Section 4: Project Agreements
Anchor: #i1002274Overview
A Project Agreement is basically an executed project proposal, without the Research Facilities and Personnel Data Sheet. Unless the project is modified, the initial Project Agreement represents the project throughout its life.
After proposals are received for a project, there are several things that must happen before a Project Agreement is executed and the project is activated. They include:
- all responsive proposals are forwarded for technical evaluation and a final selection is made and approved,
- final funding for the selected proposal is approved, and
- revisions to the Project Agreement requested by TxDOT are completed.
The Cover Page, on RTI’s current form, and Exhibits A and B, including all required elements discussed in the previous section of this chapter, must be included in the final Project Agreement before it is executed by TxDOT.
Anchor: #i1002309Proposal Selection
On most projects only one proposal from those received is selected. More than one proposal may be selected on projects that are of high priority to TxDOT for which different proposers offer very different and innovative approaches. The ROC may determine that more than one solution proposed is viable and valuable to TxDOT.
Anchor: #i1002319Funding Approval
For projects intended to start on the first day of the next fiscal year, the ROC makes final decisions at their spring meeting, based on a financial analysis prepared by RTI.
Funding for mid-year projects is approved, from contingency funds, as needed and available. In these cases funding is approved before proposals are requested, and the Project Statement will typically identify the maximum funding available in the current fiscal year.
Anchor: #i1002334Revisions to the Project Agreement
An agreement may be revised, from the language in the proposal, up to the point when it is executed by TxDOT. With each revision, a new date should be shown on the cover page, and revisions should be clearly marked. If revisions are not clearly marked for review, they may be held to be invalid, even if the Project Agreement is executed.
All revision highlighting and strikethroughs should be incorporated into the agreement before execution.
Anchor: #i1002349Project Approval and Activation
Article 7 of the CRIA contains provisions for project approval. Project approval and activation is explained further below.
Annual Funding — Each project is approved and activated for each fiscal year separately. Even on projects that carry a termination date several years in the future, approval for the current fiscal year does not guarantee that future years of the project will be funded and approved. Funding for future years of a project is considered as each of those years is approaching.
Activation Letter — A project is considered approved and activated for the fiscal year once RTI issues an Activation Letter to the performing agency. Each Activation Letter states the beginning date of the project for that agency for the fiscal year. Work before that date will not be reimbursed by TxDOT.
Beginning Date of the Project — The project’s beginning date is the earliest activation date among all performing agencies. Therefore, on joint projects, an individual performing agency’s activation date may differ from the project's beginning date.
Conditional or Partial Project Activation — A project may be activated before all portions of the work have been fully approved. In such cases, the Activation Letter states which portions of the work are not yet approved. A subsequent Activation Letter is issued when and if those portions of the work are approved. Work on unapproved portions of a project will not be reimbursed by TxDOT.
Contract Documents — Along with the initial Activation Letter, RTI sends a fully executed copy of the Project Agreement.
For projects being modified, RTI sends an Activation Letter, a fully executed copy of the Modification, and any documents referenced on the Modification.
For projects continuing into a second or subsequent year, without the terms of the agreement being modified, the budget for that year is activated by RTI and the only document distributed for that fiscal year is the Activation Letter.