Road plan for Orange to be aired
Highway projects, timetables detailed
By Judy Rife
September 18, 2007
Times Herald-Record
Goshen — The Orange County Transportation Council will hold a public hearing tomorrow on the county's five-year highway improvement program.
The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. in Room 301 of the Orange County Government Center in Goshen.
A copy of the draft program can be viewed at www.co.orange.ny.us/planning/octc.
The hearing will also address the program's impact on two air-quality measures; ozone and fine particulate matter.
The 2008-2012 transportation improvement program contains $556 million worth of projects — $482 million of which supports highway work.
The remainder is allocated to mass transit, such as bus, ferry and train service.
The federal government requires the council to update its transportation improvement program every two years to provide a comprehensive overview of capital and operating projects. The program details when projects will be done, what they will include and how much they will cost.
Schedule is adjustable
Major projects cannot proceed without approval from the council, but inclusion in the program doesn't necessarily mean they will be advance as scheduled. Some projects listed in the five-year program are more than 10 years old.
Delays are almost always because of money — shortfalls in anticipated funding and/or escalation of costs.
The 2008-2012 program, for example, estimates $415 million in federal funding and $141 million in local and state funding.
Federal law also requires the county to evaluate whether the projects in the program will cause existing air quality determinations to deteriorate or create new violations of the Clean Air Act. The county has concluded that the program will have no impact in this regard.
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