Next time include a statement about the
project implementers being committed to the schedule.
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 Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties, with the exception of the Glens Falls urban area, which extends into northern Saratoga County. As the MPO, CDTC, in cooperation
with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and the Capital
District Transportation Authority (CDTA), is responsible for carrying out the
continuing, comprehensive, coordinated transportation planning process for the
Capital District region. Part of the
planning responsibility is the maintenance of a long-range Regional
Transportation Plan (RTP). CDTC's most recent RTP is called New Visions. Additionally,
the Committee is responsible for maintaining short-range Transportation
Improvement Programs (TIP's) for the metropolitan area's major highway and
transit facilities.
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 9/30). 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 March 24, 2005 until April 25,
2005. Those comments and staff
responses appears in Appendix F.