On Friday, August 12, 2016 the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District (CMPDD), which is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) responsible for coordinating the federally-mandated transportation planning process for the Jackson Metropolitan Area, announced they are accepting applications for the next round of Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding available through the MPO. The STBG program is a federal-aid transportation program, which provides funding to local municipalities and counties for transportation improvement projects in urbanized areas.
Funding is being provided through the 2015 Federal transportation legislation, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The MPO has established funding priorities and will be accepting applications for:
Eligible Project Types | Available Funding |
Capacity Deficiency Project Types | $8,000,000 |
Pavement Management Project Types | $7,000,000 |
Traffic Operational Improvements | $2,000,000 |
Bridge Repair Project Types | $2,000,000 |
Small Municipalities (municipalities with a population of 5,000 or less) | $1,000,000 |
Total Available Funding | $20,000,000 |
Capacity deficiency projects generally add capacity to an existing roadway by widening a present roadway or constructing a new roadway. Pavement management projects include both simple overlay of an existing roadway and complete reconstruction of a roadbed in order to improve road conditions. Traffic operational improvements primarily include new traffic signals, signal upgrades, and geometric improvements such as roundabouts or added turn lanes. Bridge repair projects include rehabilitation or replacement of an existing bridge by addressing bridge deficiencies. Small Municipalities is a set aside for those communities in the metropolitan area with a population of 5,000 or less and can be used for any type of eligible project.
Applications must be received by CMPDD by October 21, 2016, and must include proposed projects located on an existing or projected street functionally classified by the MPO as an urban collector, minor arterial, or principal arterial. Applications will then be reviewed and graded based upon the project evaluation criteria for each eligible category. The MPO Planning Policy Committee anticipates announcing funding awards for the projects ranked the highest during the application evaluation process in February 2017. The MPO Policy Committee is comprised of both elected and appointed officials from the three-county urbanized area. Eligible applicants for STGB funding include: Bolton, Brandon, Byram, Canton, Clinton, Florence, Flora, Flowood, Jackson, Madison, Pearl, Pelahatchie, Raymond, Richland, Ridgeland, and Terry, as well as Hinds, Madison, and Rankin Counties.
Local jurisdictions with applications selected for funding can receive up to 80% in Federal STBG funding for construction costs of a project. Local jurisdictions are required to provide at a minimum 20% in local matching funds. The only exception to the 20% matching requirement is for traffic operational improvements which address safety concerns. Some traffic operational improvement projects may be eligible for 100% Federal STBG funding.
The MPO’s last call for applications took place in 2013 and resulted in twenty-six (26) projects in the metro area receiving $22.3 million in transportation funding.
For more information about the Jackson MPO please visit the Transportation section.