4 - Project Selection
The GBNRTC shares responsibility with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and the Niagara frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) for cooperatively developing transportation plans and programs that ensure an integrated multimodal transportation system serves and supports metropolitan community development and the social goals of the Greater Buffalo-Niagara region.
The intent of a Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) in its simplest terms is to carry out the region’s transportation vision as explained in the MTP, within the constraints of available funding.
The GBNRTC has as its goal the selection of quality projects that address the current and near-future transportation needs of the region while adhering to defined regional, state and federal planning priorities.
The MTP and studies that have been completed through the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) are also used to guide project selection.
Highway Plan Selection
The GBNRTC typically undergoes a defined project selection process to select road and bridge projects:
Review of current federal and state guidelines and legislation
Identify and prioritize any project that had been moved off of previous TIP(s) and make sure they are included (if still valid/needed/wanted by sponsor) and fully funded
Consideration of recommendations from other long and short-term regional plans
Maintain focus on asset management and system preservation
Needs identification involving a review of data sources, visualization techniques, and priority rankings
Needs assessment focusing on program prioritization and performance management
Solicit project proposals from member agencies
Project proposals presented to TPS
TIP-MTP linkage analysis performed
TPS develops final financially constrained project listing - overall program must always be in compliance with defined funding targets
TPS recommends fiscally constrained project listing to PCC
Highway System Conditions
A Highway System Conditions report was prepared for GBNRTC members at the beginning of the TIP project development phase.
This report includes extensive data on system condition information for the following items:
Bridge Conditions
Pavement Conditions
Congestion
Bicycle/Pedestrian Needs
Safety
Social Equity/Justice Target areas
This information is provided to assist members in identifying projects for the next TIP.
Transit Plan Selection
When the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA - the region’s transit agency) assembles its program of projects through its annual budget and financial planning process, their Grants and Government Affairs staff works with the GBNRTC to ensure the new or existing TIP/STIP documents are aligned or modified to reflect the NFTA’s capital budget and financial plan. All TIP/STIP Amendments and Administrative Modifications maintain fiscal constraint.
As required by Section 1299-s of the Public Authorities Law (PAL), the NFTA internally prepares a five-year Capital Plan (the Plan). The Plan sets goals and objectives for capital spending, identifies projects that will maintain system infrastructure and/or enhance the system, and itemizes estimated costs and funding sources for each project. The capital projects outlined in the Plan are supported by revenue assumptions that either flow through the operating budget as direct capital (i.e. NFTA local funds), or are supported by specific granting agencies and their respective funding programs (i.e. FTA, NYSDOT, NYSDTF, or Erie County). All capital projects included in the NFTA’s Capital Plan supported by direct capital or specific granting agencies are based on grant agreements or estimates of future revenues based on historical receipts.
Capital projects included in the Plan that contribute to the maintenance of the system are originally determined at the division-level of each business center. Here, NFTA management and staff continually evaluate system conditions to identify needed preventive or corrective maintenance projects. Such evaluations include on-going asset inspections, state-of-good-repair studies, and asset condition reporting to assess the asset’s working condition, performance, level of maintenance, and age relative to FTA’s Useful Life Policies (FTA C 5010.1D). The asset condition reporting system uses an FTA-suggested criteria that assigns a condition score on a scale ranging from 5 (excellent condition) to 0 (non-operable). Capital assets that have a condition rating of 2.5 or less, are deemed to present a safety issue, or are subject to regulatory mandate are subsequently prioritized and targeted for rehabilitation or replacement. These projects often include facility upgrades, equipment and vehicle replacements, and other transit infrastructure and safety projects.
In addition to the preventive maintenance projects described above, NFTA division-level management and staff continually work to identify and implement new and innovative capital projects to enhance the transit system. Potential projects are evaluated against available funding sources and their ability to increase ridership and revenues, improve the fiscal stability of the NFTA, and advance the NFTA’s overall mission to enhance the quality of life of residents and visitors across Western New York. If a potential project meets these objectives and is supported by an identified funding source, it may be included in the Capital Plan. Examples of such projects include planning feasibility studies, fare collection system upgrades, and transit signal priority projects to name a few. Often, funding for these projects come from external grant sources that represent new funding to the region, therefore maintaining fiscal constraint.
Once the business center divisions submit their system maintenance and enhancement capital project proposals, NFTA’s Executive Management (Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer, and Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis) meet with business center directors to finalize the Capital Plan and submit it to the NFTA Board of Directors for approval. Once approved, these projects are included in both the NFTA’s Capital Plan and subsequently added to the TIP/STIP.
Metropolitan Transportation Plan Linkage
The GBNRTC is required to develop a regional transportation plan the plan to allocate federal, state and local dollars to transportation projects across the region. 23 CFR 450.324 Subparts (a) and (c) require that GBNRTC update the region’s long-range metropolitan transportation plan every four years to determine its consistency with current trends and conditions and to maintain at least a 20-year planning horizon.
Moving Forward 2050 is the GBNRTC’s 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). The plan is a framework to develop projects, and to put these into action through regional partnerships and innovative funding. The plan was approved by the GBNRTC Policy Committee on May 11, 2018 via Resolution 2018-6. The plan aims to use transportation investments to strengthen communities and focus growth where we already have infrastructure, create economic development, and support workforce access. The plan also looks at ways to improve mobility using technology, to reduce GHGs, and to protect and enhance our natural environment.
To achieve this regional vision for our transportation system, the Moving Forward 2050 plan incorporates a policy framework to help guide future decisions about transportation policies, strategies, and investments in terms of these four core focus areas:
Economy - Our economy will be globally competitive with shared prosperity that spreads economic opportunities and benefits to all residents in the region.
Communities - Our communities will be brimming with opportunities, providing residents with various lifestyle choices and attracting new, diverse residents, businesses and investments from all over the world.
Environment - Our environment will be ecologically healthy and easily accessible so that all residents and visitors have abundant opportunities to enjoy our region’s world class waterways and open spaces.
Innovation - We will be making transformative changes to the way we plan, fund and implement the region’s transportation investments through harnessing technological advances, making data-driven decisions and utilizing creative and diverse partnerships and funding sources.
The detailed MTP goals and objectives on pages 58-59 of the MTP document for each of these key areas in turn serve to inform the project selection process to identify transformative investments in the Moving Forward 2050 listing of representative projects and corresponding total estimated cost for each.
Candidate TIP Project Linkage Process
Under federal regulations (CFR 23 450.326(a)), TIPs must reflect the investment priorities established in the current Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
In the past, this was passively done using qualitative analysis of TIP project candidates. Candidates were not subjected to any type of quantitative analysis and did not receive an individual TIP-MTP linkage rating.
To improve our overall approach to performance-based planning, in June 2021, twenty-eight GBNRTC member representatives and staff participated in a FHWA-sponsored virtual workshop series on how to develop competitive transportation projects for the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) that align with the Moving Forward 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
Following the workshop, an action plan was developed by GBNRTC staff that focused on four major areas. Each focus area was broken down into action(s), timeframe and responsible agencies.
Enhancing Programming and Project Prioritization Processes
Defining Program and Project Needs for Data and Analytics
Partner and Stakeholder Coordination and Education on Data and Analytics
Identifying and Applying Analysis Techniques and Methods in Buffalo-Niagara Region
The action plan was used as a guide to update the GBNRTC’s TIP project candidate submission process. Given the timing of the workshop and development of the revised project submission form, it was determined that this initial evaluation of how well candidate projects
To assist in determining individual project candidate MTP linkages, a new project submission form was created that required project sponsors to explain how each of their submission related to the following criteria:
MTP goals
System performance
Transit accessibility
Bicycle/pedestrian accommodations
GBNRTC’s regional bicycle plan
Business attraction and retention
Social equity including Areas of Persistent Poverty (>20%) and regionally defined Communities of Concern
A scoring system was developed with a maximum of 9 points available. The more points that a project scored, the better the TIP MTP linkage was determined to be. The scores were broken down into 3 categories:
1 to 3 points = “Low” MTP Alignment
3 to 5 points = “Medium” MTP Alignment
6 to 9 points = “High” MTP Alignment
Given the timing of the workshop and development of the revised project submission form, it was determined that this initial evaluation of candidate projects would be conducted on a demonstration basis for the current TIP process and become a formal component of overall project selection in future TIP cycles.
From the initial screening of candidate projects, the following types of projects typically received a “High” MTP Alignment ranking:
Transit projects
Projects located on main streets or thoroughfares
Projects that included elements to increase multi-modal options
Projects in Communities of Concern and Areas of Persistent Poverty
Bridge projects and some rural pavement projects tended to receive “Low” to “Medium” MTP alignment scores utilizing the current screening criteria. To help address this, GBNRTC staff pointed to some of the resources including the FHWA Small Town and Rural Multi-modal Networks Guide as an opportunity to incorporate elements into these types of projects to improve overall ranking. The guide applies existing national design guidelines in a rural setting and highlights small town and rural case studies. It addresses challenges specific to rural areas, recognizes how many rural roadways are operating today, and focuses on opportunities to make incremental improvements despite the geographic, fiscal, and other challenges that many rural communities face. In addition to seeking additional guides and supportive resources for member agencies, GBNRTC staff will conduct additional research on scoring approaches by other MPOs for bridge and rural paving projects to consider how the scoring criteria may be adjusted for future evaluation cycles.
Overall, candidate project demonstration has been a positive learning experience for both GBNRTC staff and members to help link and guide our near terms efforts to help achieve our long-term vision for the Buffalo Niagara Region.