NVTA advisory committee backs staff’s six‑year funding recommendations amid late Arlington request

The Planning Coordination Advisory Committee (PCAC) of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority voted to forward NVTA staff’s recommendations for the six‑year program update after a discussion about scoring priorities and a late request from Arlington officials to reallocate funding.

NVTA staffer Dr. Nam Ptheri presented the recommendations and said staff is proposing funding for 21 of 27 candidate projects: 18 at the full requested amount and three at partial amounts, leaving six projects not recommended for funding. Dr. Nam told the committee the Authority had programmed about $775.79 million in pay‑go funds for this update while requests totaled more than $1.25 billion, and that staff largely followed the congestion‑reduction‑relative‑to‑cost (CRC) ranking in its recommendations. "By law we have to give priority to that particular rating," Dr. Nam said, referring to statutory CRC priorities.

The recommended portfolio covers a range of project types and sizes—bike and pedestrian, roadway, transit, technology and multimodal improvements—and includes several multi‑jurisdictional projects that cross county lines. Dr. Nam said the cycle saw an unusually large number and dollar amount of bike and pedestrian applications; staff recommended nine of 12 bike/ped projects and noted that projects that add new, connected facilities to activity centers tend to score better on congestion reduction than projects that largely upgrade existing infrastructure.

Committee members pressed staff on how corridor definitions and safety considerations influence scores. Dr. Nam said corridor connectivity is evaluated as part of the transaction rating and that safety is one of the measures included in that rating, while CRC remains the primary statutory priority.

A late email from Board Member Supervisor Spain asking that money be shifted from Arlington’s top‑ranked project to another Arlington project prompted the most extended discussion. NVTA staff member Miss Bachmann explained that shifting funds between projects after scoring can conflict with NVTA’s stated prioritization rules and Policy 30, and that staff must document exceptions when projects are not selected strictly by CRC. "We are to give priority to the projects that provide the greatest level of congestion reduction relative to cost," Miss Bachmann said, describing the standard the committee uses to preserve process integrity. Staff also noted that the donor project in Arlington had a small funding delta at the cutoff and that federal decisions—specifically the Federal Transit Administration’s consideration of a CIG grant for Richmond Highway BRT—were a factor in partially funding some projects.

Several committee members said they were wary of deviating from the published rankings on short notice and without full information. "I would not recommend doing this," one member said when asked whether the committee should alter allocations tonight without additional data; other members said they were sympathetic to Arlington’s needs but preferred that the Planning and Programming Committee and the Authority—who will receive the PCAC recommendation—have the full record before taking any deviation from CRC‑based selections.

A member moved to approve the NVTA staff recommendations as presented. The committee voted by roll call and the motion carried with two abstentions; the PCAC will send its recommendation to the Planning and Programming Committee, whose recommendation will go to the NVTA Authority for final action at its July meeting. The vote result was recorded as carried with two abstentions.

NVTA staff closed with brief agency updates—Virginia’s recent ranking for commuter workplaces, reminders about TransAction and the long‑range plan update, and outreach on the Bus Rapid Transit action plan—and the committee adjourned.