By Del Truitt, TDOT
This article was originally published in the Tennessee County News.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is currently involved in working with local officials' constituent organizations such as the nine Tennessee economic development districts, the Tennessee Municipal League, the Association of County Mayors, the Tennessee County Services Association, the Tennessee County Highway Officials Association, the Tennessee County Commissioners Association, the Municipal Technical Advisory Service, the County Technical Assistance Service, and others to formalize a structured process for involving local rural elected and appointed officials in the transportation planning process.

While TDOT is ultimately responsible for statewide transportation planning, the department is specifically seeking to include local rural officials in much the same way it currently works with the 11 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in the state.

By involving all local officials (MPOs and rural) TDOT will provide a more consistent and comprehensive statewide planning decision making process.

By Working with the development districts, in conjunction with the other constituent organizations, TDOT has set up meetings beginning this month to receive input from local rural officials (those not in an MPO planning area) regarding transportation projects in their communities.

Earlier this year TDOT announced the initiation of the Tennessee's first ever Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan, expected to be completed in mid-2005. The establishment of this new rural consultation process is part of this overall commitment to create a Long Range Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan to address all aspects of transportation in the state for all citizens. A major part of these efforts is the establishment of project selection criteria with which to evaluate various transportation projects.

These initiatives will enable transportation planning to become more of a bottom-up process. TDOT will be able to work with local officials to build their communities in a way that will achieve their vision for their community.


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