ADOT's Current Five-Year Transportaion Construction Program

The Five-year High-ways and Airport Construction Program (2008-2012) is now available for viewing on ADOT's website. Although it makes for slightly dry reading, there is important information to be found. Take time to read the introduction of the report as it thoroughly defines what it process they use, "The Priority Programming Process" and how this process works. The reading at this point is fairly easy and the process makes sense, at least on paper. Further in the report there is a summary of dollars by county and also a bit of financial information on the Hoover Dam Bypass.

At the bottom of page 9 you will find a small chart that list the cities that receive monies under a federal program, 5311, Rural Public Transportation Program. According to the report, the FTA appropriates over $8.3 Million annually to fund rural public transit systems to communities with under 50,000 population. LD III cities listed as participating in the program are Kingman, Bullhead City, and Lake Havasu City.

Page 12 broaches the subject of Aviation needs, how they are identified, then prioritized. The airport project rating system is a weighed scale and points are awarded to the following factors:

• Project is on main runway
• New construction
• Number of aircraft on wait list
• Annual passengers enplaned for scheduled air service
• Annual aircraft operations to capacity ratio

When both highway and aviation project requests have been prioritized and matched with available funding the update is presented to the State Transportation Board for their authorization to release the Tentative Program for review by the public. Public Hearings are then conducted. Hearing locations are established in January and are, according to this report, scheduled for your convenience in Flagstaff, Phoenix, and Tucson. Great...

If this sort of stuff interest you or you just want to see the wheres and hows your money is being spent, click on the title of this post. I was going to say "and research until your heart is content" but following your tax dollar usually just leads to heart-burn. My sympathies.

If you have any questions or comments about how you can become involved in the ADOT Priority Programming Process call:

Dale Buskirk, Director ~Transportation Planning Division ~ (602) 712-7431 or email him at DBuskirk@azdot.gov

Barclay Dick, Director ~ Aeronautics Division ~ (602) 294-9144 or email him at BDick@azdot.gov

If you prefer to call me with your questions, I will call them, ask the questions, and get back to you.

Ciao!

Coming Soon: Whatever I grab off my huge pile of reading!