East Bay Regional Park District TIGER II Grant / East Bay Pedestrian and Bicycle Network
SF Bay Trail
The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grant program, provided a unique opportunity for the U.S. Department of Transportation to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promised to achieve critical national objectives. Congress dedicated significant funds to projects deemed to be of considerable impact on the Nation, a region or a metropolitan area. TIGER's highly competitive process, galvanized by tremendous applicant interest, allowed DOT to fund 42 innovative capital projects in TIGER II. Each project is multi-modal, multi-jurisdictional or otherwise challenging to fund through existing programs. The TIGER program enabled DOT to use a rigorous, though ultimately discretionary process, to select projects with exceptional benefits, which explore ways to deliver projects faster and save on construction costs, and make investments in our Nation's infrastructure that make communities more livable and sustainable.
The East Bay Regional Park District was awarded the TIGER II Grant for the East Bay Pedestrian and Bicycle Network. The program of projects – the first of it’s kind in the nation - includes a system of inter-connected, multi-use regional trails connecting people to parks, parks to other parks, and to transit hubs. The proposed trails provide recreational opportunities, as well as serve as a green transportation network to safely connect communities, schools, and businesses to regional transit stations.
Gray-Bowen-Scott was retained by EBRPD to manage the District’s $10.2 Million Federal TIGER II grant process for the delivery of a suite of regional trail projects. Gray-Bowen-Scott served as an extension of District staff in managing the key Federal environmental, engineering, and right of way requirements to achieve crucial project milestones. Two concurrent projects involved balancing federal funds – the first project presented cost savings, and those savings were de-obligated and redirected to fill the funding shortfall for the second project. And when TIGER funds were under threat of rescission by FHWA, Gray-Bowen-Scott helped the Park District obligate as much of their TIGER funds as possible. Gray-Bowen-Scott worked closely with FHWA and Caltrans Local Assistance to guide the projects from the preliminary engineering including environmental planning phases through construction. Today, the regional trails, two of which are key links in the San Francisco Bay Trail, are constructed, fully operational, and hugely popular.