Using a Transportation Improvement Program Database and a Partnership Approach To Improve Project Delivery

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) historically have not been involved in project delivery. That involvement is crucial, however, if MPOs want to retain the funding authority granted them in the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act and the continued Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. MPOs must help deliver projects in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) in a timely manner so that policy makers and the public can see the benefits of MPO involvement. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which is the MPO for the region, delivered 473 projects, worth $460 million, in a partnership process that relied partly on MTC’s TIP database. For the past 6 years, MTC has made full use of the obligation authority that was available to the region, delivering projects on time and within budget. They experienced success because they (a) established common TIP project delivery goals among all regional transportation agencies, (b) streamlined the review and amendment processes, (c) built appropriate TIP database tools (and web access) for tracking projects, (d) developed a unique project identifier “set” for each TIP project and carried it throughout the statewide database systems, and (e) established an oversight committee to resolve delivery problems. The MTC experience is described. One focus is on the use of the TIP database, and another is the cooperative approach to project delivery. A new California state law [Senate Bill 45 (Kopp), 1997] has issued further delivery challenges. Steps in meeting this challenge are outlined.