Yup. Summer is finally once again upon us, and in the world of transportation planning that means two things: heeere comes construction season… and that “TIP” thing where we line up projects for the next four construction seasons.
TIP stands for Transportation Improvement Program. It’s an annually-updated document that allows Duluth Area communities to apply federal transportation funds to specific transportation projects.
For those of you who are policy-people or transportation wonks, the TIP document describes all the policies and processes involved.
But for those of you who are just interested in what local and regional projects are being planned for 2013 through 2016 (the big ones that use federal funds), they’re summarized by year in the project tables starting on page 8 of the draft TIP document.
But here’s just a few that might interest you:
- City of Duluth – Connecting the Munger Trail to the Lakewalk (a.k.a. the Cross City Trail)
- St. Louis County – Reconstruction of Haines Road (from W 8th St to Morris Thomas Rd)
- Hermantown – Reconstruction of Stebner Road (from Maple Grove Rd to Hwy 53)
And if anything prompts you to ask questions, or causes a desire to comment, please do!
Tuesday, May 29th will be the start of an official public comment period that will last until Wednesday, June 27th. The Duluth-Superior MIC encourages anyone interested in providing their input on the TIP or its projects to comment here or to contact us.
The MIC also plans to hold two “TIP Open House” hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 28th and Friday, June 29th. This is a great opportunity to come visit us, look over some maps, and talk to staff in person about transportation projects in the area.