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 carry out our planning responsibilities in accordance with the federal Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) and related regulations and guidelines.
We've identified the following planning objectives for our 2021-2022 UPWP:
Complete Moving Dutchess Forward – our new long-range Transportation Plan for Dutchess County.
Complete Poughkeepsie 9.44.55, our consultant-supported analysis of the Route 9/44/55 interchange and east-and west-bound aerials in the City and Town of Poughkeepsie.
Complete the 2021 Traffic Count Program, collecting volume, classification, and speed data at about 160 locations throughout the county.
Complete our annual analysis of speeding patterns on county and local roads using data collected from the annual traffic count program.
Review and update the Functional Classifications of state, county, and local roads throughout Dutchess County.
Assist Dutchess County Public Transit with completing its countywide transit plan.
In conjunction with the County’s Complete Streets Committee, continue our public safety campaign to increase awareness of walking and bicycling safety issues in Dutchess County.
Update the FFY 2020-2024 TIP to reflect changes to programmed projects or to add new projects based on statewide funding awards.
Complete the federal certification review for the MidHudson Valley TMA.
We worked with member agencies, local communities, and stakeholders on a variety of transportation planning activities during the 2020-2021 program year, highlighted below:
In conjunction with the Dutchess County Planning Department, we supported the County’s response to the COVID pandemic. Serving as essential workers, Council staff were reassigned to COVID response duties during the spring and summer of 2020. These duties included work as call center staff, contact tracers, and logistics planners for food distribution operations to homebound persons.
Completed substantial work on a new countywide long-range Transportation Plan. Titled Moving Dutchess Forward, the plan will serve as the strategic guiding document for improving transportation in Dutchess County over the next 25 years.
Completed substantial work on an in-depth analysis of the Route 9/44/55 interchange and arterials in the City and Town of Poughkeepsie. Titled Poughkeepsie 9.44.55, this milestone effort will identify ways to make the arterials and interchange safer, more accessible, and better connected with the community.
Completed the 2020 Traffic Count Program, collecting volume, vehicle classification, and speed data at 163 locations across the county. We also deployed tube and video counters to count people walking and bicycling on the William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail and Harlem Valley Rail Trail.
Completed an analysis of speeding patterns on county and local roads using data collected from the traffic count program. The analysis identifies road segments with high percentages of ‘high-end’ speeders, defined by staff as those travelling more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
Completed the Arlington Main Street Redesign Initiative, which detailed a preferred design concept to make Main Street in the Town of Poughkeepsie a more walkable and safer street. The effort built upon recommendations from the 2017 Arlington Pedestrian Plan (.pdf).
Updated the Traffic Data Viewer with 2020 traffic count data. The Viewer shows traffic data via an online mapping application that provides data on volumes, speeds and heavy vehicles and includes a range of tools to analyze, chart, 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 DPW for its new Universal Accessibility Program that provides project funding for walking improvements on County facilities such as CR 69 (Dutcher Ave) at Henry St in the Village of Pawling.
In conjunction with OCTC and UCTC, completed Connect Mid-Hudson, the new regional transit plan for the MidHudson Valley. The plan identifies ways to improve regional transit services in the tri-county area to include using a common passenger information and mobile payment platform across systems, staffing a transit ombudsman office to advocate for transit customers and better coordinate services, and introducing microtransit services in underserved markets.
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 FAST Act. For 2021-2022, the federal allocation for New York State is estimated to total $32.4 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.
2021-2022 Budget
Our 2021-2022 UPWP (.pdf) annual funding estimate totals almost $677,000 (about $547,000 in FHWA funding and $130,000 in FTA funding). We also have over $703,000 in unspent FHWA funding from previous years that are available for programming as needed. We will program all of these backlog funds for the 2021-2022 program year.
