Transportation Planning

Overview
The Midstate Regional Planning Agency is the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Midstate Region. The region consists of the eight towns of northern Middlesex County including Cromwell, Durham, East Haddam, East Hampton, Haddam, Middlefield, Middletown, and Portland. MRPA is one of the three MPO's in the Hartford Urbanized Area. The other two MPO's are the Capital Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) in Hartford and the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency (CCRPA) in Bristol.

The MPO conducts regional transportation planning in the urbanized area, and all federally funded transportation projects need to be approved by the MPO. In this effort the MPO is required to produce a Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). the UPWP annually lists the activities the MPO will be involved with for the fiscal year.

The MPO also develops a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP is produced annually or bi-annually. The TIP is a list of federally funded transportation projects to maintain and enhance the transportation network of the region. Projects in the TIP are scheduled to receive federal funding over the next five fiscal years. They also must not increase emissions to be in conformity with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The TIP is an "active" document and is updated throughout the year.

MPO's also are required to produce a long-range Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The RTP is a twenty-five year plan and is updated every three years. The plan promotes the development of an integrated transportation system using various modes to provide for an efficient system, which maximizes the mobility of persons and goods through the region.

Public participation is an important part of the transportation planning process. Please contact MRPA to help shape the future of the region's transportation network.

Other Transportation Programs

STP-Urban Program
The STP-Urban program is one of several Surface Transportation Programs (STP) that provides funding for projects not on the Interstate System of National Highway System. The funds are intended to benefit arterial and collector roads in urbanized areas. Funds can be used for a wide range of projects including roadway widening, roadway reconstruction and transit projects. MRPA, rather than the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), is primarily responsible for determining how to utilize the STP-Urban funds in the region. The agency board reviews and ranks the applications and provides ConnDOT with a priority listing of the projects.

STP-Enhancement Program
MRPA solicits STP-Enhancement applications from member towns. Various transportation enhancements are eligible for funding providing a direct relationship to the intermodal transportation system is shown. The agency board provides ConnDOT with a priority list of the projects after review and ranking the applications. The number of selected projects from each region is determined by the availability of federal funds, and the estimated costs of priority projects.

Local Road Accident Reduction Program
MRPA's task in ConnDOT's Local Road Accident Reduction Program is to solicit proposals from member towns, conduct the initial screening of proposals, and identify those projects that will be forwarded to Conn DOT. These proposals are then evaluated by Conn DOT and ranked by benefit/cost ratio.

Section 5310 Program
MRPA solicits FTA Section 5310 grant applications from non-profit organizations and public entities for the purchase of lift-equipped wheelchair accessible vehicles. The agency board reviews and ranks the applications and provides Conn DOT with a priority listing of the regional applications. These regional applications are then evaluated by ConnDOT at the statewide level.

Other Transportation Projects

Incident Management
Nonrecurring incidents such as accidents and vehicle breakdowns are responsible for approximately 50% of all highway congestion. Incident management helps manage highway congestion by providing quicker response times, quicker accident clearance times and safer traffic management in the vicinity of the incident. MRPA is part of the Capital Region Incident Management Steering Committee formed in 1998. The committee is composed of representatives for State and local police, local fire services, emergency medical sevices, towing companies, State agencies (Transportation and Environmental Protection) and regional planning agencies.

Issues faced by these groups in their response efforts have been identified and the Steering Committee works to address them. The goal is increased coordination, cooperation, and communication among all responding agencies.

In October 2003, the state Transportation Strategy Board endorsed the Incident Management Task Force White Paper and in November, established a permanent statewide Task Force to address incident management issues.

Intelligent Transportation Systems
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applies advanced technology to improve operations and management of the transportation network through increased efficiency and capacity, improving safety, reducing environmental cost and enhancing mobility. Examples of ITS components include variable message signs, automatic vehicle location systems, emergency vehicle preemption systems, and surveillance cameras.

A regional (ITS) Architecture has been developed encompassing the three MPO's in the Hartford Urbanized Area. The architecture is a framework showing how ITS solutions are interrelated, and how information is exchanged. Area stakeholders such as representatives from emergency response agencies, municipal public works and police departments, area transit operators, and others have worked with Department of Transportation and its consultant IBI Group to develop an architecture that illustrates the existing and proposed ITS systems in the greater Hartford area.

After April, 2005, any transportation project with an ITS component will be required to conform to the regional ITS Architecture.

Transportation Investment Areas
Legislation passed in 2001 established a Transportation Strategy Board (TSP) and with it five Transportation Investment Areas (TIA's). The TSB was required to submit an initial transportation strategy and preliminary cost projections to the Governor and the General Assembly in January 2002. In order to assist the Connecticut TSB in developing the statewide strategic plan, TIA's were created using existing regional planning organizations, in an effort to provide local and regional input planning process. Legislation required that the TIA's submitted its plan to the governor and assembly. the TIA board reaffirmed its recommendations in 2004 and in December 2004, the TSB submitted an update of the plan to the governor.

MRPA is part of the I-91 corridor TIA. MRPA's secretary William Lee Osborne is the regional planning organization representative to the I-91 corridor TIA board. Michael Doyle, from the Association of Commuter Rail Employees is the public representative.

Public Involvement and Environmental Justice
MRPA adopted a formal transportation planning public involvement policy document in 1994 to receive public comments regarding the impacts associated with transportation decisions and address community needs. The document is reviewed on a regular basis and was reviewed in 2000 and 2003. It is of foremost importance to assess and evaluate the impacts associated with transportation decisions using valuable input from the public. The information received through the public involvement process assists decision makers in responding to concerns that adequately addresses community needs.

MRPA has prepared a Midstate Region Minority and Low Income Populations document using Census 2000 block group statistics. Maps and tables identify areas with higher concentrations of the Environmental Justice populations.

MRPA has also prepared a Linguistic Analysis of the Midstate Region document using Census 2000 statistics. Maps and tables identify areas with higher concentrations of non-English speaking populations and limited English proficiency (LEP) populations.

These documents are used to help analyze the distribution of transportation benefits and burdens as they relate to these populations.