PA Municipal Bridge Retro-Reimbursement Program

Project Selection

DVRPC closely coordinates with PennDOT District 6 and the four counties (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery) throughout the project evaluation, selection, and recommendation process for this program. Only projects selected and recommended for funding through this process and listed on the federally approved TIP would be eligible to employ the retro-reimbursement procedure. Municipalities that submit application(s) to DVRPC during the application period are considered. The TIP Benefit Criteria is used to evaluate all projects. DVRPC staff will present the list of selected projects to the DVRPC Regional Technical Committee (RTC) and Board for approval. Letters of awards and regrets are mailed after Board approval.

Program Eligibility Requirements

Not all municipal bridge projects are eligible for funding under this program. Only bridge rehabilitation or replacement projects that demonstrate the following criteria will be eligible for this program:

1. The bridge must be locally owned by a municipality within DVRPC's four Pennsylvania counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery.
2. The bridge must have a structurally deficient status, meaning the bridge deck, superstructure, or substructure must have a rating of 4 or less from the most recent bridge inspection.
3. Rehabilitation or replacement work completed must result in the elimination of the bridge's structurally deficient status.
4. The bridge must have an existing deck length spanning at least 20 feet (20') or greater.
5. The bridge must be listed on the PA Bridge Bill or Capital Budget. To clarify, the bridge must be listed on the "Bridge Bill" that is part of the final approved PA Capital Budget (see links below). The program is not accepting bridges listed in a PA Bridge Bill that is "pending approval."
6. The bridge project must include a letter of support from the County Planning Director with the application.
7. The municipality must be a PennDOT ECMS & RAS Registered Business Partner in order to request reimbursement.
8. For municipalities with projects selected in 2018, project completions are expected by or before August 1, 2021.

Municipal bridge projects that do not demonstrate items above are not considered for funding through this program.

DVRPC encourages all municipalities with bridges selected for retro-reimbursement to conduct all appropriate steps necessary to complete an approved retro-reimbursement agreement between the municipality and PennDOT by the deadline. If the timeline cannot be met, the municipality will still have 80 percent of the total project cost estimate reimbursed. However, the timing of the availability of state funding after the stated deadline is not guaranteed, which may delay the municipality for reimbursement once requested.

What is the PennDOT Retro-Reimbursement Process?

PennDOT's retro-reimbursement process differs from the traditional design-to-construction process for capital projects. Local bridge projects that follow "traditional" delivery process employ federal procedures and must follow the full PennDOT oversight project development process. Local bridge projects that follow a "retro-reimbursement" process adheres to the state liquid-fuel procedure, which streamlines reviews and delegates various PennDOT reviews to the local sponsor. In the retro-reimbursement procedure, PennDOT will still perform a structural adequacy review of the structure. A municipality that follows the retro-reimbursement process will use local funds to rehabilitate or replace the bridge and then request reimbursement from PennDOT. PennDOT will reimburse the municipality 80 percent of the following documented costs: design, engineering, right-of-way, utility, construction (including construction inspection and construction engineering); and the municipality will be responsible for 20 percent of the project costs. More specifically, the process entails the following steps:

1. The Municipality obtains the services of a design consultant by using its own procurement procedures.
2. Project bridge design must undergo a Structural Adequacy Review by PennDOT's Bridge Engineer (or delegates). The project bid package may not be advertised until this approval has been issued.
3. Municipality/Consultant prepares the bid package. The municipality advertises the project and opens bids according to its own procurement procedures.
4. If a Municipality does not have qualified personnel on its own staff, it must obtain the services of a qualified construction inspection consultant. This includes providing for inspections at fabricator facilities.
5. Municipality enters into a contract with the low-bid construction company. The selected contractor must be pre-qualified by PennDOT to perform the construction work.
6. Upon completion of the construction, municipality sends PennDOT's Project Manager documentation of project completion.
7. Municipality enters into a retro-reimbursement agreement with PennDOT. Agreement will be electronically processed through PennDOT's Reimbursement Agreement System (RAS).
8. Municipality submits invoices to PennDOT requesting 80 percent reimbursement and is subsequently paid by PennDOT based on availability of funds in the TIP line item, Municipal Bridge Line Item (MPMS #102105). Projects will be funded on a “first-come, first-served” basis. If final project cost is higher than requested amount at time of application, the municipality must work with PennDOT District 6 and DVRPC to resolve discrepancies in cost-overruns and be prepared to cover all cost increases that are above the requested amount in the application.

Project Application

The application from the previous two rounds covers the topics below and is subject to change in a future round.

1. General Project & Contact Information
2. Screening Questions
3. Project Cost Estimates
4. Bridge Facility
5. Safety
6. Economic Competitiveness
7. Congestion Reduction
8. Multimodal Bike/Pedestrian
9. Air Quality/Green Design Elements
10. Environmental
11. Planning
12. Community, Stakeholder, and Environmental Justice
13. Right-of-Way, Utilities, Railroads, Traffic Control

Submission Instructions

DVRPC is not accepting applications at this time.

PA Capital Budgets

• 1982-83 Budget (Amended in 1990) [0.3 MB PDF]
• 1982-83 Budget [1.2 MB PDF]
• 1991-92 Budget [0.6 MB PDF]
• 1993-94 Budget [0.5 MB PDF]
• 1994-97 Budget [6.6 MB PDF]
• 1999-2000 Budget [0.9 MB PDF]
• 2002-2003 Budget [0.4 MB PDF]
• 2004-2005 Budget [0.6 MB PDF]
• 2005-2006 Budget [0.8 MB PDF]
• 2008-2009 Budget [6.6 MB PDF]
• 2014-2015 Budget [1 MB PDF]

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). [0.3 MB pdf]
The FAQ document is continuously updated based on questions received. The document has been updated as of May 8, 2018.

For questions not answered in the FAQs, or if you are interested in applying for a future round, please contact Kwan Hui at khui@dvrpc.org or (215) 238 - 2894.