OVERVIEW OF THE UNIFIED PLANNING WORK PROGRAM

The Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) identifies transportation planning and programming activities that are to be undertaken in the Capital District during the upcoming year. The intent of a comprehensive work plan is to coordinate all federally-funded transportation planning and transportation-related planning activities in the region. Such planning activities are assisted by several federal sources of funding. These include:

. Federal Transit Administration (FTA): Section 5303 funds and Section 5307 funds;

. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA): 1% Planning (PL), Statewide Planning and Research (SPR) funds and Surface Transportation Program (STP), Congestion Mitigation / Air Quality (CMAQ) or other capital funds committed to planning efforts in the Transportation Improvement Program; and,

. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): Airport Improvement Program funds.

. US Department of Energy funds supporting the Clean Communities Program.

It should be noted that NYSDOT has chosen not to report its Statewide Planning and Research (SPR) activities or its Statewide Transit Planning activities in the UPWP; these are documented separately.

In addition to the required descriptions of tasks using federal funds, CDTC also describes contractual efforts with Albany County, Saratoga County and town of Colonie in the UPWP. Further, CDTC's "Community and Transportation Linkage" Program has increased the amount of local commitment to coordinated regional / local, land use / transportation planning. The 2003-04 UPWP reflects local cash exceeding $200,000 to complement CDTC's commitment of federal funds to Linkage Program planning efforts and over $70,000 in local contractual support of CDTC efforts.

Work efforts performed for each item listed in the UPWP is undertaken by the CDTC Staff, CDTC's participating agencies' staff, or by consultants. The 2003-04 UPWP also includes over $400,000 in activities in support of and funded by the state's twelve MPOs.

CDTC'S NEW VISIONS REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN

AND THE UNIFIED PLANNING WORK PROGRAM

The New Visions work in the 1990's grappled with long-term budgetary needs; generated twenty-five planning and investment principles and identified forty-three actions to assure a stable, balanced transportation system; and raised the stakes regarding transportation and land use integration. As a result of all this work, the CDTC cooperative planning effort in recent years has been directed by the broad vision of the plan.

In recent years, CDTC has built upon this foundation to explore new areas of cooperative effort. These include the 26 Community and Transportation Linkage studies initiated over the past three years as well as the New Visions for a Quality Region initiative begun in 2002. CDTC will continue to develop its broad New Visions 2030 plan in the coming year, being mindful of both the continuing federal requirement of a three-year update cycle and the need to take the time to fully explore the complicated transportation - regional land use issues of the Quality Region work.