e e e e m test m test n test e e e e e e e e for e for [Music] for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for for for for e e e e for e e e e e e e e e for e e e for e e e for e e e e for e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e added the appendix D to our current tip as a mechanism to satisfy a requirement for projects in years that are outside the tip but are currently undergoing environmental clearance to satisfy a requirement that their project is contained in a current tip or mentioned in a current tip even when they are outside the four years covered by that document so we have it in the 23 to 26 tip and it's Al we also have it we will have it in the 25 to 28 tip as well so the tiarra EST project is outside of years 2023 to 2026 but it's it's undergoing its Environmental clearance so it's listed in appendix D and this was broken into phases there was a 20 2027 phase and a 2028 phase but the entire Project's going to be constructed in 2027 thus the two phases needed to be combined and the year needed to be listed as 2027 and so that is the purpose of this amendment motion second in favor opposed all right item 10 consider supporting New Mexico Transportation project fund ppf fiscal year 2025 project applications and guess who's presenting and Dante again hello again so this is a project call for the state of New Mexico um we received four submittals one from the city of Anthony one from City of Sunland Park and two from Dona Ana County um the ones from the cities both involved uh Street reconstructions and the two from the county were both for multi-use Trails now for this one uh we are recommending that we advance all of the project to uh to NM dos consideration so I think we we did this in the past as well um the Mexico DOT was asking us to to rank them but we decided not to to do that instead given that it's a relatively small number of applications and all our good projects send them all in to to give all these a better chance of competing questions Mo Move Motion second second uh any opposed any all right uh moving on to item number 11 uh both items 11 and 12 are are related to uh the downtown 10 project but we're going to start with 11 which is consider approval of the tch. El Paso District Mobility projects funding proposal for inclusion in the fiscal year 2025 unified Transportation program um theas is going to the master is going to be uh presenting this but just let me briefly state that this is something that we have done in the LA the last couple of years which is um come to to the policy board with a a proposal this is we're not amending our documents yet this is a proposal that we are submitting to Tex Administration and the Texas Transportation Commission to move some funds around so that we can provide more local skin in the game to downtown 10 it's a little more complicated this time but I think it's a really really good proposal and and Tomas will start with the with the details on that ceration the presentation all right so so uh let's talk about the uh 2025 UTP so so in order to do that uh we kind of need to revisit uh one of our ongoing construction projects um so that does impact uh what we offered in 24 and uh what we're offering in 25 so uh Montana phase one is ongoing it um starts at Global reach and goes just east of loop 375 next slide please uh the project was led in 2018 construction started in um 2019 and um as you can see there it had uh construction of the main Lanes three overpasses at one at Le trino one at Worster and one at George Deer uh and then they had two underpasses one at s Kleinfeld and uh one underneath Loop 375 and that's uh that's where we started encountering some constructibility issues so next slide please issues so this is the layout of the underpass at so Kleinfeld uh these are the uh retaining walls on the main lanes are what we call retaining walls 31 and 32 next slide so early on in the uh construction uh while we were laying some storm drain and a number of other things that required us to dig below natural ground uh we started noticing some uh differing sight conditions uh we were able to mitigate through this and still continue construction uh next slide please and this is a small video of what exactly we encountered as as a video uh Ron you'll see that as the excavator digs through the top layer of natural ground uh the the underlying soil beneath it just uh collapses into the hole so uh this is a uniform uh fine sand and uh commonly known as sugar Sands so uh again we were a able to mitigate a lot of the a lot of these issues during uh during our storm drain uh placement however uh retaining walls 31 and 32 required next uh next video please and there's a you can go to the next one so as you can see uh the underlying soil right below uh natural ground uh does not maintain a vertical face and it collapses once it's exposed once it loses confinement it sloughs off uh into the actual excavation area next slide next slide so again this uh this was uh very impactful on uh the S climf underpass next slide and then we we knew we were going to have the same issues at walls 35 and 36 which go under under Loop 375 next slide again so um we uh we tried several different methodologies to mitigate some of the issues we were encountering at walls 31 and 36 uh we had already cast all the pre-cast panels for the retaining walls we had purchased all the nails in advance uh so we tried uh longer Nails we tried bigger Nails we tried changing the angle of inclination and we tried a number of other things just to keep the retaining wall as a soil nail wall next slide uh we we tried constructing it uh with standard construction methodology just as the plans call for uh and as you can see the uh the face of the wall there is is not vertical there's several pockets of of area that had already collapsed uh even uh with them being mindful of the collapsing Sands and and trying to mitigate that by being uh by hurrying up and before they before they so the process here is excavate put the wire mesh down and then and then shot creete it with concrete and then drive the nails through that so that uh you keep that vertical face unfortunately uh we we couldn't do it with the because of the Sands and again next slide these are just some of the uh construction issues and construction photographs of uh different processes that we tried next one and uh uh some of the testing that we did to see if the if the nails that were placed had had the pull out strength they needed next slide unfortunately uh we weren't getting the pull out strength that the plans call for so uh we had to rethink our process as you can see that nail there is not uh fully encased in in grout and uh therefore didn't have the pull out strength next slide while all this was going on we were doing site investigations uh along walls 31 and 32 uh to kind of get a better handle as to what we were dealing with and these are some of the layouts next slide uh showing the pockets of this Sugar Sand it was in a uniform layer it varied throughout the project uh but uh but it wasn't something that uh that we had call for in the play as next slide please so we did we did realize that through our investigation that the sugar Sands were a lot more prevalent in WS 35 and 36 and we were dealing with in walls 31 and 32 and uh therefore we uh again we were dealing with 31 and 32 at the minute at the time so next slide and next slide okay so so this is uh this is where we uh ended up engineering so so in order to keep a vertical face and keep that Sugar Sand confined we designed a what we call a vertical grout curtain wall and this caused for 6in diameter holes to be placed uh basically basically right next to each other other with an offset uh and then every other hole to have a rebar a number four rebar placed through the center of it this would allow us to uh excavate a vertical face keep those sugar stands confined and then drive our nails through that grout wall next slide next one so this is the current state of construction uh the grout wall is going up right now and as you can see the contractor has placed his first set of nails and all all by keeping that vertical face next slide so that brings us to walls 35 and 36 uh this is the uh the retaining walls underneath Loop 375 and as you can tell by this rendering uh these are uh a lot more intricate uh and a lot higher in the uh frage road traffic is immediately adjacent to the retaining wall next slide so again we we went back since we were dealing with a higher concentration of sugar Sands in this area and we redesigned this retaining wall uh totally different than we did retaining walls 31 and 32 uh one of the reasons we did that is because none of the materials for walls 35 and 36 had been purchased yet none of them had been casted so uh we had the opportunity to redesign the wall entirely next slide and next slide so so uh this is what we came up with we came up with a drill shaft cable tieback wall system uh very very Stout and again since we had traffic immediately adjacent to the retaining wall we felt it was in our best interest to uh go with the A system that allowed us to uh ensure that the Sugar Sand issue would be a nonissue uh once we started construction of walls 35 and 36 next slide and again just some of the construction details uh for the retaining wall next slide next slide so uh so what does that mean so so in order to to totally res scope the retaining wall issue uh it cons it uh required a substantial change order in the amount of $42 million okay um knowing that uh we uh we had made provision we had made Provisions uh locally to fund this uh through through our own internal dollars uh here at the district however in uh 2024 the uh the 2024 UTP established what they call a category 11 uh Coco category of funding which is stands for category 11 cost overruns and change order funding and the reason they had done this is to try and keep our annual lettings intact uh seeing the fact that we had seen a a dramatic escalation in prices uh this this category of funding would allow the uh commission and the agency to maintain our project leadings uh intact if if projects were to come in over the estimated budget or if we had considerable change orders that we needed to mitigate and so we went in front of the C 11 Coco committee a couple months ago uh presented our case for these differing site conditions and we were fortunate enough to secure the $42 million uh from the C 11 Coco committee so with that said it actually gets us to uh the 2025 UTP funding so along with the considerable cost comes comes a considerable delay in construction uh the walls for 35 and 36 uh pushed the project scheduled completion to Spring of 2027 uh and we currently had Montana Phase 2 schedule for 2026 so the thought was that uh we move back Montana Phase 2 uh to run concurrently with Montana or run sequentially with Montana Phase 1 so so we were not anticipating letting Montana Phase 2 to the completion of Montana Phase 1 so that'll probably be align with more of a summer 2027 project leting or maybe even September 1st uh or September 20127 leting which which is fiscal year our fiscal year 2028 uh just so that uh just so that we can make sure that we complete Montana phase one okay so with that said next slide so what does that do to the 2025 UTP next slide next slide so the thought was uh we currently have 131 million on Montana Phase 2 uh and you can see the uh breakdown there next Slide the thought was to use that money on Borderland Express Phase 2 uh which goes from Railroad Avenue to the New Mexico State Line uh to New Mexico 213 uh which is scheduled for a 2025 leting uh so the 131 with anticipated another $27 million that we have uh coming up in this next UTP puts us uh where we need to be next slide please to completely fund um Borderland Express Phase 2 So currently on Borderland Express Phase 2 the construction estimate is about 159 million we are at 60% PS design we'll be at 95% in July of this year uh with the whole project length is uh to environmentally cleared it was cleared in 2023 uh rway com uh it's supposed to we're in line to acquire the rideway we need by by the Fall 2024 uh thus allowing us to clear utilities by the spring of 2025 so uh the plan is to move Montana phase $2 doll to Borderland Express Phase 2 and fund that in its entirety in this next UTP cycle and led it uh in a April 2025 okay next slide and again some renderings of Montana fa uh Borderland Express phase two next slide so so that gets us to downtown 10 So currently on downtown 10 uh we are at 60% schematic design um we're anticipating environmental clearance at the end of 2024 we currently have 388 million and the current estimate is sitting at 750 million but those are preco dollars so uh we have seen about a 25% to 30% escalation in prices since since this estimate was initially done so uh we believe it's going to be above that how much above depends on the preferred alternativ that's selected next slide again the funding breakdown that we're currently at on downtown 10 next slide so the proposal this year is to since we are able to move forward uh the proposal this year is to again put the 39 million uh in category 4 youu and 60 million in Category 2 uh for a proposed submitt of 100 million and then a request of 100 million from the uh from the commission to get us up to 588 million next slide now again this is a proposal for 2025 UTP you can see that we maintain uh uh the rest of the projects as as planned and as schedule 54 uh the I Frontage roads from executive Sunland uh insert Borderland Express Phase 2 uh remove Montana Phase 2 to 2027 and then uh the funding plan for phase one next slide so uh with that said we have uh so with the with that 488 that uh is proposed and potentially 588 depending on what the commission does and I can't speak for the commission but the plan is to phase downtown 10 segment two into three phases and beginning in the center which has uh the uh the orangey red orange color there uh this area here has the areas of greatest need uh worst payment conditions uh low clearance on Bridges discontinuous Frontage roads Lane balance issues so the thought is to put that money on what we're calling phase one of downtown 10 for this next UTP cycle so the reason for this phasing is uh is internal to Tech do but uh next slide there is some criteria there is actually a state uh law that the commission cannot exceed 10% of Texas's current by anym budget uh for category $12 so for 24 25 that cap is 4.1 billion and you can see some of the projects that are funded currently with cat 122 dollar amount to a little bit over four uh again not knowing exactly what's going to happen with some of these projects some might slide backwards uh we may have the cap space we need in 2025 to put in uh phase one of downtown 10 however if you look at Future years there are some significant projects using category $12 across the state that put the commission above the category 12 cap uh so our window would be 2025 unless some of these bigger jobs in in Austin Houston San Antonio uh or other parts of the state U fall out or slide back that gives us some cap space for category 12 uh in in the other bium but currently the only cap space is in 20 20 2024 2025 or 2030 so that's that's the uh another issue we're facing here uh locally so that is my presentation that is the funding plan for 2025 and that is the reasons behind it so be more than happy to answer any questions you ran into sugar and we got cocoa is what you're saying yeah yeah and and you know we and then we're glad we did we're glad we but seriously hats off to texad district for applying for those funds and my understanding it's rare that districts receive those that amount of funding for yes yes it's very rare so great job to you and your team thank you um I think mayor liser had a question yeah I think it's important to note that everything we're discuss this at uh at an executive meeting that the bottom can be built without the top and that the $588 million we're talking about today has no dollars allocated for building the deck that's just strictly for building the bottom part of it and I think maybe Colonel Weston can kind of explain a little bit where the city is on this because we were not really we were not in any conversations at this point with the c on moving forward with the deck so I think that uh this is strictly the bottom with still money needed if 780 million was the number preco and now it's gone up we could be nearing and us tell us we're probably nearing close to 9900 million to a billion dollars to finish the whole Project without again the cap without the top on it correct you you are correct depending on the preferred alternative correct col won do you mind kind of explaining where we're at with h the C because they told us that you know Eduardo kind of explained to me when I had my one-on-one with him that you know if we go strictly the way uh the cap is in Dallas it's about 110 million if we go based on the cap that was presented we're at about 220 million that has not been even considered or allocated well I've had recent conversations I think we have to look at the different options and look at what the cost estimate is um I mean certainly I was presented three or four different options the other day I think we need to bet those still and look at potentially what could be done but we don't have the costing figures of each of the options to really look at what that means yet okay repres thank you um looking at the draft UTP document that's in there it shows downtown 10 Le date of 2028 understand that's pushed to 29 is that correct in the draft UTP uh document in the backup in the chart here it shows a let date of 28 for downtown 10 uh right but we're proposing in this UTP cycle to revise that to 25 for phase one for to revise to 25 for the let date for downtown 10 pH one one okay question uh I have a question related to Montana I recall it's been a couple years I recall Tex dot sending a notice to the city of El Paso you'll have to refreshen my memory regarding sound barrier walls what is the position of teod and sound barrier walls nearing residential along Montana usually uh sound walls are determined during the U the uh NEPA process and and it's it's dependent on the joining neighbors and it's usually residential neighbors and not uh apartment complexes or the like it's privately owned homes that have the ability to vote on whether they want a sound wall or not but and there's a lot of affordable housing in apartments so they don't right qualify and that's federal policy because again one runer may want it then the next render may may not but if there are some residential they can apply for it or is it already too late it's usually too late uh again those those uh those are are worked through in the Nea process I'm sorry I if I could just add what what happens with noise walls is that the there are studies done in terms of the increase of noise due to the construction job right so if that increase in noise levels goes beyond the threshold then the federal rules say well you may have noise FS I mean noise FS may be justified and then that's whenas was saying you go and and U and identify the the properties that are directly impacted and then those Property Owners uh have a say whether they want them or not but during the V public vetting stage correct yeah well as part of the the the environmental documentation process say that's when those noise analyses are are done right so I mean I don't know that off the top of my head but if if some areas along the project were identified then those areas were um you know eligible for those noise walks and and then just to followup is is Tech still committed to doing this on barrier walls or are you shifting that to any other governmental bodies no we're still committed to it all right that's good to hear thank you just a comment so so um this may be a question for Eduardo more than you if if you take the money that's programmed for Montana Phase 2 right now and you redistribute it when 20208 rolls are you confident that he's going to get funding back for Montana Phase 2 from a different pot or a new pot so so a lot of that money is Formula based and it's yearly so yes we're fairly confident that we'll be able to just have a com question okay um so if if the let date for phase one of downtown Phase 10 is move of downtown 10 phase one if that's moving to uh 25 what is the timeline for selection of the preferred alternativ well like I mentioned we we we are uh looking to complete our environmental process here by the end of this year so that would include uh selecting the preferred altern okay by the end of the year is are you looking at like winter time frame yeah probably November December any other mayor yes what was the extra cost now on that fine sand that what was the extra cost oh to mitigate the fine sand was that $42 million change order to to redesign the retaining 42 million any other questions um right I also want to congratulate you theas for moving quickly and asking for that funding through the the state tech. committee because that is a substantial amount of money that you obtained through the new category so thank you you for for doing that and being on your toes and this as it okay congratulations to the entire team for doing it because that was great to get that huge amount of money and it saves us on other things that we need to do in our community and so at this time I'd like to move to approve the uh funding proposal that has been presented to us and make the change in the 2025 UTP and I'll second that motion I just wanted to also commend you and your team and Echo the comments that the senator and representative Ora mentioned it's not easy to be this creative to get that that that in that pot of funding and then Eduardo as you mentioned skin of the game this is exactly what the commission is talking about and to ensure that we were able to still utilize These funds and put these funds towards projects that are already ready to let that is exactly what the commission is looking for and that's what we constantly talking about and so I just want to commend you and your team um and uh looking forward to the progress of both of these projects so thank you both um do we have someone that's virtual that has a question right we have a motion on the table and we have a second all in favor I opposed chair like to vot present okay let the record show represent Canales voting present all right so I think Professor dho failed to say that there's going to be a test afterward on soil mechanics all right um moving on to item number before we go to item 12 I'm sorry um yes um in the in the spirit of allowing for members of of the public to speak I'd like to make a U motion to reconsider item number two to allow for Mr M to share his public comment second uh any opposed um public comment on item two good morning everyone uh I'll try and keep it short but in the spirit of supporting the safe Street Grant and all that you're doing in this vein uh I'd like to let you know that on May 22nd farman city is hosting the Safe Streets for all training uh here at the tech out headquarters out on the east side so that we can help explain Vision zero the safe system approach and more ways to think about the various funding opportunities Beyond Safe Streets for all to promote safety and I I have that information I'll sh share it with your staff and you can share it with everyone thank you um and this is just a great opportunity to see how we can rethink some of our approaches to transport ation that makes it easy for everyone whether they walk they bike they roll they take transit or drive uh as long as we get the road finished and so that they can get there safely so thank you very much for that and thank you for supporting Safe Streets inititive that date in time one more time May 22nd moving on to item 12 and I do think we have public comment for corre you want to take a comment before the com this all right so we have Mr Bob Storch to hear what you have to say about good we'll move forward with item 12 and then we'll take public comment okay thank all right so with uh item number 12 well let me read it first the record considering approve the submitt of a Grant application to the mega Federal program for the downtown 10 Executive Center 2 State Loop 478 copia project and to approve a resolution of support for the project um before we we get into the the discussion Mr chair um I think we we would like to to uh make an amendment here and table the resolution of support since we you know we were able to uh provide that after the deadline after we submit the the application and uh because we we really didn't did not have a chance to to uh you know work on the resolution so I think it's better if we we table or we bring the resolution back next month and before we submit it but what we are discussing here is the well for the policy we to give us the the approval to submit an application to the mega uh Federal program so um getting into the details uh if you recall we submit well first of all the mega is part of is is is one of the new federal programs under Thea um it's designed for to provide funding for the big projects such as downtown 10 um we submitted an application uh we meaning the mo and teot uh you all approved for us to submit an application of to last year's uh cycle of the mega uh program uh we were not selected for that but it was brought to our attention recently that uh texad was interested in resubmitting the application for this year's cycle so a couple of things about this year's cycle um they uh the USD or the Federal Highway Administration decided to bundle fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 26 together so this is really the the last bite at the Apple that that we have okay there's no there's not going to be a fiscal year 26 program um why I don't know I have no idea why they chose to do that uh the second thing is that again you know the tech do Administration uh wanted to submit this application again and I think you know the one of the the good things about this is that from not getting selected last year tex. staff were debriefed by us do folks Federal Highway folks and you know so now we have a a better idea of where our application could be strengthened um again this is these are highly competitive projects uh Nationwide there's a ton of applications that go in so uh so you know we feel good in the sense that uh that with the feedback that we received we we will be able to improve that application um so again you know this is in my opinion this is a a a uh a fairly um simple decision in the sense that this is new money that we would be receiving right I mean the federal funds uh would come in um the state would be matching providing the match to to the Federal grant so there really no no cost for us here locally um so again what we're asking is for the approval to to submit that application and if we would be going again as co-applicants with Tex do on this for this project so with that to happy to answer any questions questions um we'll move to public comment okay um I'm Bob Storch I live in Sunset Heights uh I have spoken to y' all before that this downtown 10 is a bad project for downtown and for El Paso and I would encourage you to abandon this project and redesign the whole thing the project is based on faulty data it would not accomplish what it said says it wants to do congestion is not an issue on this segment of the highway and even if it was widening it would not stop the congestion moving all this traffic through downtown is environmentally and economically unsustainable for downtown it does not improve our quality of life downtown it does not improve Local Economic Development downtown it's a a nasty scar through downtown to have this open sewer of trucks that runs right through the center of our city I applaud you for in doing the uh Northeast bypass that's where we need to be putting the trucks we need to get them off the bridge of americaas which we're working towards too but funding downtown 10 as it's been proposed to us so far is just a bad project and just applying for more Federal money just to get our fair share to build a bad project does not improve elac so I would encourage you to abandon this project and not ask for these funds thank you very much appreciate it all right so um that's all I have uh if you have any questions happy to answer them now and and if uh if not then you know we would ask that we consider uh deleting or tabling the resolution and just act on the on the approval to submit the application I think it's a great opportunity from everything that we've heard to to submit uh the application the Grant application again it would add additional funding if we were successful as our as Mr kvo has pointed out these funds are not easy to obtain from the federal government this is the last time that we're going to have that chance to try to um obtain the the funding and it would certainly help and part of this process is coordinating and uh state tech. is a partner in doing this again I move to approve have a motion to approve second uh any opposed I'm sorry all in favor I any opposed we have one no from represent Gales motion passes all right then moving on to reports and discussion um if I might through the chair there are two more action items after execu session and so in interest of quum I would move that we move our executive session item now to this point and uh to review exhibit one and two two yes do we have a second second a second uh all in favor any opposed motion passes now we'll move to an executive session however um can we take a five minute U Break absolutely chair before we do take the Break um I I think we just need to put it on the record that we are moving into executive session for executive session items one and two um and uh the board will be retiring retiring into executive session pursuing to section 551.074 Personnel matters of the Texas government code so you can take the Reese's but we're good now excent thank you all right minute break to clear the uh the room and just leave the board members here thank you e e e e e e e for for e e for e e e for e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we wanted wanted that yeah he did just give it sh this to I this I dat at 2023 I didn't even notice I just like Dred them into the folder should be it have to turn it off what's up um but I said hey guys I'm do here I don't want to turn in any neighbors and they're like no need to call it in right now scar we've got a quorum uh a motion to exit executive session um any opposed uh we are back in regular session and so chair now you'll move to the executive session items and no action was taken so then you move on to your uh reports and discussion session of the meeting no action taken and we'll move forward thank you all right all right so then moving on to reports and discussion um item number 13 is a presentation on the tex. state infrastructure bank and we have today a Dallas teston from the CB coming in from from Austin [Music] Alice did you change your flight I have not okay so I apologize if I talk fast um this work it work all right that's fine I'll just ask yall to move the slides all right um thank you'all for having me today uh as I mentioned my name is Dallas testin I work for tech. uh our team is based out of Austin we cover the entire State uh working with the SI Loan program um some of y'all may be familiar with it some of you may not so if if you are hopefully this will provide a little bit of a refresher um or provide some kind of base level information uh kind of my goal in doing these presentations and talking to local governments around the state is just um providing awareness that this program is out there to um to assist local governments in advancing their projects um so so what is the CIB uh the CIB is a lowcost transportation financing tool um operated through Tex do for for eligible Transportation projects next slide a little bit of a background on the program so the the S was set up in the the late 90s early 2000s by the legislature as a a revolving Loan Fund um what that means is all of our repayments any interest that we earn on the cash goes right back into the fund so it grows over time to to continue to get more projects done so um all that to say we don't uh kind of rely on injections of funding every couple of years to keep this program going this program is built to be self-sustaining um and it is it has been since the the early 2000s so it can keep going to assist local governments around the state uh with their projects uh the CIB is a federal program so it was uh authorized under a federal act and then with the state legislation uh but in saying that we are not using federal dollars in the program anymore so uh the loans that we're making are done with non-federal at this point uh that to say that using the CIB will not federalize your project so using the C itself um won't trigger any additional Federal Regulations on your projects uh if you have other Federal money other state money or if it's on as a state highway system there will be other regulations that you'll need to follow with that but using the C itself won't trigger any of that go forward uh some quick stats on our program we've done 154 loans for $762 million we used that to help leverage and get done about 8.2 billion in projects across the state of Texas um our loans have ranged from 10,000 up to 42 million so our team has a broad range of experience with small and large uh loans next slide who typically borrows from us our typical borrowers a city and county like yourself so about 75% of our loans have gone directly to local governments um the water supply entities those are for re utility relocations on Tech Stop projects but we've worked with water supply corporations Municipal Utility District um a lot of different entities that have to move their utilities for tchop projects some communities have leveraged their Economic Development corporations um if they have an eligible uh Revenue source that can be pledged for a transportation project they can utilize our program in that and then we've worked with most of the rmas around the state we have a a very good relationship with communo real RMA out in this area they've um they've worked on quite a few Sion in conjunction with the city of El Paso next slide I'm sorry can I can I ask you a question sure on the water supply entities you said they were on usually on. rways yes they have to be on text. rways uh yeah so the only the only time you can use our fund for utility relocation or utility work is if it's a required relocation for a techop project or if it's in conjunction with some other eligible project so we can't do Standalone utility work but if you're doing a a reconstruction project with our uh our funds you can also include utility work in that yes it has to be tied to the transportation project can it be new construction I'm sorry it be a new construction a new roadway yeah um yeah I mean as long as there's an eligible project in there uh if you want to include utility in Utilities in that you can but we we have to have an eligible project which I'll I'll go over what eligible projects are in a second but um yeah those are really the only times we can include utilities uh so visually this is uh kind of what that looks like we've been spread out all over the state of Texas um if you've been to Austin recently on I35 it's probably not a surprise that a lot of our projects are up and down that Corridor um if you focus out into this area in El Paso next slide um these are some of the projects that we've worked on so our our our Paso District in the C Paso area has been one of our more active areas utilizing our program um and honestly I commend y'all as locals for that you've realized the value in using this program and have utilized it on on variety of different projects um next slide just to highlight that a little further this is a breakdown of the loans that we've done by teot district and our ELO district is right up there with our um you know with one of the largest districts that we have in the Houston area um and actually we're taking uh the village of Venton has a loan this month so that number will actually go up by one and you'll be tied for first [Music] than uh so jumping into eligibility uh so I mentioned we're a federal program uh the one place that does matter is with the projects so the only projects we can do uh for roadways are if they're eligible under Federal Highway programs so roadways functionally classified above a rural minor collector um one thing that doesn't mean it doesn't have to be on the state highway system so it can be off system roads as long as they're Federal eligible and then generally any projects eligible under title 23 um these are just three examples of programs you might be familiar with so Transportation Alternatives uh off system bridge program but really any program authorized under title 23 anything that came out under ijaa um if you have a local match for any of those funds or any other federal funds you can utilize a s program to kind of Meet the those obligations for any projects uh under those programs next slide so visually um I like to show this map just to kind of bring home the the opportunity with our program so the orange roads are the on system roads and then everything else lit up on this map is off system that is potentially eligible for a sibl loone um so those are all roadways that are uh federally eligible in the city of El Paso and this one little snapshot that could be uh the SI could be leveraged on and and work could be done on them using our program um this is our Statewide planning map we have instructions on our website on on how to kind of get this view for your your community or any community in the state um but generally in more urban areas there's a lot of opportunity to utilize our program next up uh circling back to uses uh we kind of touched on utility relocation but um once we've established kind of an eligible Transportation project um any of the cost associated with that project you can use the S funds for uh so it really anything associ with the construction or reconstruction um obviously the roadway elements but if there's also kind of sidewalk work pedestrian improvements in the area you can use it on that as well um a big one recently in the past few years with Rising inflation labor costs I'm sure you've all been seeing it in your communities uh you can include contingency in the loan amount um and if you don't end up using it you'll just return it to pay down the balance it's a lot easier to kind of do that but if you need more funds once the Project's going we have to go back through the entire process again uh and then I touched on local match so if you ever have a local match for any uh any federal programs or or any programs like that you can borrow from our fund for uh for those and then any financial and legal fees as well next slide so I mentioned the the CIB is a lowcost transportation financing program so what does that mean uh this program was kind of uh designed that way so we don't charge anything for loan application we don't charge anything at closing and we don't charge anything for loan hand Ling uh all three of those phases are handled through our team in Austin um so you'll have the same contexts throughout the life of the loan um and we don't charge anything for those Services Additionally the legislature authorized uh communities to borrow directly from our program in the statute so most of our loans are just done through a direct loan agreement um that does save a little bit of time and cost efficiency in a in a debt issuance we can be the sole purchaser of a certificate of obligation or bonds um but most of our loans are done through that direct loan agreement yes sir zero load handling zero cost that you don't charge an interest C we do charge interest I'm gonna get there but we don't charge any fees I think is what I'm trying to drive home there uh next slide so high level on the terms too where um we try to be as Fable as possible so you can prepay these loans at any time without penalty um we offer deferments on the front end so if you have other Deb expiring or some type of reimbursement that you're waiting on uh we can defer the first couple of payments out next slide uh and then jumping into the interest rate um so a couple things that we do differently that you might not be used to so we set the rate at the time of application rather than closing um so all of our loans have to be approved by the Transportation Commission and that includes the the rate so we have to set it when we receive the application uh from there though it's a fixed rate throughout the life of the loan and then additionally we set our rates using the municipal Market data index so the MMD um if you're not familiar the MMD is kind of a a standard in public issuances U that are that you know most communities use when they're issuing bonds and uh so we utilize it to kind of uh provide a standard for our SI interest rates and we set them based on two main factors the credit rating of the borrower and how long they want to borrow next slide so we recently adjusted how we set our interest rates uh previously we used the entire MMD scale um the last couple years when rates went up we saw some very big jumps on the lower end of that scale uh which was kind of creating a an affordability crisis if you will for our um unrated or lower uh lower rated borrowers uh and a lot of the work we do is with communities that don't have as many resources to to issue debt at a lower rate um so what we try to do is tie our rates closer to the AAA rate uh so we've used the AAA rate as kind of our Baseline we had a small spread based on the credit rating uh and then we utilize teex dod's economically disadvantaged County program to offer a discount to communities in those counties So currently El Paso county is on there at 60% so any community in El Paso County would receive a a 60 basis point interest rate reduction on our rates next slide um this is a a snapshot of the scale we use uh really the big thing to take away from this is the most you'll pay for a s sibl loan is the AAA MMD for the term plus 40 basis points so if you ever want to conservatively estimate uh what it would cost to take out a sibl loone just estimate AA MMD plus 40 basis points for that term um everything else is kind of lower than that so we Tred to make it as small spread as possible for the credit ratings rather than the big jumps we were seeing um but this is just kind of a snapshot of what we use next slide excuse me yeah is your selection process competitive uh it can be currently we have enough capital in the fund that we're able to to you most projects that come in were able to approve uh from a fund standpoint obviously there are other factors but uh as far as the the health of the program and the amount of money we have um we can sustain most projects right now uh so looking at current AAA MMD rates um biggest thing here is just to kind of know the farther you go out so the longer Term Loan the more the rate will tick up uh these are rates from a couple of weeks ago so if you're thinking about coming into our program in a couple of months please don't hold me to these um but these are just kind of an example of where we are right now uh so taking that 20y year MMD that 3.36 next slide uh tying it back to that kind of math problem I showed a second ago uh so in this example a 20-year loan for a AAA borrower in El Paso County uh would end up with a 2.86 rate right now using that uh 20year rate on the triple ammd um we think that's pretty good to help communities as they're looking to get projects done but uh this is kind of how we set our interest rates um so just remembering that uh any community in this County would receive that discount on them um and then we only add that small spread to triaa next slide uh move forward to um there's a lot of detail on our process at the bottom the two main things um that I like to point out so from application to funds in your account is about a four to six month process so all of our loans have to go through the Transportation Commission um go forward one more time after we get through that process it's about uh 30 to 45 days to close Alone um from the local level to submit an application and to execute one uh requir two actions from either your city council or your Commissioner's Court so you'll need an action to apply and then one to execute the loan agreement as well and that's if we going that direct loan agreement route um if it's a CO or Bond you'll need to follow the procedures for those but just in our direct loan agreements um you'll have those two actions and then our Transportation Commission approval as well next slide um so timeline was the last thing I had so just some takeaways go ahead and move forward through all of them um just remembering that the SI Loan program is out there for y'all so as you're looking at ways to fund your projects and and move them forward just remembering that this program is out there to assist y'all it's a tool in your toolbox um a resource that we offer uh and then just remembering that on our off system roads can be eligible I think for a long time a lot of people assume this program was only for on system roads uh we do prioritize those projects but um it is available for off system work as well as long as it's federally eligible uh our interest rate I kind of went through that but we fix it at the time of application the whole process takes four to six months so just make sure you're including that in any planning uh planning timelines and then all of our loans have to be approved by our commission next slide um there's my direct contact information additionally we have a lot of resources on our website um I've we've tried to put information on there that would would actually that would be beneficial to yall so we have a a flyer with a lot of this information instructions on how to check roadway eligibility um additionally any news that we put out about our program is done through a newsletter um so we have a sign up on there but it's the best way to get any information about our program that I would love to answer any questions that youall have am I am I correct in saying that uh an appropriate uses of local match on an eligible project yes if it's a local match for a federal project so if there's no funds allocated and the locals are on the hook for a certain percentage you can use a sium for that so I think we've done that for a couple of projects here El Paso County I think did that on a recent project and I think Venton too is a local match as well okay thank you any other questions do the projects have to be within the limits of the State of Texas yes unfortunately question what if we go through the RMA I mean if the project is outside of the uh the state of Texas in New Mexico for example and but the RMA is the one that is securing the the load but the project is in the state of New Mexico I'm I'm almost positive we can't fund anything out of state um I haven't funded or I haven't answered that question from a state standpoint just kind of a a country standpoint um but let me can I get back to you I talk to kind of our general counsel and see what the answer is on that but I'm pretty sure it's just for state of Texas work but I'll I can definitely look into it and get back to you great thank you very much cat your flight uh how fast did I go and thank you again Dallas for making the the trip over here I mean this is a great tool if I could just add a little commentary to that um I I really don't understand why more communities don't take advantage of this you know you've got super competitive uh interest rates and the Civ is a very very very patient lend so you know they will accommodate your your your payment plan according to whatever you need you know you saw there in the example you know interest payments at first and then you know you can send it out to 30 Years or or whatever but it's it's a great tool um and I hope that I mean I'm glad to see that that we've been on the top of a list of in terms of using him as an EDC exactly well plus EDC adjustment 60% all right so we've got two more items okay so item 14 is review of current El Paso noo contracts and agreements for entities providing assistance in planning activities described in the El Paso n fiscal year 2024 2025 upw so in this item um this is really in response to the discussion that we had last month um I think it was really important for us to to uh uh try to provide the context um of all the the agreements that that we have in addition to um well to help us do the work that that we commit to do in our upw so uh what we prepared and this is in your backup uh we prepared in a form of a cash flow a four-year cash flow um uh statement here uh where you can see the on the top of the list you will see the incoming funds um and we're separating the recurring funds right so all MOS receive money from the Federal Highway Administration but we call planning funds as well as from the Federal Transit Administration um in our case as being a a by State uh M we receive funds from Texas and from the state of New Mexico so those are the basic recurring funds that we receive if we don't do anything else that's all all those are all the funds that that we have access to um then on the second part under grants you see all of the different grants that we get to to uh that we have been able to to uh secure that go above and beyond the regular funds that that that we receive right and again the rer 7 of the the one on the top is the the the old rer 7even the one in Orange is the right 7 that we are currently uh negotiating with uh negotiating um the old New Mexico spr funds plus the ones that were just uh um approved today Safe Streets for all the $750,000 Grant and um the uh for the Strategic plan the $2 million that this board approved so that we could develop our our strategic plan so if you see the amounts um the regular planning fund F we that we receive would be in the ballpark of about $2 million per year that's that's sort of like the basic but look at the at the amounts and and the all of the grants we have separated them into two or or three years depending on what we're estimating where the the the expenditures are are going to be but it it pretty much tripples our our um our budget or the ability to to do work right so from 2 million in fiscal year 24 we're talking about 6. 7 million now these grants are targeted for some very specific work right so what what I try to do here in this example is tie in colored code the grants which is you know the the money that we received with the task orders that we uh have issued or we plan to issue to accommodate the work right so um let let's let's go into the the consultant contracts if you can scroll up a little bit the so one of the questions that came up um last month was the the difference between a master contract and the individual task orders right so the the master contract for TTI or for UT or with WP these are Master contracts that the pretty much uh you know talk about the roles and responsibilities the generic UH responsibilities for for the entities right but they are not committing any funds yet right so they're like empty buckets right in the case of U of TTI the new Master agreement is up to $500,000 but there's no guarantee under the master contract that we're going to spend it but it's just up to that right and and against that Master contract then we start issuing test orders right like test order number one which is one for training that that we have have as a backup to provide training for for the uh the policy board um that the individual Tas ords do have a specific a more specific scope and schedule and and timeline and and so on right um so for example the one in Orange task order number two is a task order that we will issue and we'll bring it obviously to the policy board later to do part of the work under the the writer 7 tcq grant that that we received right so that one is under TTI the same thing for UTP UTP is going to be be doing part of the work on the writer 7 as well so it's colorcoded as well and with Urban Sim with the same thing they're going to be doing part of the work as well so again I hope it it's clear that when we talk about a master contract the the dollar amounts are just caps but there are no commitments there you know we're not committing anything under the master agreements right right it's only under the individual task orders where we actually commit you know for a very specific scope fee and and schedule right so so wanted to to highlight that um so again you know we we we ordered in this in this table all of the different agreements that we have TTI UTEP with Urban Sim WP which is our general climate consultant uh Kim Smith and the new uh mg which are our Auditors that are going to be performing our our our uh yearly audits starting with this fiscal year 20 and then towards the bottom of the of the table you see the all of the you know the the recurring expenses that that we have as far as the you know our Le and travel and and you know all all the the different things that we have if you look at the bot um after every year you know of course we have our our re our expenses and this is the balance that carries over to the following year right so I mean right now you see that that we do have a pretty healthy uh pretty healthy uh you know carryover in other words you know there is there is a a funding uh available to even do more things right um one of the key takeaways is that that when you see this um I hope that that you guys have a um a higher level of confidence that you know we doing this we're not putting the you know at risk the the no we're not going on crazy spending trees or anything but the the fact that we have all these different consultant contracts is really to help us um and and have available the best people the best resources to do the work that that we need to do I think last month representative Canales you were asking also of you know why can't we do a lot of these things in house and yeah I mean we would like to to do things in house but some of these things are so technical that you know we we we can't have you know um experts on every single thing it's it's a lot more efficient to to have these contracts where we you know we bring them in as needed right um let me also go to the uh when you go a little bit to the top I forgot the dimension are okay well here of course you have under expenditures we have payroll right so yeah we we are trying to always keep uh a good staff um it's not that easy in the sense that that uh you know mpos are you know we're different animals right so there's not a lot of people that that that have the experience that we have to come in bring people train them and it takes time and sometimes you know we we can't afford to to you know that learning curve to to continue doing the the good work that that the N needs to do so it's a it's a balance It's a combination of of yes we want to have staff um but at the same time we also need to have the uh the resources uh available to to do the work and um and again you know what what I think is is very exciting and and I hope that that we're able to communicate that is especially on on the grants this is work that we do above and beyond the regular work that is required and expected of mpos yeah every no has to have an MTP a tip a upw Etc right but all the all the good things that we've done under the writer 7 developing the tools the modeling tools are tremendously exciting and you know it really helps us do do better work so um hopefully this helps or provides some some context some shed some light on on some of the questions that uh that came up from last month and and you know this is something that you will be more than happy to to bring on a recurring basis I mean this is just a snapshot as you know cash flow changes almost on a daily basis but um but this gives you a generic a generic picture of where we are with with the noo so with that I'm happy to answer any any questions any questions sorry thank you um for for bringing this um it's like first time I've ever seen um the overall view did you mention where where the balance goes um the remaining balance do you put that into a yeah it carries over just where do you put it the balances at the bottom the carryover from the prior year the 2.6 goes to the top for for the following year so it it carries over do you have a a restricted fund that money goes to like a rainy day fund or savings fund or it's just all no no no what we try to do is that we we try to spend you know um try to minimize you know the Carri now the grants I mean those are you those have a a clear beginning and an end right so you know we need to spend that money on the planning funds and the recurring funds those carry over now um just like with our our our construction program categories five and seven um you know both Tech and New Mexico do don't like to see a lot of carry over from one year to another right um so you know it's it's a balance I mean it's trying to be conservative using your cash flow yeah you don't want to zero out every year right that's very risky but at the same time keeping a a a a huge carryover from one year to another also raises questions like well why aren't you spending the money so when you made mention answering that you said planning funds so none of these funds can utilize for construction it specifically has to go to in-house salaries work and Consultants correct yeah the the planning funds of pl12 and 53 or3 are exclusively for planning purposes and they're dedicated for for the no to do activities now um so when when it comes to the the Mandate of of the no yeah we're mandated to take the lead in terms of implementing transation planning process yes we take the lead but we're not the only ones no the we partner also with the the trans agency so Sun Metro also participates in the planning activities and and they are required to include their information as well in our WP which is our our work plan right but but you know we also coordinate a lot with with the city and and the county and all the different partners that are part of the no in developing those activities but yeah the pl 112 and the 5303 uh funds cannot be used for for projects or or specific uh it has to be for for the planning process um do you know if which of those are formula grants that you're going to get you don't have to compete and which of those were competitive that you want so again the Federal Highway FTA are formula based so we have a pretty good idea we feel pretty good at being able to estimate them I see the same yeah exactly I mean they're going to change especially now uh with the of one more Mo with uh Eagle Pass no coming in there will be some changes some redistribution of of funds uh and you know we're going to be participating in in those discussions as part of the tempo with the Texas um mpos so we anticipate maybe a small reduction but you know not shouldn't be a very significant and the rest of them are competitive yeah yeah for example the well writer 7 uh it's it's by formula those funds are are available to us at to all the non attainment areas but we have to that you know use them for something that is that is follows the spirit so it's not automatic right um the spr funds yeah that is competitive right so New Mexico DOT in this case you know makes a part of it available so we submitted an application and they liked it and we were awarded those and of course sa streets for all because that is competitive that's one of the federal programs that's available to everybody in the country um and finally yeah the the IBC Strat plant well that's category seven so you know that that is competitive here within within the the region right any other questions great thank you all right so I think that's the the last one is 15 executive director report very quickly just to report that uh I attended the the border of trade advisory committee meeting uh earlier this week in Brownsville bch it was it was a pretty good good meeting um Secretary of State Nelson is the chair of that uh in this this time both uh Texas Transportation Commissioners new and and me attended in person so we had a pretty good discussion overall um the next meeting has been set it's going to be in Houston not in the Border but obviously Houston plays an important role in in in bational trade uh and I believe it's in April I'm sorry it's going to be in the month of August uh second thing I wanted to mention is a Border Highway East the project the stakeholders meeting uh Border Highway East is a project that's been in the tex. books for for years uh it's a it's a good project but but of course it's very complicated it has a lot of challenges in terms of of RightWay acquisition and there's some obviously some environmental uh concerns you know throughout the uh the the length of the project and I would encourage you also to attend the uh the public meetings that are scheduled on May the 1st and May the 2nd uh virtual and and inperson meetings again to F that needs to hear from all the different stakeholders and and uh we we'll circulate the uh you know the notice and make make sure that everybody has it available um and then finally the uh the tempo meeting that happened March 21st and 22nd I did not attend because I was here it was at the same time as the the the policy board meeting of of last month uh Harrison attended the the meeting and do you want to just briefly say yeah good morning again um so the meeting was in Austin um I as Eduardo said he usually attends but uh because of the timing of the TBB meeting I got the opportunity to attend and I always really appreciate getting to go uh as well because it's really great to interact with uh other Mo uh staff and get direct uh face tof face time with tch. and uh fhwa and FTA and everybody else who attends um a few highlights from the meeting um there was a um a round table a discussion with um uh tex. finance division staff um that kind of went into the uh justifications for um the them encouraging mpos to program funding um uh and not have carryover to the extent possible and a lot of that is driven by uh the opportunity that the state has to uh uh get a lot of additional funding through the redistribution uh process that's going to be happening in August uh so funding that's coming from that other states haven't spent um Texas has the opportunity to uh uh uh take advantage and collect some of that so they're really trying to maximize the amount that the state can get um but part of that is showing that we can spend it um and if we have large carryovers then uh that hurts how it looks at the federal level um El Paso no is not doing too bad uh some of the other noos have huge balances and category funding that are carrying over um so uh but it's it's relevant for all of the mpos across the state um we got some new guidance on uh how uh Tech uh would like mpos to program carbon reduction funding um so we're going to bring that to the ad hoc Committee of the TAC that's been looking into um how to program that money especially for the years that we haven't looked at yet there was some information on uh uh the approaching phase two implementation of the nevi program that's for installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the country um and Fa pH two is specifically looking at the mo uh areas and determining sighting for uh for that charging infrastructure so texad is going to be uh scheduling meetings with mpos to discuss the uh the process that they're hoping to uh collaborate with the mpos on for that uh this summer and um there is a uh presentation from AO which is the National Association ofos um uh kind of just uh letting everybody know that there they are a resource for mpos that are members of ampa which we are um and some specific studies that they are uh currently doing or planning on doing um one relating to guidance on the federal greenhouse gas Target setting uh requirement that um at the moment is on hold uh Nationwide because of the latest um Court ruling but we don't know how long that will last and it's possible that it'll come back and we'll have to set a target for that and uh they're also going to be doing a national no salary survey that we have the opportunity to participate in and um make sure that uh we're on track with uh what's expected so those are some highlights from the meeting uh you have any questions then please please ask all right and with that we're done with the executive director report much we don't have so thank you e e e e e e for