In August, CMPDD, in consultation with the MS Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the selected consultant, officially began work on the next version of the Long-Range Transportation Plan for the Jackson Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) area. As the MPO, CMPDD is responsible for conducting a federally-mandated Transportation Planning Process for the Jackson Metropolitan Area. One of the primary tasks is the development of a Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) for the area expected to become urbanized within a 20-25 year horizon. The update of the 2035 LRTP, which was adopted in March 2011, will result in the production of the 2040 Jackson Urbanized Area Transportation Plan. The 2040 LRTP must be completed by December 2015.
Over the last few weeks, the District’s staff have been busy gathering data layers needed to build the computerized traffic simulation model, which will produce traffic projections for each phase of the 2040 Plan. Once the model is complete, the planning team will use the traffic projections produced by the model to identify anticipated traffic capacity deficiencies and proposed street and highway improvements that will address the deficiencies identified in the model. A kick-off meeting with transportation stakeholders and the general public is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015. In addition, several other public involvement methods using social media and the District’s website will be rolled-out in the coming months to help the general public better understand the transportation planning process and show them how they can get involved.
