What's New

The Greater Akron area has a new $625 million program of highway, transit and bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects for the next four years.

The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration approved the area’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) in late June.  Spanning Fiscal Years 2012 through 2015, the program sets a priority for preservation of the area’s existing transportation system rather than expansion projects.

Across the nation, many states, cities and transportation planning agencies, including AMATS, have begun emphasizing system preservation due to increasingly scarce project funding, according to Victor Botosan, AMATS TIP coordinator.  Listen to Botosan explain how economic concerns and traffic levels impact project funding priorities by clicking here.

BOTOSAN

The latest program provides about $470 million to maintenance-type projects over the next four years, a near tripling of the previous program’s four years of projects. In contrast, funding for expansion-type projects has been adjusted to nearly $75 million, which is about half of the total programmed in the old TIP.  Listen to Botosan describe changes in the new TIP by clicking here.

“While our latest TIP is grounded in the funding reality that we’re all facing, it is not void of significant, new projects for the area. There are a number of major improvements that will be getting underway soon under the new program,” Botosan says.

Among the significant projects in the new TIP are:

• Multi-million dollar improvements to the Central Interchange area in Akron.

• Construction of Seiberling Way, one of the final pieces of the Goodyear redevelopment project in Akron.

• An $11 million capacity and safety improvement project on East Summit Street in Kent.

• Construction of The PORTAGE Hike & Bike Trail in Kent and the Freedom Secondary Rail Trail in Akron and Tallmadge.

Botosan notes that the program increases investments in the area’s bicycle and pedestrian facilities to more than $13 million over the next several years. This increase is part of the agency’s initiative to promote greater regional connectivity, he adds.

The new TIP is available for viewing on the agency web site by clicking here.

Listen to AMATS Director Jason Segedy discuss the TIP with WAKR-AM’s morning host Ray Horner by clicking here.