Tag Archives: MDOT

Rural Bikeways Planning and Design Training Sessions in March and April

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We’re passing this along to Michigan Municipal League members at the request of the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Rural Bikeways Planning and Design: Virtual Bicycle Facility Training

Classes: March 22, 24, or April 19, 2022
Sessions: 1 – 4 p.m.

This 3-hour virtual online course features planning and design approaches for bicycle facilities in a rural context. The program will look deeper into the challenges and solutions for establishing safe and connected bicycle networks within and between rural communities. These concepts will be illustrated using national best practices, case studies, and actual projects in rural communities.

Objectives: Special bikeway design considerations in small town, village, rural, and agricultural areas. Achieving low stress bicycle network planning in rural and small-town contexts. Addressing connectivity issues between rural and urbanized areas. Selecting appropriate bicycle facilities based on context. Appropriate crossing treatments based on roadway characteristics.

Experts: Toole Design Group Planners & Engineers

Audience: This course is for village, city, township, county, and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) managers, engineers, planners, and officials; rural and metropolitan planning organization staff; and other stakeholders.
Registration: This course is provided free by MDOT. Please use below link.

Please RSVP by March11 for March classes and by April 8th for April class. Class link will be provided via a separate email prior to the day of the class.

Accommodations: Accommodations can be made for persons who require mobility, visual, hearing, written or other assistance for participation. Large print materials, auxiliary aids or the services of interpreters, signers, or readers are available upon request. Please contact Orlando Curry @ 517-241-7462 or complete Form 2658 for American Sign Language (ASL) located on the Title VI webpage https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9621_31783—,00.html. Request should be made at least five days prior to the meeting date. Reasonable efforts will be made to provide the requested accommodation or an effective alternative, but accommodations may not be guaranteed.

To register for class: https://www.research.net/r/5FNNYDG

 

MDOT Seeks Comments on Rural Transportation Planning Process

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The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is federally required to reach out to local elected officials in non-metropolitan areas every five years to gauge their involvement and knowledge of the transportation planning process.

They are currently seeking input through a short on-line survey.  Please complete the survey between now and May 31, 2016. To complete the survey please click here.

If you have any questions, please contact Pamela Boyd, Supervisor, Statewide Planning Section at MDOT via email at boydp1@michigan.gov.

John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

MDOT seeks applications for 2017 High Risk Rural Road program.

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The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is pleased to announce the solicitation of applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2017 High Risk Rural Road (HRRR) program. The FY 2017 federal budget for this program is estimated to be $2,000,000.

A HRRR is defined as: 1) any roadway functionally classified as rural major or minor collector or a rural local road that the crash rate for fatalities and incapacitating injuries exceeds the statewide average for those functional classes of roadway, or 2) any roadway functionally classified as rural major or minor collector or a rural local road that will likely have increases in traffic volumes that are likely to create a crash rate for fatalities and incapacitating injuries that exceeds the statewide average for those functional classes of roadway.

For more information on the High Risk Rural Road program please click here. For the electronic submittal form click here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Pamela Blazo at (517) 335-2224 or at blazop@michigan.gov.

John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

MDOT to Send Out MI Travel Counts Survey

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The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), in cooperation with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), will administer a travel survey program call MI Travel Counts. Throughout the course of the yearlong study, thousands of randomly selected households will receive letters inviting them to participate in the survey. It is important that, if contacted, municipal officials can verify the legitimacy of the survey and encourage the participation of selected households.

MDOT has provided the following letter containing information on the survey. MI Travel Counts. Additional information about the study can be found here.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

MDOT Makes Significant Upgrades to Act 51 Reporting Portal and the Investment Reporting Tool

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The Michigan Municipal League would like to inform you that the Michigan’s Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC) has made some significant updates to Michigan’s Act 51 Reporting Portal (MITRP) specific to completed project reporting requirements within both the Investment Reporting Tool (IRT) and Act 51 Distribution andReporting System (ADARS). Both systems can be accessed via this link: www.mcgi.state.mi.us/MITRP/.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and each local road agency has a responsibility to annually submit a report to the TAMC that includes, road and bridge projects anticipated to be contracted within the next three years and completed projects (open to traffic) for the fiscal year being reported. In 2006, the TAMC developed the Web-based IRT to facilitate the collection of project location information related to planned and completed projects for local agencies. In 2011, in an effort to gather meaningful cost information from local agencies, the TAMC partnered with MDOT to add an asset management page to the Web-based ADARS system. Unfortunately, this had an unintended consequence that caused many local agencies to have to manually re-enter duplicate project information into both systems.

This situation has been corrected and as of September 3, 2014, both the IRT and ADARS Asset Management page will be fully integrated to allow for the completed project information reported within the IRT to be automatically “synced” to the reporting categories within the ADARS page.

Initially, there will be a “soft” roll-out of this update for agencies with fiscal years ending on/after October 1, 2014 – September 30, 2015. During the roll-out MDOT will focus on training and educating local agencies on the project reporting process and you will still be able to submit Act 51 reports by clicking the “No Treatments to Report” button. However, on/after October 1, 2015, the TAMC will expect the project information requested in both the IRT and ADARS to be complete. Failure to report this information could result in non-compliance with Act 51 reporting requirements and funds withheld until such a time that compliance can be determined.

If you have any questions, please contact Brian Sanada, TAMC Coordinator, at 517-373-2220 or sanadab@michigan.gov.

The following is a link to the letter that was sent out by the Transportation Asset Management Council regarding these changes. TAMC Letter to IRT-ADARS Users 9 3 14

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

Senate Passes Repeal of Annual Certification to MDOT

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In December of 2012 Public Act 506 was enacted that required local road agencies to certify the the Michigan Department of Transportation that the had developed and publicized an employee compensation plan or were in compliance with with PA 152 of 2011. The law requires a local road agency to maintain a searchable website accessible by the public at no cost that includes the following: a) current fiscal year budget, b) the number of active transportation employees of the local road agency by job classification and wage rate, c) information on financial performance, d) the names and contact information for the governing body of the local road agency, and e) a copy of the certification mentioned above. Compliance with these provisions needs to take place no later than September 30, 2014.

The League has advocated that certifying to MDOT that we are in compliance with PA 152, which by law we are required to be in compliance with, is redundant, unnecessary, and an inefficient use of time. We have also advocated that the creation of another dashboard is unnecessary because of the public access to our current EVIP dashboards, F65 Forms, audits, and our comprehensive annual financial reports.

As a result Senator Casperson introduced SB 882 that would repeal the provisions section 18j for cities and villages. This bill was take up before the full Senate today and vote out with nearly unanimous support. This bill now moves to the House where we are hopeful that progress will continue to be made and these unnecessary requirements will be repealed before the implementation date of September 30, 2014.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303

Senate Transportation Committee Votes Out Repeal of Annual Certification to MDOT

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In December of 2012 Public Act 506 was enacted that required local road agencies to certify the the Michigan Department of Transportation that the had developed and publicized an employee compensation plan or were in compliance with with PA 152 of 2011. The law requires a local road agency to maintain a searchable website accessible by the public at no cost that includes the following: a) current fiscal year budget, b) the number of active transportation employees of the local road agency by job classification and wage rate, c) information on financial performance, d) the names and contact information for the governing body of the local road agency, and e) a copy of the certification mentioned above. Compliance with these provisions needs to take place no later than September 30, 2014.

The League has advocated that certifying to MDOT that we are in compliance with PA 152, which by law we are required to be in compliance with, is redundant, unnecessary, and an inefficient use of time. We have also advocated that the creation of another dashboard is unnecessary because of the public access to our current EVIP dashboards, F65 Forms, audits, and our comprehensive annual financial reports.

As a result Senator Casperson has introduced SB 882 that would repeal the provisions section 18j for cities and villages. The committee unanimously voted this bill out of committee today. We are committed to working with the legislature to see this bill move forward and are hopeful that it will be voted out of the Senate as soon as next week.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303

MDOT Accepting Transportation Economic Development Fund Category F Applications for Fiscal Year 2016

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The Michigan Department of Transportation Office of Economic Development is will begin accepting Transportation Economic Development Fund Category F applications for Fiscal Year 2016 on April 15. Eligible applicants include cities, villages and county road commissions.  Proposed projects must be on federal-aid designated routes within a Federal Adjusted Census Urban Boundary located in a county with a population of 400,000 or less. Higher consideration is given to applications that propose improving all-season capabilities on routes having high commercial traffic or those that improve access to state trunklines.

The application deadline for Category F grants is Friday June 30, 2014. The application and instructions can be accessed at http://www.michigan.gov/tedf. For questions, please contact Matt Wiitala at 517-241-2152 or wiitalam@michigan.gov

The following is a link to a flyer about the Category F grants. Category F Economic Development Flyers

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

Updated Local Agency Program Application Made Available by MDOT

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Effective April 1, 2014, the updated MDOT Local Agency Program Application Forms 0258, 0259, and 0260 were activated and made available on the MDOT Local Agency Program (LAP) website here as well as at the MDOT Forms page here.

The forms were updated mainly to:

• request information from the local agency regarding whether its project includes work in any MDOT right of way, or whether the proposed work affects any existing traffic signals or pedestrian signals. This information will allow MDOT LAP staff engineers to determine whether other MDOT units need to be involved in the project.

• revise ROW Attachments A and B, defining “property acquisition” as “permanent fee, permanent easements, temporary consents to construct, and grading permits”, hopefully resulting in a less confusing definition

• include space for the local agencies to list their designated Certified Computerized Office Technician (page 10 of each form), in accordance with current Bureau Of Highway Informational Memoranda (BOHIM)

• provide consistency in fonts and type faces

• changed references to the Transportation Alternative funding program

• correct several fields which were auto-filling incorrectly

Local agencies should begin using these forms as soon as possible, so that they can identify their certified computerized office technician and comply with the BOHIM.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact Bruce Kadzban, MDOT LAP Rural and Enhancement Program Manager, at 517-335-2229 or at kadzbanb@michigan.gov.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

 

Local Bridge Program Application for FY 2017

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The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is soliciting applications for candidate projects for the Local Bridge Program; selected projects will be funded during the 2017 fiscal year. The deadline for this application in May 1st, 2014. For more information on the application requirements and the electronic application please use the following links.

FY 2017 Local Bridge Program Call for Applications

FY 2017 Call for Electronic Application Submittal

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.