TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (The "TIP")

Summary

While the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) prepared by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) prepared by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) are long term, visionary documents, they are NOT actual commitments of money to projects. When a project is ready for planning, design, acquisition, or construction funding, the actual money is set aside in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

The 710 Project is currently funded for several planning and preliminary design activities in the current 2000 Regional TIP. The inclusion of the 710 Project in the TIP requires that the air quality benefits that flow from the 710 Project be included in the long-term analysis of air quality for the region. The TIP is the funding process that will actually allocate right-of-way and construction funding to the 710 Project when it is time for such funding to be allocated. The Project will be funded when it is ready to actually expend right-of-way and construction funds.

The Details

What is the TIP?

As explained in other sections of this website, there are a number of transportation plans prepared to provide a transportation vision of where the region needs to go to improve mobility and air quality. The RTP, mandated by federal law, is prepared by SCAG for the Southern California region. The RTP is a 20-25 year look ahead at transportation revenues and preferred transportation projects to meet regional needs.

A second long-term planning tool is the MTA’s LRTP. The LRTP is not required by state or federal statute but it is used by the MTA Board of Directors to guide future transportation projects in Los Angeles County. The LRTP informs the SCAG RTP but the two plans are not required to conform with each other.

The MTA LRTP and the SCAG RTP are both long-term transportation plans that do not actually represent a commitment of transportation funds. That is the job of the Transportation Improvement Program or "TIP."

The TIP is a short-term funding program. It represents an actual commitment of federal, state and local transportation dollars to various projects. Major transportation projects must be included in the long range RTP in order to be eligible for federal funding in the TIP. It is also the MTA Board’s policy that a project must be included in the MTA LRTP in order to be programmed as part of the local TIP.

The TIP process is a bottoms up funding process. The MTA prepares a TIP for projects in Los Angeles County. The local TIP is submitted to SCAG for adoption into the Regional TIP adopted by the SCAG Regional Council. The Regional TIP is submitted to the State of California for adoption into the State TIP adopted by the California Transportation Commission. Through this TIP process, federal, state and local monies are actually committed to projects and grant agreements are executed with project sponsors to enable them to draw down the monies as they are spent.

Funding in Place for Planning, Right-of-Way, and Traffic Improvements

Currently the TIP contains funding for a number of planning and environmental clearance issues for the 710 Freeway Project. For instance, the current TIP includes $2.961 million for the environmental clearance issues and preliminary design work. Additionally, about $33.589 million is set aside for repair and preservation of historic buildings in the freeway right-of-way. Finally, about $4.110 million is set aside for right-of-way activities and $1.793 million for interim traffic improvement projects authorized in the 1998 Record of Decision.

In 2000, Caltrans exhausted funds for restoration of historic properties and has a request pending before the California Transportation Commission for additional funds. It is expected that additional funds will be allocated to the restoration effort in the next year. When those funds become available, the monies will be programmed into the next TIP.

Similarly, in 2000, Congressman James Rogan obtained a $46 million commitment of funds for interim traffic improvements in the 710 corridor. These funds, along with local matching funds made available by MTA shall be programmed into the TIP at a later date.