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.

Statewide Planning and Research (SPR) activities by NYSDOT that directly pertain to the Capital District are listed in the text of the UPWP; but are not shown in the financial tables. Full documentation of the SPR program is available separately from NYSDOT.

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.

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 2005-06 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

In recent years, CDTC has built upon the New Visions foundation to explore new areas of cooperative effort. These include the 36 Community and Transportation Linkage studies as well as the New Visions for a Quality Region initiative begun in 2002; seven additional Linkage studies are included for the first time in the 2005-06 UPWP. CDTC will continue to develop its broad New Visions 2030 plan in the coming year. A New Visions 2025 Amendment was adopted by CDTC in August 2004 to bring CDTC into full compliance with federal regulations.

Technical work on multiple fronts was advanced in 2004-05, providing for an extended public involvement period that will help guide the development of the New Visions 2030 plan.