PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Lisa Estrela-Pedro at lestrela@srpedd.org for more info.

SRPEDD Announces a 21-day Public Comment Period and Virtual Public Meeting on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 4:00 pm to hear comments on proposed Amendment #8 of the FFY2024-2028 TIP that includes funding for public transportation vehicles, cost changes for GATRA and SRTA projects, addition of a Fairhaven Steamship Authority project, and cost increase for Taunton Route 138 project.

June 18, 2024 – The FFY2024-2028 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for Southeastern Massachusetts is being amended to include funding for public transportation vehicles, cost changes for GATRA and SRTA projects, addition of a Fairhaven Steamship Authority project, and cost increase for Taunton’s Broadway Route 138 Project 608753. Several programs and municipalities in the Southeastern MA region were awarded funding from the state’s Community Transit Grant Program in May 2024 to purchase vehicles for public transportation needs. They include The City of Fall River, Town of Dartmouth, Family Service Association of Greater Fall River, M.O.L.I.F.E, Inc, Town of Rochester, the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA) and Greater Attleboro and Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA).  New Bedford’s Steamship Authority Project S12999 SSA totaling $1,482,563, will be programmed in year 2024 of the FFY24-28 TIP for the purchase of support vehicles and equipment for the Fairhaven Maintenance Department. Taunton’s Corridor Improvements and Related Work on Broadway (Route 138) Project 608753 from Purchase Street to Jackson Street Phase 2 will have a $4.9 million cost increase due to the increasing costs of materials.

The TIP is the programming document listing all federally funded road and bridge projects in the region and all transit projects for both the Greater Attleboro and Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA) and the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA) over five years. Each year, the Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization (SMMPO) decides how to allocate about $26 million in federal funding for the region, which supplements state and local transportation infrastructure investments in Southeastern Massachusetts. The SMMPO conducts the federally required metropolitan transportation planning process for 27 Southeastern Massachusetts communities and is one of Massachusetts’ thirteen Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Its work helps support the region’s 27 communities toward building a safer, and more equitable, connected, reliable, and resilient transportation system for all mode users.

A virtual public meeting on the proposed amendment will be held on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend, ask questions and offer comments, but attendance is not necessary to offer input or comment. More options to offer comments can be found below.

The meeting will be conducted through the ZOOM app. This link provides the information to allow participants to connect to the meeting through a computer, smart phone or regular telephone: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/categories/200101697.

The direct link to the public meeting is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82319981101?pwd=zBGJAwAa6Y9AiBlIaL1DBkPkT2b8Y3.1

Draft FFY2024-28 TIP Amendment #8 will have a 21-day public comment period and will be endorsed at the next SMMPO meeting which is scheduled for July 16th. For more information about the proposed amendment, visit SRPEDD’s website www.srpedd.org at the following link: FFY2024-2028 TIP Amendment #8.

Comments are encouraged and may be offered by a variety of methods including: via e-mail at lestrela@srpedd.org; our website at https://srpedd.org/contact-us/; our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SRPEDD/ or Twitter @SRPEDD_NEWS at https:// https://x.com/SRPEDD_NEWS.

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