The Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) is the designated
Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Capital District
Transportation Management Area (TMA) which includes the metropolitan area of
The CDTC Policy Board is
composed of representatives of local governments and transportation
agencies. Its membership includes the
chief elected officials of each of the region's eight
cities and four counties and members representing the area's towns and
villages. Representatives of NYSDOT,
CDTA, the Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC), the New York
State Thruway Authority, the Albany County Airport Authority, and the Albany
Port District Commission complete the roster.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) serve as advisory members to the Committee. Through this intergovernmental forum, local
and regional transportation issues are discussed, and transportation policies
and programs are developed. Further
information concerning the organizational structure of CDTC, its
responsibilities and the responsibilities of member organizations, is presented
in A Reference Guide to the CDTC
published in April 1999.
One of the important
responsibilities of CDTC is to program for the implementation of the products
of the planning process through development of a staged multi-year program of
transportation improvements (the Transportation Improvement Program or
TIP). Federal regulations require that
transit, highway and other transportation improvement projects within the
Capital District metropolitan area be included in this TIP if these projects
are to be eligible for federal capital or operating funding. The program should also include, for
informational purposes, non-federally funded projects and New York State
Thruway Authority projects located in the region. Sufficient information must be given in
project listing to:
¨
identify
each project;
¨
estimate
total costs and the amounts of federal, state, and local funds proposed to be
obligated by project phase during the program period by federal fiscal year
against those costs;
¨
designate
the proposed type of federal funds to be used by the project;
¨
identify the
responsible party for project implementation;
¨
note the
exempt/non-exempt status for air quality conformity purposes, and
¨
identify the planning
reference from which each project was derived (23 USC §134 (a)(h) or FTA §8(a)(h)).
Appendix C contains a
complete list of all funding programs required to be included in the TIP. All projects in the CDTC TIP are located
within a defined metropolitan area boundary, for which the air quality
designation is consistent throughout.
Therefore, individual project listings do not specify location in terms
of metropolitan versus non-metropolitan or attainment versus non-attainment
designation.
In addition, the TIP
should indicate present estimates of total TIP costs and revenues for the
program period. The TIP must be
constrained to estimates of federal-aid revenue attributable to the CDTC area
by federal fiscal year (10/1 to 9/31).
Meeting this requirement has necessitated adjustments to project
schedules, and certain assumptions regarding the use of flexibility among
federal-aid fund sources. Project
Selection Procedures, presented on page 39, provide flexibility necessary when CDTC's TIP is incorporated in the State Transportation
Improvement Program (STIP).
The TIP must also meet
the requirements established by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act (42
USC Sections 7140 et seq.) regarding the conformity of transportation
plans and programs. This Air Quality
Conformity finding begins on page 49. Federal regulations also require that the TIP
be approved by CDTC as the MPO for the Capital District metropolitan area,
undergo a minimum 30-day public comment period, and that a public meeting be
held (23 CFR §450.324(c)).
The public review period
was from