Federal State of Good Repair Program Awards $37.4 Million to CTA
Today the Chicago Transit Authority announced that it has been awarded funding from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for two infrastructure improvement projects. As part of the FTA’s State of Good Repair program, CTA was selected to receive $5.4 million for a bus asset management system and $32 million for a bus garage rehabilitation program.
“Although CTA has become quite skilled at doing a great deal with limited resources, we have not been able to invest in our fleet or facilities to the degree desired so this funding will be of great assistance,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez. “Repairing and improving the system we have is not always glamorous work, but it is vital, just as an efficient, reliable CTA is vital to the economy of this region.”
“There are a lot of transit systems competing for a limited amount of federal funding so it is important that the CTA be aggressive about pursuing every opportunity,” said Terry Peterson, Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board. “This year the CTA submitted 43 applications under these competitive grant programs and so far has been awarded grants totaling more than $50 million. That is money to invest in the CTA that we would not otherwise have received.”
The bus garage rehabilitation will focus on upgrades at CTA’s existing bus garages and bus heavy maintenance facilities. Improvements will be made to roofs, hoists, inspection pits, electrical systems and other elements.
The bus asset management system will focus on bus facility capital assets related to systems and equipment. Improvements will include migrating to a central database, performing an engineering condition assessment field study and developing a modeling tool using the data to prioritize investments.
These projects were selected on a competitive basis through a new transit initiative announced in May 2010 called the State of Good Repair Program. A completed grant application was submitted through the FTA Regional office.
# # #