Wednesday, November 20, 2024–4:45 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Rome and Floyd County officials are starting the process of updating the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, and bridges appear to be at the top of the list of transportation priorities for the years to come.
The Rome-Floyd County Planning Department is the agency responsible for the MPO planning process.
Rome Transportation Planner Julie Smith gave an update during Wednesday’s meeting to the Technical Coordinating Committee and the Transportation Policy Committee
“We have contracted with High Street Planning who actually did the freight plan and they did a great job, so we are happy for them to come back and do the MTP re-write,” said Rome Transportation Planner Julie Smith. “It has to be adopted. Just so you know what we are looking at, it’s going to be a year-long process. It actually has to be adopted by May of 2026, so we will be talking about MTP a lot.”
Bryce Miller with High Street Consultants spoke during the meeting and asked attendees their priorities for the plan. Most said bridges. Rome Public Works Director Chris Jenkins was more specific, citing the need for four-lane bridges. He also wants to see walkability addressed.
“As far as what we’re seeing, trails for recreation are great,” he said. “However, as far as just walking throughout our city, we need to keep that in mind for pedestrian as well as bicycle traffic.”
Coordinated transportation planning at a regional level has been a federal requirement since the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962. This act stipulated that urbanized areas of 50,000 or more in population must follow a “continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative” planning process in order to utilize federal transportation dollars. Planning agencies called Metropolitan Planning Organizations were created or designated to take on these responsibilities. This planning process requires that each MPO create a transportation plan, a transportation improvement program, and a unified planning work program.
The MTP fulfills the transportation plan part of the requirement. The 2055 MTP for the Rome-Floyd MPO will outline the goals, objectives, policies, and proposed improvements needed to maintain a safe, effective, and efficient multimodal transportation system for the movement of people and goods throughout the region which includes all of the City of Rome, the City of Cave Spring, and Floyd County.
Updated every five years, the MTP (previously known as a Long Range Transportation Plan). articulates a multi-year program of transportation improvements that are intended to address the collective transportation needs and enhance the economic, social, and environmental assets for the entire region. A key component of the MTP process is incorporating fiscal considerations so that the program of transportation improvements is realistic based on anticipated transportation funding.
Also Wednesday, the committees adopted the Unified Planning Work Program, which is is an annual statement of work identifying the planning priorities and activities to be carried out within a metropolitan planning area. At a minimum, a UPWP includes a description of the planning work and resulting products, who will perform the work, time frames for completing the work, the cost of the work, and the source(s) of funds. MPOs are required to develop UPWPs to govern work programs for the expenditure of Federal; Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration planning funds.
