Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP)

The Ulster County Transportation Council’s (UCTC) Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is a five-year, fiscally constrained financial plan for implementing transportation improvements in Ulster County. One of the most important functions of a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is to work cooperatively with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and transit operators to program and administer all Federal dollars for transportation improvements. The TIP update and amendment processes are governed by a series of Federal requirements identified within TIP document. Procedures for amending the TIP are established by UCTC and are similarly found in the narrative section of the TIP document.

Biennial updates to the TIP are initiated by UCTC and NYSDOT staff approximately 6 months before TIP adoption. Amendments to the TIP are performed at any time between biennial TIP updates. Both TIP updates and amendments are performed to reflect changes in costs, funding sources, scheduling and priorities. Changes that are made to the TIP between update cycles are classified as either Amendments or Administration Modifications. An Amendment is generally considered to be a major change and consequently requires Policy Committee approval. Changes requiring only UCTC staff approval are classified as an Administrative Modification. The TIP amendment approval process is further defined in table 7 of the UCTC Final FFY 2023-2027 Transportation Improvement Program to help clarify how and by whom changes are made.

Approved TIP updates and amendments are forwarded to NYSDOT, and then on the Federal Highway Administration or Federal Transit Administration for final approval and inclusion on the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). A UCTC TIP Amendment Log is maintained and posted on the website documenting all changes that have been approved by the UCTC Policy Committee or UCTC staff and are pending State and Federal approval. The Amendment Log lists the nature of all Amendments and Administrative Modifications made to UCTC TIP projects in the specified year.

The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a list of all projects in New York State for which Federal funding is proposed to be used that are scheduled to begin within a designated time frame of four federal fiscal years. This time frame is mandated by the federal law known as Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST). The STIP begins as a compilation of regional TIPs that are adopted every two years by MPOs and evolves into one comprehensive list of all highway and transit projects that propose to use Federal funds for transportation improvements statewide. The TIP/STIP update and amendment processes are organized in such a manner because Federal funds are allocated to NYSDOT on a statewide basis rather than to individual communities, counties or regions. NYSDOT determines how much Federal aid is allocated to Regions, MPOs, and rural areas within New York State.