30-day public comment period opens for TIP, RTP, and two transit items

H-GAC public meeting August 13

Wendy Natt, Jul 28, 09.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) recently announced the opening of a 30-day public comment period from July 22 to August 22, 2009 for review of air quality findings that will have implications for two major regional transportation programs, the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and Regional Transportation Program (RTP), a notice of new projects proposed by transit agencies in the H-GAC region, and two METRO requests for amendments to the TIP:

•New air quality conformity finding for revisions to the 2008-2011 TIP and the 2035 RTP.

•2009 Section 5307 Program of Projects (POP) for transit providers in the Houston, Lake Jackson/Angleton, The Woodlands, Texas City/LaMarque and Galveston Urbanized Areas. The transit providers are the Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO), Harris County, Fort Bend County, Connect Transit and The District. This public notice and public comment period will satisfy the federal public notice requirements for each of the transit providers regarding its transit program of projects for fiscal year 2009. The proposed program unless amended, will meet the requirements regarding the final POP. Upon amendment, H-GAC will make available a final publication of the POP.

•The Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) has applied for a Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGER) grant made available to transit agencies in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. As part of the grant application process METRO has requested an amendment to the 2008-2011 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to include the following:

1. Design and installation of a one megawatt distributed solar array at the Kashmere Bus Operating facility - $8,456,700
2. Purchase and installation of an electric fan system on 263 buses - $4,209,561

In addition, H-GAC encourages the public to attend a public meeting on the above items on August 13, 2009. Click here for more details on meeting time and location.

Submit all written comments to Transportation Public Information, Houston-Galveston Area Council, P.O. Box 22777, Houston, Texas 77227-2777. Comments may also be emailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or faxed to 713.993.4508.

For more information on any of the above, visit www.h-gac.com/taq/public_info.