NVTA planning committee briefed on FY2026 evaluations as $1.26 billion in requests far exceed roughly $780 million available

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) Planning & Programming Committee received a staff briefing on the FY2026 program update evaluation process and the scope of requests at its recent meeting. Shrina Bazinet, senior manager at NVTA, said staff received 27 eligible applications requesting about $1.26 billion while current pay‑go estimates put available funding at roughly $780 million, creating a substantial oversubscription.

Bazinet framed the evaluation around three quantitative measures and a set of qualitative tie‑breakers. "One of the NVTA’s major responsibilities is to prepare the long‑range plan, updated every five years," she said, and explained that staff use congestion reduction relative to cost (CRRC), a transaction rating made from 10 performance measures, and a long‑term benefits assessment to rank projects.

Under the CRRC metric, staff compare modeled congestion‑hours with and without a given project through 2045 and divide the cumulative congestion reduction by project cost; Virginia law requires that preference be given to this measure, Bazinet said. The transaction rating aggregates accessibility, safety, emissions, bike‑pedestrian improvements and other goals using weights the authority adopted in 2022. Long‑term benefits are assessed both by where congestion reduction physically occurs and by where users originate; Bazinet noted a 2014 working group translated the statute’s instruction that allocations be “approximately equal” into operational principles used for recent cycles.

Bazinet also reported on public engagement: the comment period ran from April 2 through the prior Sunday and the draft counts show 279 respondents submitting 706 project‑level comments. "For draft number, it says 279 responses," she said, and staff are reviewing comments to inform recommendations.

Committee members questioned how towns participate and how benefit shares are allocated. Staff said towns with populations of 3,500 or more receive a portion of a 30 percent set‑aside and may apply independently; counties remain responsible for distributing the set‑aside under memorandums of agreement and the county governing‑body must provide a supporting resolution for town projects.

Members also discussed how large, multi‑jurisdictional projects and smaller, multimodal or technology projects score differently under the metrics and how project synergies with previously funded investments may affect qualitative evaluations. Bazinet warned that some projects are continuations of previously funded work and that staff track project progress and past performance when evaluating requests.

Next steps: staff will compile evaluation results and public‑comment summaries and provide staff recommendations and committee materials on June 17 to the two statutory committees; the Planning & Programming Committee will receive committee and staff recommendations at its June 18 meeting and forward a recommendation to the NVTA authority for consideration at its July meeting.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved the summary notes of the July 2, 2025 meeting by voice vote. The motion to approve the minutes was moved and seconded; the chair called for the voice vote and the motion passed (tally not specified).