Federal transit officials are urging agencies such as Metro to spend what’s remaining of their federal stimulus dollars — or risk losing the aid. More than $8 billion was allocated to transit agencies around the country as part of President Obama’s stimulus package in 2009, with Metro receiving nearly $202 million. The catch was that they needed to spend the money by Sept. 30, 2015.
Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff sent a letter to all major transit agencies warning them that there was “a large balance of undisbursed funds.” More than 70 percent of the obligated funds have been spent, according to the letter, but he urged agencies to “accelerate” the spending.
Metro is on track to have all of its share spent by the deadline, though, according to both the Federal Transit Administration and Metro.
“We have spent 86 percent, which is well ahead of the 70 percent for the national program cited in the administrator’s letter to grantees,” Metro spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox wrote in an email Wednesday.
All of Metro’s funds have been committed to 30 projects, including $16 million for repairing crumbling platforms, $27 million for replacement buses and $30 million to rebuild the Southeastern bus garage.
The agency had spent $173 million as of the end of September, Bowersox said. And it is slated to have spent $194 million by July, she added, which would get the agency to 96 percent of its total.
In 2009, Metro was the first local agency to present a detailed list of projects to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, with agency officials saying they were eager to jump on extra funds if any other agencies failed to use their money by the deadline.
For the financially challenged agency, the money represented a quick boost to its budget and the means to tackle part of a long list of maintenance repairs. It now says it has a $13.3 billion backlog of maintenance projects for the next decade, with nearly half that unfunded.
