The Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) (.pdf) describes our annual planning work to address ongoing and emerging transportation issues. Preparation of the UPWP is required by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and serves as the basis for federal funding assistance for transportation planning.
The UPWP helps our member agencies coordinate various planning activities and relate transportation planning concerns to other planning activities in the region. Funding support for the work program comes from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Dutchess County and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) provide the required matching funds for all UPWP tasks.
We've identified the following planning objectives for our 2022-2023 UPWP:
Develop and approve a capital program (TIP) for FFY 2023-2027, which will identify new and existing projects using federal highway and transit funding in Dutchess County during the five-year period.
Update our Public Participation Plan to better define our outreach activities, with an emphasis on reaching focus equity populations, coordinating with tribal nations, and integrating virtual and web-based engagement tools in our planning process.
Develop a new project selection framework that incorporates the themes presented in Moving Dutchess Forward, with a focus on addressing future trends, safety, reliability, access to basic needs, and transportation equity.
Initiate local pedestrian planning studies and Complete Streets assessments in the Town of Dover (Dover Plains), Town of Poughkeepsie (Route 113-Spackenkill Rd), and Village of Rhinebeck (Route 9-Montgomery/Mill St).
Continue to lend planning support to County Public Works as they implement their Universal Accessibility program, to include sidewalk improvements on CR 75 (Innis Ave). Complete an analysis of speeding patterns on county and local roads using data collected from our annual traffic count program.
Review and update the Functional Classifications of state, county, and local roads throughout Dutchess County.
Continue our Watch Out For Me campaign to increase awareness of transportation safety issues in Dutchess County, in coordination with the County’s Complete Streets Committee.
Provide planning support to Dutchess County Public Transit as they implement recommendations from their countywide transit plan, focusing on improving both fixed route and demand response services.
We worked with member agencies, local communities, and stakeholders on a variety of transportation planning activities during the 2021-2022 program year, highlighted below:
Completed Moving Dutchess Forward, our new 25-year Transportation Plan for Dutchess County. Designed as an interactive online plan, Moving Dutchess Forward humanizes our discussion about transportation. Instead of focusing on infrastructure for the sake of infrastructure, it focuses on people – specifically, how our transportation system enables or prevents people from participating in the basics of life (housing, work, education, services, etc.).
Completed the Poughkeepsie 9.44.55 study, our detailed analysis of the Route 9 Interchange at the Mid-Hudson Bridge and the Route 44/55 Arterials in the City and Town of Poughkeepsie. This two-year study developed and tested multiple design concepts to address existing and future reliability and safety issues for these two regionally significant transportation facilities.
Completed an update of our Coordinated Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Plan (.pdf) (‘Coordinated Plan’), which identifies ways to expand access for older adults (age 65 and over) and people with disabilities.
Completed a Safety Assessment of CR 14 (Hollow Rd) from South Creek Rd to West Cookingham Rd in the Town of Clinton, identifying low-cost improvements to reduce crashes on a high crash segment.
Completed the 2021 Traffic Count Program, collecting volume, classification, and speed data at approximately 140 locations throughout the county. We also deployed tube and video counters to count people walking and bicycling on the William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail, the Maybrook Trailway, and the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.
Updated our Traffic Data app with 2021 traffic count data. The viewer is an online mapping application that provides data on volumes, speeds, and heavy vehicles and includes a range of tools to analyze and export data.
Continued to lead the County’s inter‐departmental Complete Streets Committee. This work included progressing the County’s traffic safety education campaign, Watch Out For Me, and continuing the County’s GTSC-funded pedestrian safety education program for children, older adults, and transit customers in the Poughkeepsie area.
Provided planning support to Dutchess County Public Works for its Universal Accessibility program, which provides funding for walking improvements on facilities such as CR 75 (Innis Ave) in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
Provided technical assistance to Dutchess County Public Transit during the development of its countywide transit plan, which analyzed the existing transit system and proposed solutions for underserved markets.
Issued a call for planning proposals to better understand local transportation planning priorities and identify ways we can address them in this and future planning programs.
In conjunction with OCTC and UCTC, successfully underwent a federal certification review of the MidHudson Valley TMA’s planning process.
Approved a new ten-year host agency agreement between NYSDOT and Dutchess County.
Began development of a new logo and style guide for the DCTC.
We rely on federal planning funds to carry out our metropolitan transportation planning process. These funds, allocated on an annual basis and programmed through the UPWP, come from two primary sources: the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Planning Program (PL) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5303 Metropolitan Planning Program (MPP). The funds are authorized through the federal surface transportation authorization, the most recent being the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). For 2022-2023, the federal allocation for New York State is estimated to total over $41.3 million. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) distributes the funds to the 14 MPOs in New York State based on a formula that accounts for each MPO's planning area population and its TMA status.
These planning funds, like other federal transportation funding, are administered through NYSDOT on a reimbursement basis. We must first perform the planning work, after which we are reimbursed for the federal share of the cost. Our staff administer UPWP activities and submit quarterly reimbursement requests and activity reports to NYSDOT.
As with most federal transportation funding, a 20 percent local match is required for the federal planning funds used in the UPWP. NYSDOT provides a 15 percent toll credit/in-kind service match, while Dutchess County provides a five percent monetary match.
2022-2023 Budget
Our 2022-2023 UPWP (.pdf) annual funding estimate totals almost $825,000 (about $695,000 in FHWA funding and $130,000 in FTA funding). We also have over $670,000 in unspent FHWA funding from previous years that are available for programming as needed. We will program all of these backlog funds for the 2022-2023 program year. For information about our previous UPWP, please see our 2021-2022 UPWP Performance & Expenditure Report when available. See also our 2020-2021 UPWP UPWP Performance & Expenditure Report (.pdf).
