point and enabled us to go secure this historic federal match, because time and time again when our community leaders went out there an asked our community, are you willing to tax yourselves, sacrifice for future generations for our economic growth and prosperity and opportunity for all, our community said yes over and over and over again.”
Despite the historic commitment to funding, the BART Silicon Valley Extension still must fill a gap in funding, which staff will begin immediate work to identify. For a 60-day period VTA will freeze new spending, and the agency plans to renegotiate existing contracts to help cover the shortfall.
“It was critical for us to get the federal government’s commitment,” said VTA’s Chief Megaprojects Officer, Tom Maguire, “because now we know what we have to solve for. San Jose is going to get $5bn dollars. That’s great news,” he said.
Chavez, Gonot and Mahan were joined at the news conference by California Transportation Commission Chair Carl Guardino, State Senator Dave Cortese and South Bay Labor Council Executive Officer Jean Cohen who touted the importance of this funding commitment to the 75-thousand jobs the project is expected to create, most of which will be union jobs.
VTA must now work to fill the funding gap before applying for the Full Funding Grant Agreement with the FTA.
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