Over the last year the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency has been scrambling to update both its long and short-range transportation plans. Failure to do so could have resulted in the five county region in Southern Indiana and metropolitan Louisville losing out on millions of dollars in federal funds each year.
But good news came to the area’s transportation planning agency Thursday, as the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency returned approval of both plans nearly three weeks before the scheduled deadline.
“We had a December 8th deadline,” said David Burton, KIPDA transportation planner. “What [approval] basically means is it’s business as usual for us.”
Approval from the federal agencies means that the group’s Horizon 2030 plan — a 20-year transportation plan — and its Transportation Improvement Plan — a four-year transportation plan — both met the federal conformity guidelines.
But what it really means for KIPDA is it will not lose out on federal funding for transportation projects.
“Basically, that means we’re out of the lapse,” said Josh Suiter, KIPDA community outreach specialist.
As a result of the federal approval Burton said the group will be able to focus back on its normal planning activities, which includes beginning another transportation plan update, slated for 2014.
Despite a shorter timeframe in which to provide the update, and a number of obstacles had slowed the process, officials were able to submit the plans to the federal agencies on time.
The most notable project included in the plans, and one of the obstacles, was the Ohio River Bridges Project.
Inclusion of the bridges plan required the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority to provide KIPDA with a funding model, which included a tolling scenario, that would allow the agency to reasonably expect funding would be available for the project when it is scheduled to begin.
Although the planning documents were approved, it does not mean that the projects, specifically the bridges project, have received final approval from the federal agencies and will not undergo changes from what was presented in KIPDA’s transportation plans.
“It allows the project to continue and to advance,” Burton said.
Approval also allows smaller projects around the region, from sidewalks and pedestrian trails to major renovations of roadways, to move forward.
“We were able to do a lot of work in a short amount of time,” Burton said.
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