OTC Begins a New STIP Cycle. Get Involved!
The Oregon Transportation Commission is starting work to identify where to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve and improve the state’s transportation system. Every three years, the OTC puts together the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) that lays out where we will invest federal and state money in the transportation system—everything from roads and bridges to public transportation to bike paths and sidewalks.
The OTC and ODOT develop the STIP with a wide variety of participants, including cities, counties, many other partners and the public. This STIP looks all the way out to funding projects in 2024 through 2027.
2024-2027 STIP Time Frame and Process
The OTC begins work on the 2024-2027 STIP in July 2020 and expects to finish in 2023.
There are three steps to developing the STIP.
- Dividing up the money: Based on the Commission's policies, priorities and goals, the OTC divides the money among programs that fix roads and bridges, address safety problems, provide more options to get around and improve our transportation system - both state highways and local roads. The OTC will decide how to divide up the money by the end of 2020.
- Picking projects: Once we know how much money each program has to spend we start picking projects. We use data on conditions, safety and congestion to come up with a list of the highest priority projects that help us make progress toward meeting our goals. We figure out how much each project will cost and when we could deliver them. We also work with advisory committees made up of local elected officials and citizens to help understand which projects are most important to our communities. They help us come up with a list of the best projects that fit within our budget and help us meet our goals. This list is the draft STIP.
- Public review and approval: the draft STIP will go out for public review in early 2023 so you can comment on the list of projects.
Program Categories
As with last STIP, the OTC plans to divide funds among six program categories.
- Enhance Highway: Highway projects that expand or enhance the transportation system.
- Fix-It: Projects that maintain or fix the state highway system.
- Safety: Projects focused on reducing fatal and serious injury crashes.
- Non-Highway: Bicycle, pedestrian, public transportation and transportation options projects and programs.
- Local Programs: Funding to local governments for priority projects.
- Other Functions: Workforce development, planning and data collections and administrative programs using federal resources.
Addressing Climate Change
Under a new Executive Order from Governor Brown, ODOT will find ways to address greenhouse gas emissions through projects in the STIP. ODOT plans to look at how different ways of dividing up the money among programs will impact GHG emissions, and we will also use GHG emissions as one of the criteria for picking the best projects.
How You Can Provide Input
The OTC encourages citizens and stakeholders to provide input on how we should divide funds among programs so that we're meeting needs across the state. There are a number of ways you can stay informed and provide input.
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