State Pushing Complete Street Program; Eyes Changes to MPO System
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The state is trying to encourage towns to get involved in its complete streets program by earmarking $12.5 million in gaming income to road projects.
Next week the Department of Transportation will be holding a complete streets workshop in Pittsfield that municipal officials will be required to take to be eligible for the program. That will allow towns to access planning and prioritization money as well as be help ensure road projects done to specifications receive state aid.
"We see this program having a lot of benefit to smaller communities as well as the cities. We really encourage the towns and the cities to give consideration to this," said Clete Kus, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission's transportation program manager.
The state is asking towns to develop complete street policies and implementation plans, which encourages all modes of transportation including pedestrians, cyclists, transit, as well as vehicles. The program will offer funding for towns to improve street lighting, install traffic calming measures, bus shelters, bike lanes, and make improvements to crosswalks and sidewalks.
Understanding the amount of effort developing such plans can be, the Department of Transportation's Director of Strategic Planning Steve Woeffel said the department is allocating some $12.5 million over the next two years from gaming revenue to incentivize towns to participate.
Woeffel said previous language of the program was "very restrictive" and a new revamped version of this program was just announced last month. Applications for the program will go out in January and MassDOT is holding workshops across the state to get towns on board.
"We can't have one in every community so we'll have to try to cluster them," Woeffel said of the workshops.
Kus said the workshops are free and BRPC will be reaching out to municipal officials about the upcoming local training this week.
"We're going to make up to $50,000 available for planning assistance. That will allow the municipalities to ultimately develop their police and develop their prioritization plan," Kus said of helping towns develop those policies.
In other business, Peter Frieri,of MassDOT District 1, reported to the Berkshire Metropolitan Planning Organization that eight local projects identified to use federal highway funds were put to bid in the last fiscal year. A bridge replacement in Great Barrington was the only project scheduled on the local transportation improvement program for 2015 that did not go to bid.
"A total of almost $26 million went out to bid last year," Frieri said.
The MPO prioritizes and directs how the state uses Federal Highway dollars. In 2015, the following projects were bid:
- The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail Extension with an estimated $3,360,000 of federal dollars was bid and the opening was scheduled for Tuesday.
- The reconstruction of Housatonic Street in Dalton, an $11.1 million project over three years, was bid and Baltazar Construction was the lowest bidder.
- Resurfacing of Route 7/20 in Lenox for $3,422,162 was awarded to Lane Construction and major work is expected to begin in the spring.
- The bids for signal improvements to the Walker Street and Route 7/20 intersection for an estimated $395,516 will be opened on Dec. 8.
- PCI International was awarded the contract for bridge maintenance work on Route 8 in Sandisfield.
- Maxymillian was the low bidder on a $1,827,700 project in Savoy to replace the superstructure of the bridge over the Westfield River.
- And the Mount Greylock Scenic Byway Summit Improvements, which renovates the War Memorial Tower, is being handled by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
In 2016, there are eight projects eyed for federal funds through the TIP. Those are design work for the next phase of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail; improvements to the Center Street and West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield; bridge maintenance on Route 8 in Dalton; bridge replacement over Cold River in Florida; bridge replacement over Pontoosuc Lake on Narragansett Avenue in Lanesborough, bridge replacement over the Umpachene Brook on Hadsell Road in New Marlborough; and bridge replacement on Summit Hill Road over CSX railroad tracks.
The way projects are prioritize, however, may see a change soon. A law was passed that requires MPOs to include greenhouse gas emissions as a criteria for prioritization. Right now, it appears to have little impact with the additional weight but could in the future. Currently, the projects are based on seven pieces of criteria with project fitting each one receiving a point. Greenhouse gases were considered under one category for environmental, which included water quality impacts too.
Now, both water quality and greenhouse gases count as separate points, giving more weight to positive environmental impacts.
"It does require all of the MPO processes to use greenhouse gases as a criteria in evaluating projects," Woeffel said of the law. "The MPO process was the focus of the regulation."
Jim Lovejoy, however, says the additional evaluation criteria may force the MPO to look over the entire process.
"The greenhouse gases and the environment end up having to do more with our decision making than the road condition. That doesn't quite make sense to me," Lovejoy said. "By doing it this way, we may want to revisit the way we judge projects so certain criteria doesn't overwhelm other criteria."
Woeffel said the Department of Environmental and Energy Affairs is crafting a clean energy climate plan, which may impact the process so the decision is far from concrete. He said he expects the criteria to be looked at again in the next year as the state is looking at the MPO process on multiple levels, not just from an environmental standpoint. Those levels include crafting a full database of projects for a new project selection advisory council, and the creation of a special MPO commission.
Lovejoy said he just hopes the smaller towns still have a say in the process. Right now, the MPO has representatives from towns across the Berkshires and he hopes the process isn't changed to take away that voice.
"How do we create some sort of regional equity for smaller communities and low population areas? We still have roads and still have transportation needs," Lovejoy said.
Tags: BRPC, MassDOT, MPO, road project,
