The 2045 Metropolitan Transportation plan focuses on Kent and eastern Ottawa County projects. It’s a 25-year plan, but it’s also fluid reviewed every four years.
“And it’s really exciting because it’s an opportunity to really meet the rapidly changing transportation needs of an economically growing region by collaborating with the public and various stakeholders.”
Andrea Faber is a Transportation Planner with Grand Valley Metro Council. She conducted a public survey with 10 questions answered by 867 respondents representing all zip codes.
“And the top priorities from the public were, by a longshot, improving roadway pavement condition was the winner, and then behind that was use technology to reduce traffic congestion and delays and then the third choice was widening busy roads and interchanges.”
Faber says that reminiscent of trends in the last survey. Add up state, local, federal and transit dollars and there’s $10.8 billions to spend over the next 25-years.
“We have various federal funding sources, some of them are very flexible and can be used for a wide variety of projects. Some of them are very specific like for instance our Transportation Alternative Program funding can only be used for non-motorized projects. So, beyond 2023, we have a lot of bins of funding in the long-range plan that has yet to be allocated and that was a decision that was made by our committee as they went through the process they recognize that we are in a rapidly growing and changing city.”
Making money available for the next round of short-term projects.
I’m Patrick Center.