Under a four-year cooperative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, the NADO Research Foundation's Center for Transportation Advancement and Regional Development will be providing training, information and professional resources for small metropolitan and rural regions to pursue innovative strategies to expand the capabilities, capacity and effectiveness of a region's transportation network, including:

• Provide information and training on freight projects, transit system upgrades, roadways, bridges and intermodal transfer facilities and operations;
• Provide assistance to regional development organizations, local officials, rural transportation and economic development planners, officials from state departments of transportation and economic development, business leaders and other stakeholders in developing public-private partnerships to enhance their transportation systems; and
• Promote the leveraging of regional transportation planning with regional economic and business development planning to assure that appropriate transportation systems are created.

The primary tasks will include:

• Coordinate and convene a series of national and regional conferences to enhance the professional development and networking of rural transportation and economic development planners, practitioners, policy officials and key stakeholders. These events may include mobile workshops and peer visits, plus training may be delivered using new technologies such as web casts.

• Enhance the content and design of the Rural Transportation.org Web portal, including a series of case studies, tip sheets, national online directory of rural transportation planning organizations and special reports.

• Conduct an ongoing national information scan for innovative practices, trends and emerging issues related to regional transportation and economic development.
• Establish a national coordinating committee with representatives of regional development organizations, private sector business organizations, transportation and economic development research institutions (including FHWA-funded grantees) and transportation user organizations. In addition, conduct national and regional focus groups to identify emerging and pressing topic areas for research and training.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

More specifics will be available in the July 2006. For immediate assistance, please contact Matthew Chase, NADO Executive Director, at 202.624.7806 or mchase@nado.org.