Public invited to comment on Washington’s 2024-2027 program of multimodal transportation projects
(OLYMPIA)– A compilation of prioritized transportation improvement projects is now ready for public review and comment through Tuesday, Dec. 19.
More than 1,200 statewide transportation improvement projects using $3.8 billion in federal funds are included in the 2024-2027 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP for short, according to a news release from the Washington State Department of Transportation. The draft 2024-2027 STIP is a four-year program of multimodal transportation projects identified through state, metropolitan, regional, tribal and local agency planning processes.
Projects identified as using Federal Highway Administration or Federal Transit Administration funds must be included in the STIP to authorize the expenditure of federal funds. Also included are regionally significant projects funded through the Washington State Legislature’s Connecting Washington and Move Ahead Washington transportation packages.
The comment period for the STIP is the final step of the community engagement process that began locally during development of individual transportation improvement programs. The Washington State Department of Transportation will accept comments until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19. Any comments received by WSDOT will be sent to the local agency or metropolitan or regional planning organization for consideration.
The STIP is a four-year, fiscally constrained, prioritized multimodal transportation program of state, local, tribal, and public transportation transit projects. It includes highways, streets, roads, railroads, transit-hubs, park-and-ride lots, bridges, sidewalks, bike lanes, ferry terminals, trails, and safety projects. The STIP is a calendar-year document and is developed on an annual basis with monthly updates from January through October.
The collaborative effort between WSDOT, local agencies and metropolitan and regional planning organizations ensures projects are consistent with local, regional, and state long-range plans. Some county projects are not included in the draft STIP because state law requires counties to complete their transportation improvement programs by the end of the year; those projects are amended into the final STIP in January.
The current 2023-26 STIP can be viewed online and a similar, searchable database of the 2024-27 STIP will be created in January 2024, following FHWA and FTA approval.
Written comments can be sent to: Nancy Huntley or Steve Ahlsten, WSDOT, P.O. Box 47390, Olympia WA 98504-7390, or emailed to:Hqlpstip@wsdot.wa.gov . Comments must be received by 5 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 19.