Bill Carrico on Public Transportation in Virginia

From State Senator Bill Carrico:

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Public Input Sought On Prioritizing Transportation Projects

The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) will hold nine meetings across the Commonwealth from October through November at which the public will have the opportunity to get the latest information, ask questions, and provide input on the prioritization of transportation projects. The meetings will consist of an open house where attendees can view displays to learn about transportation planning, interact with subject matter experts, and review the proposed local and regional projects that have been submitted for scoring through SMART SCALE, an objective, data-driven prioritization process to score projects according to critical transportation needs. For this funding cycle, 468 applications for projects were submitted by 158 local and regional transportation planning organizations and partners across the state. Following the open house, there will be an opportunity for the public to provide comments about transportation projects and priorities. Projects that have been determined to meet a need identified in VTrans, Virginia’s statewide transportation policy plan, will be advanced for evaluation and scoring. Scoring results will be made available to the public in January 2019. Following public meetings in the spring, the CTB will use public feedback and the scoring data to select which projects to fund and be included in the next Six-Year Improvement Program by June of 2019. A public hearing will be held for the Interstate 81 Corridor Improvement Plan in conjunction with the meetings in the Bristol districts. For the latest on the I-81 Improvement Project, please click HERE. Meeting Date/Time: October 22, 4 PM Meeting Location: SWVA HigherEd Center (1 Partnership Circle, Abingdon, VA 24210) If you are unable to attend a meeting, you may view the displays and provide your comments online. You may also mail comments on highway projects to Infrastructure Investment Director, VDOT, 1401 E. Broad St., Richmond, Virginia 23219, or Six-YearProgram@VDOT.Virginia.gov. Comments on rail, public transportation, and transportation demand management may be sent to Public Information Officer, DRPT, 600 E. Main St., Suite 2102, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or DRPTPR@drpt.Virginia.gov. Comments will be accepted until Dec. 13, 2018.

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