RTA in Public Square

"Buses Only" is painted on the closed portion of Superior Avenue on Jan. 2, 2017. The FTA gives RTA 30 days to repay the $12 million grant funding, after which time the debt can be forwarded to collection agencies or the FTA can withhold expected federal funding to cover the cost. (Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer)

(Lisa DeJong)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Mayor Frank Jackson is asking the federal government for more time to repay the $12 million it owes for closing Superior Avenue to buses.

In a Jan. 5 letter sent directly to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Mayor Jackson asks for an extension beyond the allotted 30 days to "address Cleveland's safety concerns with the reopening of Superior Avenue at the Square and identify any operational and financial impacts to GCRTA from continued closure."

In not permitting buses to cross Public Square, RTA is not upholding its end of a funding deal it made years ago for the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project, the Federal Transit Administration asserts. Federal transit officials have given RTA until Jan. 19 to either repay $12 million in federal grants or to submit an appeal for breaching a federal funding agreement.

In the letter sent to Secretary Anthony Foxx, who oversees the FTA through his role as head of the Department of Transportation, Mayor Jackson asked for more time for the City and RTA to complete the traffic study before having to repay the $12 million.

Traffic counts were supposed to be conducted today at seven intersections throughout downtown but were postponed until Wednesday because of the weather.

The city and RTA are trying to show the FTA that closing Superior Avenue to buses will not impede bus traffic - and thus hurt riders - through the downtown transit zone, which stretches from West Third Street to East 18th Street on Superior Avenue, and West Third Street to East 12th Street on St. Clair Avenue. The transit zone was created as part of the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project and thus is tied to the funding in question.

The City's Chief of Operations Darnell Brown said Tuesday during a press conference that existing enhancements made on streets outside of Public Square since the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project deal could have helped improve public transit service in the transit zone. The traffic study study will analyze the impact of those changes, as well as other potential changes to traffic patterns throughout the transit zone, namely giving traffic light priority to buses, on transit times.

"The goal there would be to determine could the savings there more than mitigate any delays caused by the 600-foot closure," RTA CEO Joe Calabrese said.

Using data from the traffic study, the two parties hope to devise a plan to submit to the FTA in lieu of paying the $12 million fee.

Brown wouldn't share any insight on whether or not the FTA would accept such a plan but wasn't reserved to defeat at the federal level.

"There's been a lot of communication," Brown said. "I'm not at liberty to say where we are right now. There is an opportunity to have a different outcome on that."

But he did say that the City and RTA needed more time to complete the study, which likely wouldn't be finished until Jan. 18, just a day before the FTA's initial deadline.

"We know this is a very timely issue. We don't have a lot of time to facilitate doing this," Brown said.

When asked what the City will do if the FTA won't grant concurrence for its plan, Brown said that is still to be determined.

During the press conference, Brown reiterated comments Mayor Jackson has made about the City's willingness to reopen Public Square to buses if the impact to RTA cant's be mitigated and if the City's concerns about safety are addressed.

He said both of the City's safety chiefs are looking at the situation to determine what needs to be done and can be done to address the identified safety concerns.