BART Silicon Valley Phase 2 Advancing With $100MM FTA Pledge

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
The new $100 million funding allocation will go toward the $6.86 billion final phase of VTA's BART Silicon Valley project, which will extend operations 6.5 miles from downtown San José to Santa Clara.

The new $100 million funding allocation will go toward the $6.86 billion final phase of VTA's BART Silicon Valley project, which will extend operations 6.5 miles from downtown San José to Santa Clara.

California’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has been allocated $100 million from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for phase 2 of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley project. The $6.86 billion final phase will extend BART operations 6.5 miles from downtown San José to Santa Clara and include four new stations.

This is the second funding allocation to VTA under FTA’s Expedited Project Delivery (EPD) Pilot Program, which enables transit agencies to fast-track the federal funding process. VTA received a pledge of $125 million in August 2019. Both allocations are part of the $1.715 billion in total federal funds that VTA has requested through the pilot program to cover 25% of Phase 2 costs. State grants (totaling $911 million), transit-oriented development (P3; $75 million), Measure A sales tax ($1.95 billion), Measure B sales tax ($1.83 billion) and Regional Measure 3 ($375 million) are expected to cover 75% of the costs. VTA is the funding agency and will manage the delivery of Phase 2, while BART is system operator and maintainer.

The federal funding allocations will be awarded to VTA when the project has met all program requirements needed to proceed to a construction grant agreement, according to FTA.

Construction is expected to start in 2022 and wrap up in 2028. Systems testing, integration and safety certification are scheduled next, with Phase 2 opening in 2030. The project’s $2.3 billion first phase broke ground in 2012 and launched June 13, 2020

FTA’s discretionary pilot program encourages innovative partnerships and funding from a variety of sources, with the aim of speeding delivery of “new transit infrastructure projects that utilize public-private partnerships, are planned to be operated and maintained by employees of an existing public transportation provider, and have a federal share not exceeding 25% of the project cost.”

Tags: , , , ,