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Draft Status Report on the Northstar Commuter Rail Project. June 7, 2001 <br /> <br />Federal Transit <br />Administration <br /> <br />Federal Transit Administration (FTA) <br /> <br />A. Introduction <br />On June 9, 1998, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century <br />(TEA-21) was enacted. It requires the U.S. Department of <br />Transportation to submit an annual report to Congress that <br />includes its recommendations for allocating funding for candidate <br />New Starts projects. In addition, TEA-21 requires that FTA <br />evaluate and rate candidate New Starts projects as the basis for <br />approving project entry into the preliminary engineering and final <br />design phases of project development, as well as for approving <br />projects for full funding grant agreements. <br /> <br />Because federal funding is being sought for the Northstar <br />Commuter Rail Project, the Project is considered a federal New <br />Start Project, and it must comply with the planning and project <br />development process required by the FTA. The process is set forth <br />in the following flow chart. (Chart 1) <br /> <br />The NCDA has closely followed each step of the process from <br />system planning through the completion of preliminary engineering. <br />Specifically, it performed the Major Investment Study, (see Section <br />III), selected the Locally Preferred Transportation Investment <br />Strategy requested and secured approval by the St. Cloud APO <br />and the Metropolitan Council to include the Northstar Project in the <br />long-range transportation plans, requested and secured approval <br />from the FTA to begin Preliminary Engineering and conducted the <br />necessary environmental (NEPA) evaluation including the <br />preparation of a Final Environmental Impact Statement. <br /> <br />Over the course of its work, the NCDA has worked to keep the FTA <br />fully informed of its activities and progress. The NCDA provided <br />formal briefings to the FTA on: <br />February 26, 1999 <br />March 23, 1999 <br />September 30, 1999 <br />October 28, 1997 <br />February 1, 2000 <br />March 17, 2000 <br /> <br />In addition, NCDA staff and consultants were in close contact with <br />FTA Region 5 during the preparation of the Draft Environmental <br /> <br />Northstar Corridor Development Authority 2 <br /> <br /> <br />