This lesson describes work eligibility, cost eligibility, and documentation requirements for project formulation for work on roads and culverts.

Upon completion of this lesson, participants will be able to:

• Describe eligible disaster-related damage sustained by roads and culverts
• Identify documentation requirements and records for disaster-related damage sustained by roads and culverts

The Applicant must demonstrate legal responsibility for the damaged road or culvert to FEMA for the work to be considered eligible for Public Assistance grant funding.

To demonstrate legal responsibility, an Applicant should retain a documented map of the roads and culverts for which they are legally responsible.

Within each county, parish, or borough, the respective engineering department maintains maps of the roads within their geographic region, depicting which entity (e.g., county, Federal government, local municipality) is legally responsible for each road.

A township and a county have a mutual aid agreement. The agreement includes the county maintaining certain roads for the township's general upkeep.

Years after the agreement, a tornado impacts the township. The county acts on its mutual aid agreement and begins construction to repair significant damage throughout the township roads.

To recoup the money for this construction work, the county and township need to communicate on what disaster-related damages occurred and the documentation for any repairs done on the damages.

As the owner of the roads, it is important that the township apply for Public Assistance and include the costs the county incurred. The county may still conduct the work under the mutual aid agreement, but the township must apply for the assistance.

The Applicant is responsible for showing that work is required to address damage caused by the declared incident. There are certain ways that Applicants can demonstrate disaster-related damage.

To demonstrate that damages are eligible for Public Assistance grant funding the Applicant should:

• Conduct a damage assessment
• Document disaster-related damage
• Document pre-disaster conditions

When an incident occurs, potential Applicants must document the disaster-related damage and provide that documentation to FEMA.

If damages are Work to be Completed, FEMA may document these damages at the time of the site inspection.

For completed work, the Applicant must provide FEMA with documentation of the disaster-related damage.

Examples of some of the required documents:

• Photographs of the site, overall facility, and specific damage
• Detailed description of damage with dimensions
• Activity logs should capture damage maintenance separately from routine maintenance
• Drawings, sketches, and plans of disaster-related damage (to scale)

If an incident damages a road or a culvert multiple times, and the Applicant repairs it each time, the Applicant must document each repair to be eligible to obtain grant funding for all repairs. Below is an example:

• Heavy rains occur on May 1
• The roots from fallen trees damage a township's road
• The township subsequently repairs the road
• Heavy rains occur again on May 4
• The same road is damaged by another root system from a fallen tree, and the township repairs the road
• Heavy rains fall on May 6
• Another tree to damage the road again
• The township repairs the road once more
• Heavy rains happen once again from May 8 - May 12
• The township realizes the damage recurs and the rain will not let up
• They do not repair the road until the rain stops for a few days
• The President declares a major disaster for the township's county for the incident period of May 4 - May 12

Each time the township repaired the road, it should have documented the damage and the work to repair it.

• For damages incurred between May 4 - May 12, the township can submit for reimbursement the cost of repair through the Public Assistance grant program
• The repair for the May 1 damage is ineligible because it did not occur during the declared incident period

FEMA requires the Applicant to submit documentation of the pre-disaster conditions of the damaged roads and culverts.

• Documentation demonstrates the roads and culverts incurred the damages during the incident rather than the damages occurring prior to the incident
• The Applicant is responsible to demonstrate the incident caused the damages to the roads and culverts
• Regular maintenance is not eligible for Public Assistance funding
• Work to repair potholes or fatigue cracking is generally ineligible as this type of damage is rarely caused by a single incident

The Program Delivery Manager will ask the Applicant for documentation showing the pre-disaster condition of the roads and culverts after the site inspection.

Photographs and videos play an important role in determining the condition of the road or culvert pre-disaster. Videos and photographs provide FEMA with a visual representation of the road and/or culvert before the disaster and provide information to determine the condition of the facility.

• Potential Applicants should keep an updated photo-catalogue of all roads for which they have legal responsibility
• If possible, they should video the conditions of the roads and culverts for which they have legal responsibility and update them regularly

All photographs and videos should contain:

• The date the picture/video was taken
• An identifier of where the picture/video was taken
• An identifier of scale of the road or culvert

To obtain Public Assistance grant funding, the Applicant must provide FEMA with a maintenance record of the damaged road/culvert.

• FEMA does not pay for road and culvert maintenance but does provide grant funding for eligible damage related to the incident
• Maintenance records should consist of an activity or work log, such as a spreadsheet
• The activity/work log should state whether the Applicant repaired a road/culvert due to an incident or conducted routine maintenance
• Maintenance should occur in a set pattern. It should show that the Applicant carries out routine maintenance on a regular schedule
• Frequency of maintenance or having a maintenance plan that states when maintenance occurs, supports maintenance records
• Completing maintenance "as needed" is not a maintenance schedule, unless stated specifically in the maintenance plan (e.g., "After a heavy rain, the road crew will inspect and repair XXXX road.")
• The Applicant will not be eligible for Public Assistance grant funding if the Applicant does not have maintenance records, provides inconsistent maintenance records, or shows neglect
• Potential Applicants should upkeep maintenance logs not only for FEMA grant funding, but also for managing their infrastructure and budget process

When an Applicant provides FEMA with documentation of pre-disaster conditions for their roads and/or culverts, they should include an activity/work log. The log consists of:

• Date of work
• Location of work
• Description of the work/routine maintenance vs. incident related and type of work (e.g. dirt road)
• Labor
• Size of the crew (including names of individuals and positions)
• Number of hours worked
• Materials used (e.g., tons of gravel)
• Equipment used
• Type of equipment used
• Number of hours the equipment was used, including the operator

There are some factors involved with determining the scope of work and cost of a project. These include:

• Documentation of the pre-disaster design, function, and capacity
• Repair of the facility
• Improved or alternate projects
• Considerations for scope of work and cost estimates

When creating the scope of work, the Applicant determines who will complete the work.

• Force account labor
• An Applicant's personnel are considered "force account" labor
• FEMA reimburses force account labor based on the employee's hourly wage plus the employee's fringe benefits
• Contract labor
• An Applicant may request or obtain contract labor to conduct the work to repair the roads or culverts

An Applicant has many equipment options to repair or replace their damaged road/culvert. FEMA provides grant funds for equipment the Applicant uses during repair/replacement of their road or culvert.

Force account equipment

• This is equipment owned by the Applicant
• FEMA funds the Applicant based on hourly rates or mileage placed on vehicles used
• FEMA only applies equipment rates to the time the Applicant is actually operating equipment
• Although costs associated with mobilizing equipment to a project site are eligible, costs for standby time (time spent on hold or in reserve) are not eligible unless the equipment operator uses the equipment intermittently for more than half of the working hours for a given day
• In this case the intermittent standby time is eligible

Purchased equipment

• If an Applicant does not have the proper equipment, they may purchase the equipment if it is the most cost effective option
• FEMA provides Public Assistance funding for both the purchase price and one of the following:
• The use of the equipment based on equipment rates (without the ownership and depreciation components); OR
• The actual fuel and maintenance cost

Leased equipment

• FEMA provides Public Assistance funding based on the term of the lease
• Leasing costs are eligible if:
• The Applicant determined and provides an analysis of the leased equipment being less expensive than purchasing the equipment outright; AND
• The total leasing costs do not exceed the cost of the purchasing and maintaining equipment during the life of the eligible project

The Applicant should review their policies to make sure they have equipment cost codes for FEMA to use when obligating Public Assistance funds for the use of equipment.

• An Applicant should review their State, Local, Tribal, or Territorial cost codes, as applicable
• If the Applicant does not have a cost code they may use FEMA's equipment cost codes

An Applicant can decide to replace their road or culvert with an Improved Project.

• For any Improved Project, FEMA must approve of the project for the Applicant to receive grant funding
• FEMA will cap and fund the Improved Project grant award in the amount necessary to repair or restore a facility to its pre-disaster design, condition, function and capacity, along with necessary and required Codes and Standards for the FEMA approved work
• The Applicant will be responsible for funding the "Improvement" portion of the project
• In designing and building the Improved Project, the Applicant must meet all codes and standards
• Note: For information on codes and standards, please refer to the course:  IS-1019 Codes and Standards
• Upgrades, under new construction, required by repair or replacement codes, are only eligible if the code or standard:
• Applies to the type of restoration required
• Is appropriate to the pre-disaster use of the facility
• Is reasonable, in writing, formally adopted by the State, Local, Tribal, or Territorial government and implemented by the Applicant on or before the declaration date, or is a legal federal requirement
• Applies uniformly
• Was enforced during the time it was in effect

What is an Improved Project?

• 44 CFR 206.203(d)(1) states a project that restores the pre-disaster function, and at least the same capacity of the damaged facility, and incorporates improvements or changes to its pre-disaster design not required by eligible codes or standards (e.g., using the funds for a single lane road to expand it to a four-lane road)

In this lesson, participants learned about work eligibility and documentation requirements for project formulation on roads and culverts.

The next lesson provides key components of documenting disaster-related damages to roads and culverts.