Towns compete for round of STP Shared Funds to support their transportation projects

Ten communities presented transportation projects to SSMMA’s Transportation Advisory Group (TAG) for Surface Transportation Program (STP) Shared Fund bonus points (or support) on April 9. Municipalities included: Burnham, Country Club Hills, Dolton, Homewood, Lynwood, Oak Park, Plainfield, Robbins, Tinley Park and University Park. TAG will meet on April 30 to take a vote. May 21 is the deadline for transportation councils to submit bonus point allocations. Each council and the Chicago Department of Transportation have 25 points to allocate amongst the submitted projects to indicate local support and priorities. No project may receive more than 15 of any one council or CDOT’s points, but collaboration amongst councils is encouraged. Councils may give bonus points to projects outside their jurisdiction up to a maximum of 25 total bonus points for any one project. Lack of support will not cause a project application to be disregarded, however the lack of support will be communicated to the STP PSC for funding consideration.

Background from CMAP’s website: 

STP Shared Fund The shared fund was established for the purpose of supporting larger-scale regional projects that address regional performance measures and the goals of ON TO 2050. The programming authority distributed to the shared fund is derived from a set-aside of the region’s annual allotment of STP-L funds. Project selection is a region-wide competitive process overseen by the STP Project Selection Committee.

Project eligibility is focused on projects of significant cost and multijurisdictional projects in eight categories that address federal performance measures and priorities of ON TO 2050: road reconstructions, transit station rehabilitation or reconstructions, bridge rehabilitation or reconstructions, highway/rail grade crossing improvements, road expansions, bus speed improvements, corridor-level or small area safety improvements, and truck route improvements. Evaluation criteria are intended to emphasize the desire to bring projects to completion, address needs with cost-effective improvements, and implement planning factors that are an integral part of ON TO 2050, while also considering local preferences at the subregional level. Read more.

For questions, please contact SSMMA Transportation Planner Leslie Phemister at leslie.phemister@ssmma.org.