BUILD Grant Update May 2021

 BUILD Grant Update-May 28, 2021

The City of Billings was awarded a BUILD Grant in September of 2020. To keep the City Council updated on activities and milestones, this update will be provided monthly. Information will be provided by the Public Corks Engineering Division, Planning Division and City Administration. To provide as much information on the BUILD grant process, staff has developed a website to house information. This website is still in development and information will be continually added as available, please check back for updated material. BUILD Grant.

• The draft agreement template has been received by the City. This agreement will be developed with input form the City and FHWA in the next few months. Note: The agreement cannot be submitted until the construction documents are ready. This means the City will need to complete the right-of-way purchase, environmental documents and final construction documents before the agreement is sent to Federal Highways (FHWA) for its review. It is anticipated that the FHWA review and signing could take up to 6-months.  This tentatively puts an executed agreement to April 2022, however, staff is doing everything possible to expedite and agreement. Once the city received the executed agreement, the project can be bid. These tentative dates do not take in account the potential for some back and forth between the city and FHWA on the final agreement.
• There are four active Engineering items occurring.
  • The city received the appraisals from Mr. Repac and is contracting with a second appraiser for the review appraisal required by right-of-way procurement procedures. 
  • The NEPA scope of work was contracted with the consultant and is underway. The field biological resources field work will be performed the week of May 25. The indirect/cumulative effects analysis is approximately 50% complete and the noise determination memo is 100% complete. 
  • A cultural resources report update was required as part of the NEPA process and the City engaged Ethnoscience to complete that work. Ethnoscience will be conducting the filed review in the next two weeks with the report delivered shortly thereafter. 
  • As  the remaining geotechnical work and final design of the Skyline Trail are now  part of the Build grant, the City will select the consultant the following week. The consultant agreement will be placed on the city council agenda June 14 for approval. We anticipate completing the additional geotechnical work requested and final design of the Skyline Trail in the next two months.
  • Planning continues to work on setting up the numerous progress reports that will be required FHWA to administer the grant.
  • Save the Date: June 15, 2021 at 12pm - The official kickoff/press release of the project is scheduled for the above date and time. Staff will be coordinating between FHWA, Congressional delegation, and Mayor/Council for the event timing. 

Next steps: Continue initial review of the agreement, continue right-of-way procurement and environmental work. Staff will continue with regular meetings and correspondence with out FHWA representative. Finalize public announcement and press event. BUILD website will be continually updated with information as it is available.