Cost Overruns and 2024-2029 Funding Cycle: At the MPO

On Tuesday the 11th our Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold meetings for its technical committee and also a public Open House for the 2024-2029 funding cycle, whose formal document is called the TIP, the Transportation Improvement Program.

It is a little baffling the way the MPO is framing the TIP. On social media they write:

Planning through 2029. The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) allocates $20 million of federal funds over the next six years to bicycling, walking, transit, and road projects in the region.

On the project page they invite the public to "provide comments of the draft projects."

They are framing it like there's some opportunity for the public to comment on which projects get funding!

"no new projects" in the 2024-2029 TIP

But because of our current pattern of cost overruns, "no new projects, beyond those that were [already] included in the previous illustrative years and on-going programs, were recommended for funding."

The project prioritization and selection in this 2024 document totally depend and follow on the project selection and prioritization for the 2021 document.

In a basic way, there is nothing new here. And there is very limited scope for the public to shape and prioritize any new project funding.

The MPO should be clearer in public communication about what the real opportunities are for comment.

Verda Lane overruns and Commercial St sidewalk

As for the technical committee, they'll be looking at overruns on a project in Keizer, and they list as a potential option for covering that a delay of an important project in Salem, the missing sidewalk between Vista and Ratcliff on Commercial Street SE.

So that bears watching.

Update on OR-22/OR-51 project

They'll also get an update on the OR-22/OR-51 project. You may recall the overengineering and roundabouts.

Last week at the Area Commission on Transportation, an advisory group and kind of subcomittee to the Oregon Transportation Commission, our local 350.org chapter advocated for a thorough reconsideration of the project.

Excerpt of 350.org letter

And it turns out this project is in the TIP also.

OR-22/OR-51 Project included in TIP

So this might be one place for specific comment to the MPO: Tell them to cancel this project and to start over with a plan that follows the Governor's orders to ODOT on greenhouse gas reduction and does not expand capacity and induce more emissions and travel.

Still, the main comment opportunity at the MPO is not on project selection, but more generally for more safety for those not in cars; stronger policy in support of reducing speeds and reducing emissions; and stronger policy for realistic choices with the drive not taken, for trips on foot, by wheel, and by bus.

Safety and climate. Those are the two values the MPO is not weighting sufficiently.

The Open House is from 4:30pm to 6:00pm above Epilogue Kitchen, with the entry between Icarus and Epilogue on High Street at State. You can download a two-page brochure on the TIP here.