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• Beginning in December 2002, the City has engaged in lobbying and educating the Oregon Congressional delegation on issues related to transportation improvement funding. Senators j Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden, and Representative Peter DeFazio, especially, have provided ~ positive and aggressive support for the City's funding requests. Additionally, other northwest legislators, including Senator Patty Murray of Washington, have acknowledged the merits of the project. • The City secured $500,000 as part of the Federal Omnibus FY2003 appropriations bill. This funding through the Transportation Community Systems Preservation (TCSP) program will provide resources to complete the road design. The City has reached agreement with ODOT on the project scope and budget, and this agreement is being formalized in an intergovernmental agreement. OBEC Consulting Engineering has been selected as the project design consultant. DKS Associates and CH2M Hill have been selected as subcontractors on the design team. City engineering staff have begun project team meetings with ODOT to confirm the project schedule, agree on decision-making protocol, and review design elements. The agreed upon schedule calls for approval of final alignments, signaling, j lane configurations, and traffic movements by March 2004, and completion of construction by October 2005. a • Lane County has committed $325,000 in local funding for Phase 1 improvements. These funds will provide local match for the Federal contribution to Phase 1 improvements. The City is requesting that the County include Phase 2 funding in the upcoming County Capital Improvement Program which goes to a hearing process in February 2004. The City is following amulti-faceted strategy to obtain Federal funding for the remainder of the improvements, including: • Funding for both phases of the transportation improvements is expected to be included in the upcoming TEA-21 reauthorization. As you know, consideration of this bill has been delayed, and afive-month extension of TEA-21 was just approved by Congress. Completion of a full TEA reauthorization with funding for new projects is expected to be the primary Congressional priority between February and Apri12004. • Federal Department of Transportation staff have encouraged the City to seek full build-out construction funding by again turning to the TCSP program. The City's lobbyist met with Congressional Transportation Committee staff on September 24, 2003 and TCSP funds were recommended as a future construction funding possibility because of numerous TCSP criteria .and goals matching the Courthouse transportation project. This symmetry was a large factor in the City receiving the Omnibus FY03 planning funds, the first time TCSP funds had been earmarked for Oregon since 1998. • If TEA funding is delayed or reduced, the City will seek funding for Phase 1 improvements through the FY05 Department of Transportation appropriations bill expected to be approved Page 3