Funding Requirements of the New Visions Plan

Text Box: Activities outside CDTC’s realm are not included.Table 7 groups the various New Visions actions into categories of regional programs and specific major investments for purposes of estimating financial needs.  While an effort has been made to make the list as comprehensive as possible, there are some exceptions that should be noted for categories that include activities outside CDTC's traditional realm of highway and transit projects.  First, private funds are shown only for projects that are carried out through a formal public-private financing mechanism (such as building service roads through publicly collected mitigation fees).  Private costs for goods movement, rail operation and airline operation, for example, are not shown, nor are annual operating expenses for the port, airport or Amtrak service.

 

Within the transit arena, no firm estimate for the total cost of operating human service transportation is available locally or nationwide.  Therefore, only the costs related to FTA-financed vehicle replacement at human service agencies are shown.

 

Not surprisingly, the largest categories of costs shown in Table 7 are related to maintenance, operation and rehabilitation of the area's highways and bridges, exceeding $300 million per year in the four-county Capital Region.


Table 7: Budget Categories Used in New Visions

 

Actions Included

REGIONAL PROGRAMS

 

1

Intermodal Facilities

Amtrak stations, airports, port, other public facilities

2

Transit Infrastructure

Buses, garages, stops/shelters, etc…

3

Transit Service

Cost of operations

4

ITS and Traffic Infrastructure

Signals/surveillance/communication technology

5

ITS and Traffic Operations

ITS operations; non-ITS traffic operations

6

Highway Rehabilitation & Reconstruction -- Priority Network

Capital work: contractual and force account

7

Highway Rehabilitation & Reconstruction -- other

Capital work: contractual and force account

8

Bridge Rehabilitation & Reconstruction -- Priority Network

Capital work: contractual and force account

9

Highway and Bridge Maintenance

Routine patching, plowing, sweeping, etc…

10

Strategic Highway & Bridge Actions -- CMS based

Congestion relief, development mitigation

11

Strategic Highway & Bridge Actions -- economic development/community

Community enhancement, economic inducement

12

Supplemental Goods Movement Accommodations

Other projects not captured in projects above

13

Supplemental Bike & Pedestrian Accommodations

Other projects not captured in projects above

14

Supplemental Access Management Actions

Other projects not captured in projects above

15

Supplemental Safety Actions

Other projects not captured in projects above

16

Demand Management

Rideshare/transit/telecommuting/flex hour support

17

Integrated Planning & Outreach

Regional and local transportation/land use work

 

 


System Preservation and Full Implementation

The New Visions budget makes a distinction between system preservation and desired improvements that are part of the full implementation of recommendations.  The system preservation or "basic maintenance" budget is an estimate of the average annual cost over 20 years to preserve the system with its current design, current capacity and current average physical condition.  Financial requirements for system preservation include routine transit vehicle, highway, and bridge rehabilitation and replacement, but do not reflect improvement in vehicle or facility design.  If future funding were limited only to the system preservation levels, it would be possible to provide an equivalent transportation in the year 2015 and 2021 that is currently available -- with the same capacity, same design, same overall condition.  CDTC's careful articulation of system preservation budgetary requirements reflects the high priority that CDTC assigns to system preservation.

 

The full implementation budget reflects the average annual cost of implementing the New Visions actions at an aggressive, but plausible pace.  Under the full implementation budget, facilities and vehicles are improved per the recommendations of the plan and the overall physical condition of pavement and bridges is improved to meet stated goals.  The difference between the system preservation budget and the full implementation budget represents the plan's desired improvements.  The desired improvements are those items intended to make the region's transportation system function better, reduce user and environmental costs, complement the community, and meet the economic and travel challenges of the 21st century.  The desired improvements can also be seen as the primary source of policy direction; under constrained financial conditions, these improvements compete for scarce funds.

Budget Policy

CDTC's policy approach to advancing the desired improvements is to

 

(1)   Assure that basic system preservation needs are met first;

(2)   Seek progress across all fronts whenever funding levels exceeds the basic system preservation level and

(3)   Pursue funding levels sufficient to permit full implementation of the entire plan of reasonable actions.

 

CDTC's budget plan shows assumptions of funding availability and identifies the level of improvements possible under each.