Purpose
This document is prepared every year to fulfill Federal statutory requirements which provide that, as a condition to receive Federal funding, each urbanized area will have a continuing planning process that results in plans and programs consistent with the comprehensive development plan of the urbanized area. This document programs transportation projects that serve this purpose. The priorities established by this document express the policy decision of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) as to the order in which transportation improvements will be advanced during the program period. This document also fulfills Federal requirements in that the included projects are derived from the area’s 2040 Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) for inclusion in the program and addresses program requirements relating to the federal transportation law passed in July, 2012 titled “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21)”. On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or “FAST Act”. Overall, the FAST Act largely maintains current MAP-21 program structures and funding shares between highways and transit. It is a down-payment for building a 21st century transportation system.
Transportation Plan
The Metropolitan Planning Organization Board adopted under MPO Resolution #20-14, in October 23, 2014, the 2040 Miami-Dade LRTP. Projects from the area’s adopted MPO 2040 LRTP have been included for advancement during this program period. The next major update of the LRTP to the year 2045 is due October, 2019. Major activities included are: support facilities for METRORAIL, express bus service, interstate highway projects, congestion management and non-motorized projects; express transit on managed lanes; arterial street improvements, aviation and seaport facilities, and additional bus transit and paratransit improvements, the construction of major intermodal facilities and the deployment of Intelligent Transportation System applications. The recommended improvement priorities of the adopted Long Range Transportation Plan provide the basis for preparing this document. The Plan presents the logical and systematically phased development of the area’s transportation network and services to the year 2040. Transportation System Management (TSM) projects are proposed to be continued or expanded during Fiscal Years 2016/2017 through 2020/2021. The Miami-Dade Secondary Road Program and Road Impact Fee Program contain projects that are supportive of the areawide TSM effort. These included traffic flow improvements, provisions for preferential treatments of high occupancy vehicles where appropriate, improvements to intersection geometrics, lighting safety projects, and other related projects which provide for greater safety and better management of traffic flow and are supportive of on-going transportation demand management activities. TSM projects are consistently included in the preparation of project-adopted proposals in keeping with the MPO’s commitment to fully develop TSM as a policy and investment strategy to continually enhance the mobility of the urban population. The Year 2040 Transportation Plan stresses the achievement of long-standing and fundamental planning objectives. In addition to land-use considerations, the Plan addresses related issues involving the quality of the environment and the conservation of limited natural resources. These concerns are particularly important as revisions to the Adopted Components of the Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP) for Miami-Dade County are periodically considered. An extensive public participation process is conducted during all major stages of Plan preparation and adoption and also during periods when Plan revisions are formally considered.
Citizens review activities are coordinated by the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC), a body appointed by the MPO Board to provide formal input in all pertinent transportation issues.
Comprehensive Development Master Plan
The fiscal year 2017-2021 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), as set forth in this document, is generally consistent with the Adopted Components of the Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP) for Miami-Dade County, Florida, as amended through May 6th, 2015. The CDMP contains twelve Plan elements. The Transportation Element specifically provides for an integrated multimodal transportation system for the circulation of motorized and non-motorized traffic in Miami-Dade County. The goal of the Transportation Element is to develop and maintain an integrated multimodal transportation system to move people and goods in a manner consistent with overall Countywide land use and environmental protection goals, objectives and policies, and to provide a comprehensive approach to the transportation system needs of the County by addressing all modes of transportation – pedestrian and bicycles facilities, traffic circulation, mass transit, aviation and ports. The Transportation Element is divided into five sub-elements: Traffic Circulation, Mass Transit, Aviation, Port of Miami River, and PortMiami Sub-elements. The Traffic Circulation Sub-element addresses the needs of automobile traffic, bicyclists and pedestrians; the Mass Transit Sub-element addresses the need to promote and expand the public mass transit system and to increase its role as a major component in the County’s overall transportation system; the Aviation Sub-element addresses the need for the expansion, development and redevelopment of the County’s aviation facilities; and the Port of Miami River and PortMiami Sub-elements promote maritime business and traditional maritime related shoreline uses along the Miami River and PortMiami and their expansion needs. A key feature of the Traffic Circulation and Mass Transit Sub-elements is the establishment of level-of-service standards to ensure that adequate facility capacity will be available to service new development and redevelopment in Miami-Dade County. The ability to maintain the level-of-service standards has become a primary determinant for addressing relative priority among the various transportation improvement needs.
The County is striving to provide roadway, transit, and pedestrian and bicycle improvements along congested corridors in order to develop a multimodal transportation network designed to include bus turnout bays, bus shelters, managed lanes, pedestrian and bicycles facilities, and mass transit services.
One of the most significant and far reaching provisions of Florida’s “Community Planning Act (2011)” is the requirement that all local comprehensive plans contain a Capital Improvement Element (CIE). The intent of this requirement is to make the comprehensive plan fiscally feasible and to provide a schedule of capital improvements which includes any publicly funded federal, state, or local government projects, and may also include privately funded projects for which the local government has no fiscal responsibility. Projects which are necessary to ensure that any adopted level-of-service standards are achieved and maintained (sec. 163.3180(1)(b), F.S.) for the 5-year period must be identified as either funded or unfunded and given a level of priority for funding (sec. 163.3177(3)(a), F.S.). For this reason, the highway capacity-type of improvements on the County highway system, and the transit, aviation and seaport projects, which are programmed in the TIP, are also included in the County’s CDMP Capital Improvements Element’s (CIE) 6-years capital improvements schedule.
Public Involvement/Public Hearing
Reasonable opportunity for public comment was provided in accordance with the requirements of 450.316(b)(1) and, in maintenance TMAs, an opportunity for at least one formal public meeting during the TIP development process. This public meeting may be combined with the public meeting required under 450.322 (c). The TIP process begins at the start of each fiscal year. A letter is sent to all municipalities, involved agencies and private parties informing them that the process is to begin, providing them with the tentative scheduling and soliciting their input. The Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) provides a forum for citizens to evaluate the recommendations developed through the MPO’s transportation planning and programming process. One of the main responsibilities of the CTAC is to ensure that proposed transportation projects are responsive to the community’s perceived needs and goals. The MPO provides adequate public notices for public hearings so as to allow community citizens the opportunity to approve documents such as the TIP. The proposed TIP is published and made readily available for review and comment. Similarly, the approved TIP is published and made readily available for information purposes. The functional responsibilities of participating agencies are needed to insure the continuing development and operation of urban transportation system facilities. CTAC review of the document took place on April 6, 2016 and May 4, 2016. The final public hearing for adoption to take place May 19, 2016.
Program Funding
The TIP categorizes all transportation improvements and identifies priorities, which establish multi-year fiscal programming. The biennial elements represent the list of projects, which are proposed for implementation during the first program phase and are viewed as the “Capital Improvements” budget for transportation facilities. This TIP document identifies all sources of funding which are known or are anticipated to be available during the program period. Program costs are consistent with current estimates of available revenue. Priorities in the program are identified by relative staging of projects for implementation during a particular year, consistent with funding availability and production constraints. Most Highway funding comes from gasoline taxes, motor vehicle fees, and other automobile-related “user fees”. Major sources of existing and potential highway funding sources include: Federal Gas Tax, State Motor Fuel Tax, Local Option Gas Tax, Voter Gas Tax, Motor Vehicle Fees, Impact Fees and Tolls. Transit funding is derived from a host of Federal, State and local programs, including the ½ cent sales tax increase approved by voters on November 2002. For rail and bus projects, funding is mostly sought through Federal and State grants. Transit operating costs are supported largely through local revenue sources.
Summary of TIP Projects
The projects in the FY 2017/2021 TIP have been grouped into major categories, with order of priority established within each category insofar as possible or applicable. The groupings are established primarily by virtue of funding source and implementing responsibility.
The thrust of Miami-Dade County’s effort to enhance the mobility of the urban population, achieve a balanced transportation system, to meet energy conservation needs, to improve air quality, as well as to preserve or enhance the physical and social environment of the community, is evident when it is noted that approximately 16.5% of the FY 2017-2021 program budget is devoted to public transit projects. It should be noted that Primary, Interstate and Turnpike categories combined constitute about 70.0% of the approximate $7.41 billion in the FY 2017-2021 program budget.
Priorities
The 2040 Miami-Dade Transportation Plan – Long Range Element, recommended phasing for highway capacity improvements are classified into four priority categories:
Priority 1 – -Priority improvements to be constructed and opened to traffic by the year 2020. Includes those projects needed to respond to existing traffic problems. Funds for most of these improvements are already programmed in this Transportation Improvement Program.
Priority 2 – -Improvements where project development and funding efforts would take place between 2021 and 2025.
Priority 3 – -Improvements to be made between the year 2026 and 2030. In many cases, project development activities would need to commence in the 2021 and 2025 period, due to the amount of lead-time required to plan and implement a project.
Priority 4 – -Improvements to be made in the latter part of the 25-year plan period (2031 to 2040). Includes projects responding to long-range travel needs and roadway improvements constructed through the county and the Sub-division process, which may be earlier than the 25-year period of the 2040 LRTP Plan.
Because of the uncertainties of funding availability and the time required to develop a detailed project, the specific time periods and dates indicated in the above priority listing should be considered only as guidelines for project implementation.
The LRTP Update to the Year 2040 was approved by MPO Governing Board at its October 23rd, 2014 meeting.
Amendments
The TIP may be amended at any time during the program year through the same procedures required for developing and adopting this original program. The amendment(s) may be for the purpose of deleting projects, adding projects, revising the funding of a project, or modifying the scope or limits of a project. Detailed information of the amendment process is available from the MPO upon request.