TDOT eGrants

If I followed my Mother’s advice of “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all” I would not have even started this post. I will try and make this as positive and informative as I can.

Several years ago TDOT started making local governments that were initiating new locally managed Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) projects do so through the eGrants program that the State of Tennessee is using. While this is not the same program as the Edison finance software that the State of Tennessee put into place across all State Agencies about a decade ago, there are many similarities.

Both eGrants and Edison are off the self software programs that are mainly aimed at the way private industry works. They are two different things, and I don’t think that they share information between each of them. There is a big difference between a company who is aimed at making a profit, and a public agency who is aimed at providing services. Neither of these programs has fans with the people who have to use it on a daily basis.

Here is how the nuts and bolts of eGrants works:

1. Your Agency and Staff have to get set up into eGrants before you can do anything. For my Federally funded, TDOT Local Programs Projects you start by taking to the TDOT Local Programs Office and ask them to help you and your Agency Staff set up with user names and passwords. The same holds true for Engineering consultants. They have to be set up in the same manner. And since more and more of the TDOT submitals and comments back are going through eGrants this is something that more and more people are going to need to figure out.
   
2. If you are a local government, once you have your staff set up in eGrants, THEN you can fill it out and submit your application for STBG funds, or Transportation Alternatives grant applications (as well as going through eGrants if your project gets funded). I think that the Congestion Mitigation (CMAQ) and Multimodal projects also have to have their grant applications and projects go through eGrants as well now. Information will be entered in on the project, and documents uploaded, sometimes the same information in multiple places.
   
3. Once the project is under contract with TDOT and funded through a Notice to Proceed, then this will become a major way that you communicate with the TDOT Local Programs Office. Many, but not all of the submitals have to be uploaded into eGrants. This can be a problem due to the file size limit (around 15mb) that eGrants has. Comments back from TDOT for various plans come back through eGrants. Where things go in eGrants and how often your need to check things in there is still a work in progress.
   
4. The big thing that has moved to eGrants is the TDOT reimbursement process. If the project is set up into eGrants then ALL TDOT reimbursements will be process through eGrants. This requires getting staff properly set up in the system and following the process of creating a reimbursement request, uploading the back up documentation, getting it electronically signed and approved by the correct people, and then going to a whole other screen to change the status to “submit”.
   
   The TDOT reimbursement process has always been a challenge and a moving target on what is required. In some ways eGrants is an improvement. There is transparency in uploading and submitting documents there. TDOT can’t say that “they didn’t get it”.

That is eGrants in a nut shell.

My main gripe with eGrants is that it is not intuitive to use. Another problem with it is that the program is not controlled by the TDOT Local Programs Office. So if you make an error, like a duplicate record which is easy to do, then they have to go to another office to see if it can be fixed. There are things that the Local Programs Office does not have access to, which can make things difficult and repetitive.

Please do not take this as a criticism of TDOT or the TDOT Local Programs Office. The folks up at the TDOT Local Programs Office who have to work with this program, are not the ones who asked for it. I am sure that they have their own issues with it as well.

The bottom line is that this is the way of the future. More types of projects and more kinds of TDOT submitals will be going through the eGrants process. Given the history of these programs they will not be “fixed” at a fundamental level, but instead work-arounds will be created.

Here is my advice to anyone who has a project that they have to go through TDOT eGrants with:

-Create your own user manual. This is what I have had to do. Even if it is a folder with screen shots and chicken scratch notes saying “then go to this screen and click this thing”. This will help out a lot. Most of the time you will need to go into eGrants to do things on an infrequent basis. This makes it hard to use. You will struggle to learn how to do it right once. Then 6 or 8 weeks later when you have to do it again you have forgotten the process. Take notes, it will help you a lot.

-Talk to your neighbor. In addition to emailing your TDOT Program Monitor in the Local Programs Office (which you will need to do a lot) to ask questions, talk to other local governments who have project in eGrants. Believe me the staff from these communities has a wealth of knowledge that they have had to learn the hard way. These would include any of the City or Counties in one of the 11 Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) areas, or one of the 52 cities that receive their own STBG fund balances (any City or Town over 5,000 in population). I work with a number of these folks and they would be more than happy to help you figure it out.

I hope that this has been helpful. Like I said, eGrants is here to stay. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on eGrants.