View the August 21 seminar recording
Jennifer Symoun
Good afternoon or good morning to those of you to the West. Welcome to the Talking Freight Seminar Series. My name is Jennifer Symoun and I will moderate today's seminar. Today's topic is State DOT and MPO Freight Planning Coordination.
Before I go any further, I do want to let those of you who are calling into the teleconference for the audio know that you need to mute your computer speakers or else you will be hearing your audio over the computer as well.
Today's seminar will last 90 minutes, with 60 minutes allocated for the speakers, and the final 30 minutes for audience Question and Answer. If during the presentations you think of a question, you can type it into the chat area. Please make sure you send your question to "Everyone" and indicate which presenter your question is for. Presenters will be unable to answer your questions during their presentations, but I will start off the question and answer session with the questions typed into the chat box. We will also take questions over the phone if time allows and I will provide instructions on how to do so once we get to that point.
The PowerPoint presentations used during the seminar are available for download from the file download box in the lower right corner of your screen. The presentations will also be available online within the next few weeks, along with a recording and a transcript. I will notify all attendees once these materials are posted online.
Talking Freight seminars are eligible for 1.5 certification maintenance credits for AICP members. In order to obtain credit for today's seminar, you must have logged in with your first and last name or if you are attending with a group of people you must type your first and last name into the chat box.
PDH certificates are also available for Talking Freight seminars. To receive 1.5 PDH credits, you will need to fill out a form. Please see the link in the chat box. Certificates will be emailed one week after the seminar. A seminar agenda has been included in the file download box for those who need to submit an agenda to their licensing agency.
Finally, I encourage everyone to please also download the evaluation form from the file share box and submit this form to me after you have filled it out.
Today we'll have three presentations, given by:
Our first presentation will be given by Yatman Kwan, the Office Chief of Freight Planning at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). He oversees various freight activities, including the California Freight Mobility Plan, Sustainable Freight Action Plan implementation, Freight Advisory Committee, multi-state partnerships, research, and education. He also represents Caltrans on a number of national organizations, including AASHTO and TRB.
Yatman Kwan
Thank you, Jennifer. I want to thank everyone for joining us today and thank you for FHWA for asking me to speak. As Jennifer mentioned, I am Yatman Kwan, I'm the Office Chief of Freight Planning at Caltrans headquarters in Sacramento.
So, the webinar provides me the opportunity to share something we are working on as part of the AASHTO's Special Committee on Freight Year 1 Task. And it's to assess how DOTs are collaborating with MPO partners. The mission is really to gather and analyze information from various State DOTs and respective MPOs, and really understanding what we're doing right, and what we're not doing so well and how we can improve. From this effort, we aim to develop a toolkit of best practices, ideas, and really can handle process. If there is anything I miss in the webinar, please feel free to contact me.
So, we want to know what DOTs are doing, we want to know what MPOs want. And we want to give an overview of what California is doing because since we are doing a Grapevine update there are a lot of engagements efforts we have been doings and I think there are a lot of opportunities of interest that came up with our partners that I think will be valid for this exercise.
So, for the State DOTs we developed a fairly quick and easy eight-question survey using Survey Monkey, and we asked AASHTO to distribute this survey to our freight community members. As part of the survey we asked DOTs for MPO contacts, because we really want to get a diverse range of input. Using the contacts we got from DOTs, we reached out to 30 MPO's and invited them to participate and share their feedback. The MPO's who responded were given 15 questions, we asked for a phone or email, regarding their thoughts, and basically providing the most candid responses they can in terms of how they work with DOTs.
What do we ask? Well we ask the DOTs how often in which they engage their MPOs, how often they convene their freight committees, how they involve the process or agenda, how do DOT's reach out to their partners – Is it on a regular basis? Or is it ad hoc, and how does that work? And we really want to understand how DOTs function in terms of reaching their MPOs for freight specific purposes? How do DOTs gain expertise? Are MPOs included in these efforts? For MPO's we asked how they handled freight issues and projects. We asked how often and in what capacity were they contacted by their DOTs. We want to make sure that they have an opportunity to collaborate and to speak up when they need to for their projects. And we really want to understand if all of the MPO's are really engaged in the activities for freight. We also want to understand what the biggest concerns are relating to freight. If their DOT works with them to mitigate these concerns, and how is the relationship between those offices and teams? Lastly, do they rely on DOT as a system of regional state matters. Again, is there a wealth of expertise between MPOs and DOTs.
Some of the examples we are told from DOTs are they provide support to MPO staff for development of long-term freight plans or studies. DOT staff attend MPOs statewide meetings or conferences and present information where they're asked to regarding DOT freight planning activities. DOT staff also participate in MPO technical advisory committees. Some DOT have dedicated staff that coordinate with MPOs and so freight topics are usually communicated at either monthly or quarterly calls.
Some of the challenges that we've heard from MPOs. And I want to be candid here, because I do believe we are interested in the honest feedback from these MPOs. So, I ensured them that what they tell me would be anonymous, so I would not tell their DOTs what they are doing wrong, essentially, if they are doing anything wrong. Some feedback that we got is that some small MPOs feel they're neglected usually in statewide efforts and meetings, especially for freight. This includes funding or planning activities. Some MPOs felt that DOTs are very siloed, and some entities and DOTs may work with them, but freight may not. They may not know about freight activities and sometimes it may be through a newspaper or website rather than getting informed by DOTs. There are not regular meetings, especially for freight, and it really occurs on an ad hoc basis. This really resonates throughout the responses we got from MPOs. And they would really like to have more ongoing conversations and really having DOTs engage MPO's and local governments and state, have more ongoing meetings and more coordination, and again a more structured format.
Most of the best practices that we found from the survey results between MPOs and DOTs are: the MPOs reach out to DOTs to present to subcommittees as I mentioned earlier; Create good working relationships; They have dedicated staff that coordinate with the MPO's, so that if something happens the DOTs and MPOs know exactly who to contact for information. Other examples are that they get plan sheets for DOT projects that have various stages of development, especially for freight and really looking into the freight industry for these projects. We collaborate on studies and making sure freight and freight stakeholders are included. Again, freight may not be needed all the time in these studies, but some DOTs and many MPOs make sure this freight aspect are in the adequate studies. They often reach out to DOTs to see if anything to present at subcommittees. Again, communication is really important here. Reaching out to make sure there are agenda items and the most up to date information is presenting, the most up to date activities are talked about. And, again, just developing a really positive work relationship with each other.
So, I want to touch a minute upon what we are doing here in California. Because, as I mentioned, we are going through our California Freight Mobility Plan update. And because of this effort there is a lot of collaboration involved and I think a lot of that information can be very useful in terms of including the best practices as well as some of the shortcomings we can definitely improve upon.
So, I want to give an overview of California for those who don't know the context. California has about 40 million in population. We have 58 counties. Since California is such a huge state, we do have 12 Caltrans Districts that work with local partners directly <sound went out>. We have approximately <Sound went out>. And we are the 5th largest economy in the world with a GGP of approximately 2.7 trillion in 2018. We have a huge freight sector, both in terms of exports and imports. We have a large high-tech sector and a huge ag sector. We also have some of the largest airports and largest seaports in the nation, including Long Beach, LA, and Oakland. We have 3 land ports of entry with Mexico. And one of the things that is really pushing us in California is that we really want to make our freight more sustainable by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by deploying zero-emissions vehicles, and foster a work force development as freight work force needs are changing, especially with the greening of the vehicles, the different types of warehouses needed now. So again, we're working toward a more sustainable freight future in California.
As I mentioned, we are going through our freight plan update, and one of the things our team is working on is to include our Freight Advisory Committee in development of the freight plan. So, with such a large population and tons of needs and a huge number of partners, we are constantly do coordination efforts. As I mentioned previously, there are 12 Caltrans districts and headquarters really rely on these districts to coordinate with our counties and MPO partners. We do have a pretty robust back, and lately we have been meeting quarterly to get input from our partners and members for the freight plan development. Again, with such a huge group coordination is challenging, but essential to developing a successful freight plan for our state.
So, this slide can be a little overwhelming, there's a lot going on here. To give a little context, in California we do have a pretty elaborate transportation funding structure. Similar to other states, we do have funding from all of the government including federal, state, local, and self-help. In CA in 2017 we were very blessed to have Senate Bill 1 passed and it really puts freight on the map here. In the SB1 program there is a freight-focused funding program which is approximately $800 million per year for freight investments. So, this means money, and this means that we really need to collaboratively invest strategically into what our freight system is in CA. So again, this is where Caltrans headquarters, districts, MPOs, and partners really work together to develop this map here of these 7 region investment strategies. For those who have been in California you know it is very diverse with a lot going on. By doing this strategy we are able to really speak to their story of freight, what it means to those regions. It's hard to evaluate the context without any information if you're looking for projects in San Diego compared to somewhere in the Tahoe region. Again, this is a huge collaboration effort between Caltrans headquarters, districts, MPOs, counties, you name it; there's just a lot of partners. And the reason I want to use this example is to really bring and highlight some input that we have heard from our partners throughout the collaboration process.
One thing that we've been working on as well as other opportunities we feel are very important. For example, some of these may be efforts that MPOs and DOTs are already doing, but I think it's important for us to present updates with involvement from the state in various regions and to get the state involved in the localized efforts. Some of these may be participating in regional freight advisory committees. A lot of times freight gets concentrated in urban areas, but I want to make sure, as an agency, we do participate in a number of rural county groups. Although Caltrans headquarters rely on the districts, I think it's very important for headquarters to provide a perspective when local agencies are doing a freight plan. Freight is more of a regional-based, it's a state-based, it's a national-based program so it is very important that there is a higher level picture than just the region itself. It's also very important to do information knowledge sharing. We really communicate the needs of freight. Making sure executive management is up to date with information. If we have information, we will communicate it and tell the story of our needs. Having a pure technical expertise and developing training programs together. Two years ago, Caltrans developed two 1-week training programs and participants were not only Caltrans staff but also our partners. Again, having that knowledge sharing base with our partners, growing as a freight industry in California. With research opportunities and partnerships; in Caltrans is very fortunate, we have a team dedicated to the research. We want to make sure we are doing the right research, and this is where we really want the input from our partners. We don't want to do research that is not applicable to what the state needs. And lastly, simply communicating to our districts. We developed an internal newsletter recently. We've been using this mechanism to tell our districts what's happening with freight nationwide and statewide, and really provide that basis in terms of the dialogue enables the district to communicate, "So-and-so MPO this is what headquarters is working on." To make sure that there is communication between all levels.
With that, this concludes my presentation. There is my contact information. The DOT sand MPO's who help us to shape this survey and this task. We appreciate your feedback and if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them at the end of the presentations. Thank you.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you, Yatman. Our next presentation will be given by Kenneth Kao, the principal planner at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. In that role, Kenneth manages various funding programs and projects, including competitive state programs like Solutions for Congested Corridors, Trade Corridor Enhancement, and Active Transportation Programs; formulaic state programs like the State Transportation Improvement Program and Local Partnership Program; and other non-transit regional programs. Kenneth also serves as the main liaison to the California Transportation Commission and Regional Transportation Planning Agencies group.
Kenneth Kao
Thank you, Jennifer. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. My topic today is the MPO perspective on working with other MPO's and the state DOT on freight. And, as Jennifer mentioned, I am Kenneth Kao with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission located here in the San Francisco Bay Area. And just for a little bit of context, the MTC is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the San Francisco Bay Area. We have 7.5 million people, 9 counties, 101 cities and towns, as well as 25 transit operators and over 3.7 million jobs. Kind of giving an overview of what we do, as you know, MPO's are the planning, financing, and coordinating transportation agency in the region. We also operate a suite of services to help folks get around including a 511, the Clipper Transit Fair Payment System, and electronic tolling. Kind of what I do, I wanted to mention this to give context to help frame this presentation, I'm not actually in our planning section. I am in the programming section which handles most of the money, project funding, and delivery. My perspective will be on the funding side with a little bit of planning background in there as well.
Just to give you another set of contexts, the Bay Area is up in Northern California, in relation to the rest of the country. And we are part of the Northern California mega-region as defined by the Regional Plan Association. As a port of entry, we are very connected to the rest of the country. We are the fifth-largest when measured by a gross regional product. We are linked very closely with transportation and economic links within our region, as well as with our other neighboring MPO's, like the San Juaquin region, the Sacramento region, and Monterey to the south. This includes a lot of agricultural projects that are shipped from the Central and Salinas valleys, as well as really great wines from the Napa and Sonoma valleys. And they all must travel on roads or by rail to reach market. I wanted to mention that the Port of Oakland is in our region and it is the fifth busiest port in the country.
So, this slide shows the projected truck flows from California to the rest of the country. As you can see California is strategically placed as a major port for imports and exports to the Asia Pacific region and Northern California is a very important piece of that national goods movement puzzle.
As we all know we don't operate in a vacuum. Just in the Bay Area system alone, we have 9 counties that we partner with that we identify, develop, and prioritize and fund important transportation projects in our region. To that end, in our region we hold regular movement executive team meetings. We actually just had one yesterday. We discuss major topics like planning, funding, and program updates with key executives at the table from those counties in the Port of Oakland as well as the California Department of Transportation and our air-quality district. We've also developed a goods movement plan and an accompanying investment strategy a few years ago. And that identifies some critical strategies and projects to further this movement in our region. We are also finalizing our Northern California Mega-Region Goods Movement Study. That was funded in part by Caltrans, so thank you, Yatman. That includes members from the San Juaquin, Sacramento, and Monterey Bay area regions. This study recognizes the interconnectedness of Northern California and attempts to identify some areas where we can cooperate and partner with to improve the goods movement infrastructure in our region.
Finally, I did want to mention an example of partnership that we developed probably a decade ago. This was the Northern California Trade Corridors Coalition. This was developed in response to Proposition 1B. That was a $20 billion bond measure that was approved by the voters in 2006. And that included a Trade Corridor Improvement Fund (TCIF), which included $2-2.5 million for the entire state to improve our freight corridors. The TCIF split some of that funding into mega-regional targets. And the coalition was formed to make some of those funding priorities and decisions. I wanted to highlight this coalition because I think it's a really great example of how, when regions work together, we can really get a lot done and really convey a good story about goods movement and why we need a lot more investment in freight and goods movement. As I mentioned, 2.5 billion was available. We formed this back in 2006, and it was an interregional partnership. We had 23 counties, 10 regional transportation agencies, we had the 3 major ports (Oakland, Sacramento, and Stockton), had the California D.O.T. as well as our 2 major class 1 railroads. We also had the business community represented to get their point of view as well. I think the outcome of this is that we were really able to tell that story about how our regions are very inter-connected and that we have a very important role to play in the state and in the nation. And that partnership that we formed with the rest of our Northern California partners I think has been really helpful and beneficial in moving forward in the next round of federal funding with Fast Lane and Infra, as well as with the Senate Bill 1 programs which I will touch on again later, and Yatman touched on earlier as well.
So, our relationship with our state Department of Transportation, which is Caltrans. We work closely with them and I think Yatman's earlier presentation about the outreach that they have done I think is very appreciated and recognized in our region. We do have quarterly meetings. The California Freight Advisory Committee (CFAC) does meet quarterly and we do have a place at the table there as well as many of our regional partners including some of our other major counties that have a lot of freight going through their area. We also have regular project delivery and planning meetings with our local Caltrans District. Thankfully District 4's geographic region mirrors MTC's; it's also the nine counties. So, we are really able to work closely with them to identify upcoming opportunities, challenges, discuss our current and upcoming projects, and to take that strategic look into the future. And we work with the district who then work with headquarters; that is kind of our hierarchy.
Then some of the examples of our work together. Caltrans is really great at convening all the MPOs in the state together to help us identify some common goals, because we all have our specific challenges and needs, so Caltrans brings us together to help identify the commonalities we all have. We also worked really closely with Caltrans to develop a way to identify and assign our critical urban and critical rural freight corridors. That was something that, again, was passed in the Federal Fast Act, and a lot of the regions had interest in how we will assign these corridors. Because, for a project to be eligible for federal freight funding, it needs to be on these critical corridors or on the National Highway Freight Program corridors. We work really closely with them to identify a well thought out process with the roles and responsibilities of each agency clearly identified. Caltrans also recently adopted the California State Rail Plan, and that brings together all of the various rail divisions including freight, heavy rail, commuter rail, and light rail together. MTC and a lot of our regional partners did participate in a stakeholder advisory committee to help give Caltrans input as they developed that rail plan. And I did want to mention about the California Freight Mobility Plan which is being updated. I have another slide about that.
So, Caltrans has been doing a lot of great outreach and soliciting input from all of their regional, as well as business, partners. They had outreach meetings last year and then they really engaged the Freight Advisory Committee and had them form some subcommittees to really talk about the key components that will feed into the Freight Mobility Plan. And one of those was to talk about the project list and prioritization which is an important topic for the regions to discuss as it relates to the freight plan. The outcome of that was that we work with Caltrans to have regional investment strategies rather than an entire state, one-size-fits-all type of policy. And the regional strategies recognize that each mega-region has its own unique issues and challenges. And it also recognizes that many of our regions have already developed our own freight plans and so we're not really starting from scratch, we can leverage those regional freight plans into the state freight plan to really help tell that story. As Yatman mentioned, the state has a very important emphasis on sustainability. And that allowed and encouraged the regions to reach out to some nontraditional partners, like our air-quality management district, on some potential new types of projects and technology that we maybe hadn't thought about or should think about. So, I think that was something that was a key part of the Freight Mobility Plan update. We are also identifying a near-term set of projects that we can deliver within the next 5-7 years, rather than the whole kitchen sink wish list of projects. Because, in reaching out with Caltrans and the regions and the MPO's, is that prioritization might not be possible; everyone has a long laundry list of projects and there is only so much money. So, deliverability was one of the things I think everyone agreed was something that we can show as a prioritization factor. And Caltrans is expected to finalize and adopt the plan at the end of this calendar year.
So, I think this sentence is really important: Senate Bill 1, approved by the California State Legislature in 2017, provides $300 million annually for the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program (TCEP). This is brand new money that wasn't there before; this is on top of the Federal Highway Formula Funds that we get for freight as well. This is why it's really important to coordinate and partner with all of our partners to make sure that we can message and position a regions projects, priorities, and needs to compete for these kinds of programs. By showing that we have a larger strategy, that we have a story to tell, I think it resonates with the folks making these funding decisions. Not only for the state here in California, but also for the federal grant opportunities like (formerly) Fast Lane and the Build Grant programs. Maybe just to pitch here, in the Bay Area our regional transportation plan, which is called Plan Bay Area 2040 that we adopted that back in July 2017. It does reflect a lot of our goods movement plan projects, and we have identified over 5 billion of those. And our key parts of our plan include increasing efficiency at the Port of Oakland, reduce emissions, reduce the neighborhood impacts of particulate matter with truck traffic and maybe shifting that onto rail, and also strategic highway investments to eliminate bottlenecks and improve travel time reliability for trucks as well as general public. That does conclude my comments, and I look forward to hearing any questions you have after the next presentation. Thank you.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you, Kenneth. We are now going to move on to our final presentation which will be given by Darryl Fields, a Senior Transportation Planner with the Mid-America Regional Council. Darryl has over 30 years public and private experience in program management; transportation revenue forecasting and planning; Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS); traffic/congestion management; and freight transportation operation. Currently his work involves initiatives related to the transportation corridor and freight study project management, and managing the federal procurement process with MARC-related projects. Darryl also participates in regional transportation planning activities that account for nearly $2 billion of regional transportation investments.
Darryl Fields
Thank you, Jennifer. Good morning, or afternoon depending on your location. I am the Senior Transportation Planner with the Mid-America Regional Council, better known as MARC. MARC is the council of government's designated Metropolitan Planning Organization in the greater Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri region, with the purpose to work as a regional form to work together to advance social, economic, and environmental process. The region is formed by 2 states with 2 state DOTs, 2 FHWA divisions, 8 counties in the MPO area (9 if you count our air quality boundary), 119 cities, 1.9 million people, 4,400 square miles, and one of the most important things is that there are over 100 BBQ restaurants in Kansas City. Actually, that has nothing to do with my presentation, but thought I would share that information.
The Kansas City area is served by 5 of the 7 Class 1 railroads, 4 intermodal hubs, largest rail center by tonnage, and the most rail traffic second to Chicago. We have waterborne commerce along the Missouri River feeding into the Mississippi River, and the most air cargo within 6 state regions. Our highway network has major national east/west connections along I-70, and north/south connections between Canada and Mexico along I-35. Based on geographic location, distribution centers can reach over 85 % of the nation's population with two days or less. The US commercial real estate service firm CERE, the largest real estate service company in the world, ranks Kansas City as one of the nation's top 12 inland ports. Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), the world's second-largest commercial real estate service firm, includes Kansas City on its list of top 18 distribution markets.
Because freight is a dynamic to the region, this requires us to examine impacts of our transportation system. I like to call this "So Whats." How do we plan for freight moving in and through the region? What are these impacts of things as congestion, safety, infrastructure? When will this impact affect the region; short-term, mid-term, long-range plans? Who is impacted; general public, business community, and other public policy? And where will these impacts occur; local, regional, or national? As we examine the regional freight movements, and the "so whats", we understand as planning agencies that our region economic effectiveness relies on a transportation system that is predictable, efficient and productive. To maintain a response to efficiency, we as public policy providers must actively maintain agencies' coordination and cooperation. This must occur across state lines because freight has no boundaries. Understanding these economic influences mandates our relationships between State DOTs, MPOs and other planning agencies.
As I was Putting this presentation together, it became a lot harder than I originally thought. How hard is it to discuss how our agencies work together? We have always done it this way, there is no other way to go about the process. Then I questioned the big picture. Is this the approach taken by other MPOs, other regions, or other state DOTs? Is our success based upon relationships we've formed over the years? Or is it because we know it's the right thing to do? Or is it just simply luck? Kansas has 6 MPOs, 2 TMAs (Wichita and Kansas City, with Kansas City as the largest TMA) and along with St. Joseph, MO are bi-state MPOs. Missouri has 9 MPOs, 3 TMAs, with its 2 largest TMAs St. Louis and Kansas City, along with St. Joseph and the Arkansas Regional Planning Commission as bi-state MPOs. As a bi-state region we may have different state policies and/or approaches to regional issues, but we understand that, although we function in 2 separate states, our issues are regional and should be addressed as regional issues, not state specific.
We understand that for our region's success in dealing with conflicting agendas requires coordination and cooperation. The Kansas City region undertakes several regional coordination activities to respond to our regional issues. Kansas City Scout, the state's traffic management center, covers interstates in Kansas and Missouri through a single operations center housed in Missouri DOT, and funded in part by Kansas DOT. Operation Green Light improves signal coordination through multiple jurisdictions in KS and MO, housed within MARC, and funded by both Kansas and Missouri jurisdictions. Destination Safe Coalition is a bi-state combination of transportation, emergency response, law enforcement, public health and nonprofit groups dedicated to transportation safety, establishing regional safety goals and objectives, along with combinations of transportation policy developers and planning and programming committees housed within the MPO. These and other regional initiatives are how we do business in Kansas City.
There are 2 major goals associated with transportation no matter where you are in the nation: How well your transportation system supports the economy and how well your system improves the quality of life for the public. As a region we understand that the success of our transportation system is to help drive the nation, each state, and our regional economy. We accomplish this through proactive coordination related to freight planning. Efforts include purchasing and sharing data that affect both states, cross-participation in each state's freight advisory councils, and proactive input into the federal regulation process.
Over the years the region has used coordination and cooperation to successfully complete several freight-related studies and initiatives. Completion of these studies include coordination and input by Chambers of Commerce, national and regional freight-related business, and federal and state DOTs. The success of these initiatives is based on the region's understanding and expectation about working together. As a region, we know that if we fail at coordination and cooperation, we fail as a region and both states fail. Coordination and cooperation is doing the right thing.
We have many regional planning successes. The region has cooperated to eliminate major roadway and rail bottle necks, built new river crossing, and laid the ground work for enhancements to freight data sharing and equipment monitoring. A joint study completed in the mid-90s lead by MARC included chambers of commerce, trucking, railroads, both state DOTS, and provided recommendations to build rail crossing flyovers. The flyovers would help alleviate a rail bottleneck that created hours of delay through the Kansas City area. The construction of the rail flyovers helped set the stage for using state infrastructure bank financing, created a Missouri and Kansas transportation cooperation, and reduced train travel through the region from 40 minutes to 15. Additionally, the studied supported interchange reconstruction and improvements of a major thoroughfare between Kansas and Missouri, providing much need relief for truck movement.
Other joint studies, such as the Mid-Continent Trade Study, recommended the development of SmartPort that would take advantage of the economics associated with the significant amount of international cargo passing through Kansas and Missouri. SmartPort started with both state DOTs and chambers of commerce, and MARC served and continues to serve on the board of directors helping hire the executive director and provide input into its continued future direction. SmartPort has developed into a major regional economic development organization attracting freight-based companies to the bi-state region. The Regional Freight Outlook and other joint technical and congestion management studies created technical, mobility, and regional bi-state processes as traffic operation and incident management. Kansas City Scout acts as the region's highway operations and incident management center. And Operation Green Light as our regional coordinated signal timing operations. Other initiates that grew from joint coordination and cooperation were FHWA's Cross Town Improvement Project, paving the way for businesses and agencies to pass along data that improves freight movement and freight equipment, along with MARC/SmartPort trade data exchange and developed the ground work for companies to share domestic and international shipment progress from origin to destination.
MARC applied and was awarded a FHWA grant through the National Economic Partnerships program (NEP). The NEP is through FHWA's Mega Region Initiative working to develop "Regional Models of Cooperation". The tech plan will examine freight connections between metropolitan areas and states, assess potential impacts, and develop recommendations to harmonize the implementation of emerging freight technologies. The Central Plains/Heartland region and its study partners consisting of all or parts of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. And planning partners was formed with MARC as the lead agency that includes the five state DOTs and their respective Transportation Management Areas (TMAs). Additionally, we are working to finalize a regional study that encompasses 15 counties, 3 MPOs, regional planning agencies, 3 Class 1 rail roads, and both state DOTs. The planning process will seek to position our agencies to take advantage of changes that are occurring around us. The process will integrate into rural/urban local, regional, statewide and national freight planning processes. Allowing agencies an opportunity to identify, select, and prioritize local, regional, state and national multimodal freight projects.
Earlier I mentioned relationships, and I wanted to circle back to its importance. An important aspect, as in any business, are successful relationships. We are probably blessed that our 3 agencies (KDOT, MoDOT, and MARC) have long standing personal and professional relationships between those responsible for freight planning. And we have worked together over the breadth of our professional careers; as kids use to say, "we go way back". I'm fairly certain that between the 3 agencies that we are responsible for planning, there may be no more than a couple of years that separate us in service years. This goes a long way in our ability to get things accomplished, especially regarding coordination and cooperation. We understand each other's plans, our political climate, and how best to work with senior management. These relationships help smooth the road because we understand each other's common goal.
I'm not too proud to say that some of our success is because of luck. Things happen in the universe beyond one's control, the stars align, and freight and its economic impact becomes a new driver of why we do business. USDOT introduced ISTEA back in the early 1990s and freight was placed on the table. The region requested a process to act upon regulations. We had 3 careers that started at around the same time and we are still within our respective agencies. We have seen the early beginnings and probably help shape some of the future. To me this is luck and helps us to work together to accomplish our common task. How well our agencies support the economy and improve the quality of life for the public is most important.
Thanks for listening. This isn't rocket science and there are no magic bullets. Successful freight planning within regions comes from cooperation and coordination, doing the right thing, having strong relationships, and what may be most important, good luck. I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you, Darryl. I know we have a number of questions typed in and I encourage you to continue typing in our questions, but we'll get started. Darryl, we'll start with you since you just finished up, but other presenters feel free to jump in. With the advent of the Panamax cargo ships and the increase of containers that have drayage in your ports, have you seen an increase of EJ issues around your ports? Also, how have you planned for the changes due to this increase in short term freight congestion?
Darryl Fields
The first part, you mentioned Panamax around our port. We don't have a deep water port since we're inland. But, mentioning that, we have seen some movement of the freight moving from the west coast to the east coast, so it has increased some of our rail freight coming into the region. I think the second part of that question is for California.
Jennifer Symoun
Yes, let's go ahead and Yatman or Kenneth if you would respond to that.
Kenneth Yao
I think for us, we continue to identify strategies to improve air quality around the port. One of them that we are really looking at and trying to implement is the technology piece. So, things like ITS and like an app for truckers to tell them when they can go to the gate, rather than waiting in line and causing congestion at the gate. Also looking at improving the rail links. Increasing logistics and warehousing on the site at the Port of Oakland, rather than having the containers unload and then having those containers being trucked out to the Central Valley which is where most of our warehousing is. And also continuing electrification; having the ships being able to plug-in to on-shore electricity. Also, I think some of the ports down in southern CA are doing this where they have these things that go over the pipes of big trucks and basically scrubs the air. It's really kind of neat. So, I think these are some of the strategies that we are looking at to reduce some of those EJ concerns.
Yatman Kwan
From a state standpoint, as Kenneth mentioned, there are a number of issues. And, as we mentioned in our presentations, we have a number of sustainable freight actions to improve not just the industry itself, but the environment. So, in addition to not only the technology side, in terms of ITS or timing or efficiency, the state also provides a number of programs and funding sources to encourage more electrification of our infrastructure, as well as global stock. So, our examples are our Air Resource Board as well as our Energy Commission, they have funded a number of test pilots with our private partners, such as the truck industry, to really green those industries and reduce air quality impacts in those communities. In our state priorities, we do want to move to more of the greener side of freight. We have really put a lot of investments in those infrastructure needs.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you. Darryl, this one I know is for you. What are the key data sets that you purchased or licensed?
Darryl Fields
We have tried to keep that at a minimum. And one of the greatest things about having the coordination between the two states' DOTs is that KDOT and MoDOT have bi-trans search data and through their work they have allowed us to have a license to the data. So, we use that data. We try not to purchase, and we try use as much free data as we can. Simply the cost is way too overwhelming for us, and by the states being able to allow us to use the trans search that has helped us tremendously.
Jennifer Symoun
Another one for you. The question is where can we find more information about the SmartPort initiative? I know the web address was typed in there, but if there is any other information that you can provide that others can look to.
Darryl Fields
Can I just send you, Jennifer, the information and you can send it out? Or they can contact me directly and I'll get them the information.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. Let's see. Is there currently any ongoing freight coordination between the mega-regions in the U.S.? And that might be one that any of the presenters can answer.
Darryl Fields
I think with the project that we're starting under the National Economic Program, there will be some touching base with some of the other mega-regions. But with our idea of using part of Illinois because our project does not move into Chicago. But with Illinois DOT being involved, I think we will be touching base with a lot of the things that go on with Chicago. So, I think that will actually move into one of the other mega-regions.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright. And another one for you. The regional freight plan you are starting, why is it involving only 3 of your 7 Class 1 railroads? Also, the geographic scope of this regional freight plan is it the entire MARC MPO planning area, or is it only a smaller portion of it?
Darryl Fields
The first portion of that, the 3 Class 1s are UP, BNSF, and Kansas City Southern. They have full access through Kansas City; North and East and West. The other class 1s terminate in Kansas City so they turn their service over to a terminal Railroad, which all the class 1s are part of which is also part of the study. So, their participation with the terminal and BNSF, Kansas City Southern, and UP allows us to have full access to all of the Class 1s. And our regional study, we are looking at 15 counties which would be urban and rural. It's just the expanse of the project and how much we really have can control it. And moving north through St. Joseph, Missouri and east into Lawrence, Kansas, and understanding all the connections that happen between our agencies, understanding the movement of freight through the region, and understanding how that will impact that last mile and country mile. It has a portion of resiliency, has a portion to deal with how our processes will factor into both state project selections, and how we actively will participate in the advisory councils.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you. I think we got to the questions for you, but if you have more questions for Darryl, feel free to type them in. We will move to some questions for Yatman. What does rural county partner engagement look like?
Yatman Kwan
That's a great question. Let me go over two things we have been doing. One is that we do provide updates to our Rural County Task Force. That task force is comprised of a number of rural county representatives, so we want to make sure they are actively engaged in terms of what we are doing in the state for freight. Secondly, for the freight plan update, we actually relied on the districts in Northern California to assemble a group of freight stakeholders in those areas to develop a focus group session regarding freight in the rural areas, so to make sure that perspective is captured in the freight plan. I am very proud to say that was very well attended. We really wanted to see what freight means to their communities. Especially in northern California, you a lot of timber, roads are more windy where trucks can't get to it. So, understanding perspective was very useful in the development of the freight plan. Again, focus groups in areas to really hear what people want.
Jennifer Symoun
All right, thank you. Another question for you, how does the Caltrans Office of Freight Planning interact with large military installations such as Marine Base Pendleton and Fort Morgan?
Yatman Kwan
Typically for engagements with our partners we rely on our districts for engagement for military base or any service base. We do have regional partners that we can lead towards for that information. But I think we could do a better job in terms of engagement, especially with the unique needs they have for freight movement.
Jennifer Symoun
Another question for you. What has the experience of Caltrans been like in trying to work with your class 1 railroads and trying to understand and address freight rail operations needs and plans in the state of California?
Yatman Kwan
I think all three of us get stuck with that in terms of the coordination of the railroads. California does have a state plan that we recently published regarding the division of freight for California. With that said, we have a division in Caltrans for rail aspects and we do those routinely for freight as well as passenger freight matters for many passenger services through the railroad. We do meet with DOT. One thing is that we go to their facilities and understand what they need as well. I think a lot of that is just engagement. It's hard to talk in the meeting room if you don't know a lot of contacts, so we have been actively do communicate between the partners, between the railroads, even the shortline railroads. Just more engagement and going to see what they need. Many DOTs are prone to agree that the railroads are a little more secretive with their knowledge. But, we do have a pretty good working relationship of them. They're also represented on our back as well.
Darryl Fields
We might be a little luckier than most. We have an office of UP railroads in our building. We have direct contact to the regional director of operations. It makes life a lot easier when you can build those relationships that keep them involved, and they keep their counterparts at the other railroads involved. It's always a good relationship for us.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. Kenneth, we'll go to some questions for you. What has been more important for freight investment, the Formula program in the Federal Surface Transportation programs, or discretionary grants, like Build and Infra?
Kenneth Kao
I think for our region the federal formula funds have been more important to us in terms of being able to distribute that around the state. I don't think California has done exceptionally well on the competitive federal grants to date. Although I think we just got a grant down in southern California for about $50 million, so that was exciting, but nothing here in the Bay Area. Yatman, maybe you can clarify which grant that was.
Yatman Kwan
I believe it was a grant in – for $50million for a – I believe. California is not doing very well in terms of the competitive aspect. We are fortunate that we do have some funding for not just federal funding, but we do have state funding for freight. We are very lucky in that sense, but we do wish we could get more of this discretionary aspect.
Jennifer Symoun
How do you align TCIF funds with regional freight planning investment goals?
Kenneth Kao
We look at the projects and we prioritize them based on additional criteria based on the funding sources. For example, in the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program match and deliverability are important criteria. So, we layer than on in addition to the projects and goals identified in our plan. So that is how we match and crosswalk the plan and the funding source and which projects to move forward.
Jennifer Symoun
Another question for you, would it be possible to hear from you about the criteria or methodology of scoring to help you choose what CUFCs you chose for submission?
Kenneth Kao
Yes, so the state of California was assigned 311 "urban freight corridor miles". The MPOs work with Caltrans on the methodology on how to distribute that. It was based on 75% of the population of that urbanized area and 25% based on the proportion of highway system miles in that MPO. That's how it was split among the 18 MPOs. MTC has about 65 miles of that and then it is up to us to identify which corridors to assign that. We have not yet submitted our designation but will be doing that in the next few months. We are mainly looking at projects that are coming in the short to medium-term that aren't already on the primary highway freight system.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you, and another one for you. Is there any coordination between the freight plan and asset management plan?
Kenneth Kao
I think that might be for Yatman.
Yatman Kwan
Yes, this one is for me. Yes, there is. So, in the freight plan there are similar themes highlighted in the asset management plan as well. So, for example, pavement, bridges, ITS, all of those are part of the Caltrans Asset Management Plan. So, we are making sure our performance is in line with each other as well as not conflicting our different goals.
Jennifer Symoun
All right, thank you. We have a few questions for all of the presenters. Can any speaker share a specific plan element that benefited from the coordination of the DOT and MPO? Kenneth shared a successful funding example. What notable projects were implemented that were improved by effective communication and coordination?
Yatman Kwan
I think this is an example of what Kenneth and I talked about regarding a freight plan and this update. We want to make sure that we have a good coordination freight plan. I think the state can do it itself. So, going back to the regional investment strategies; those strategies, many of them are developed through the MPOs themselves, in partnership with Caltrans headquarters and the districts. Because many MPOs already have plans, some may have a more robust freight plan than others, but they already have a direction in terms of what they want to do with freight in their region. It would be a big oversight for the state if we don't incorporate those needs and visions. That speaks to the local context of what the freight story is in these regions. Regarding projects; I think from last round in our state funding, we provided tremendous value as well as funding dollars for our partners. Those projects we selected last round were really a testament to the partnership between, not only MPOs with Caltrans, but also MPOs with their county counterparts as well. So, we have multiple success stories because we funded a tremendous number of freight projects in California in the last round of our funding.
Kenneth Kao
I can give one potential example of a project that was able to succeed because of the communication and the coordination we had with the state D.O.T. as well is with our MPO partners. In the last round of TCIF we did fund some improvements to the Tehachapi Pass; that is actually located in rural Kern county, which is at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. But all the Northern California partners recognize that is a very important outlet for freight coming in from the port of Oakland and from the Central Valley going out to points east of California. So, I think understanding that and supporting that project to receive funding was really important, and I think that is one of the key successes of some of this coordination that we have.
Darryl Fields
I think some of the things that we have done, we have been lucky that we've been doing this for a number of years. What has happened is that the roadway projects kind of take care of themselves. I think what happens that we do identify are typically rail crossing projects, where jurisdiction has a problem that train siding holds up the crossing to move one portion of a community to the other. So, we have been able to identify those projects and work with the railroads and the state DOTs to come up with solutions on how we best work through those projects. The first was rail flyover projects where the north-west/east-west railroad was stuck in the middle of the city and took hours for them to get through it, so they set up the flyovers that helped get them through it. There are other projects that we identified that have helped to identify some of those sticking points in our traditional crossings to move those forward to expedite the safety element and the development of allowing the traffic to continue to move through.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you. There was another question about how responsive have the railroads been for sharing information. And I know we addressed that earlier with Yatman, but I did want to give Kenneth or Darryl a chance if you want to jump in with anything else about the railroads.
Darryl Fields
I have found the railroads are really great at sharing information when they want something. For example, I talked about this new project we are trying to start about the regional freight plan. Well, the railroads came to me and mentioned this is a great plan and we are willing to give you any information you want if you would do a velocity portion of the project; which would be say how much railroad action traffic moves the areas, which in turn help the new policy for precision railroading. I found through the years that they are keener to provide you with information when they receive something out of it. But I think that is changing. I think they are understanding that for them to get some of the things they want done, and to get better communication, they're willing to share more information. I don't think they're being as guarded with the information in the past. But again, this is been the luck we've had in the Kansas region.
Kenneth Kao
I think my experience has been pretty similar as well. I think we have good participation from the Class 1 railroads on the California Freight Advisory Committee. And when we do have some projects, I know some of our more regional MPOs have been working with the railroads to get those through our California environmental approval process and working on all of that. So, I think it's been a good partnership. And some appropriate sharing of information.
Jennifer Symoun
Another question for all of you. In states where you have MPOs and DOTs with overlapping boundaries conducting freight plans, how have you insured the location of efforts and at the MPOs plan is uniquely different from the state's plan?
Darryl Fields
The MPO plan feeds the state plan. One thing both states do, they're good at starting with a clean slate and they take the existing plans and feed those into building their state plan, that's also their rail plan. So, just by that process our plans are already incorporated plans. Much like our plan is a subset of both states.
Jennifer Symoun
Ok. How is Caltrans incorporating HSR into plans where that may change passenger train use of freight rail corridors?
Yatman Kwan
That's a really good question. For high-speed rail in California, I've mentioned the state rail plan that we have recently published. In the state rail plan it talks about some of the regions of high-speed rail, as well as what our freight network will be in California in the next 20 years. With that said, there are changes right now in high-speed rail planning, but at the same time I think there is a lot of benefit in terms of putting a lot more of the passenger rails to the high-speed rails to provide a lot more capacity for freight transport in California. But again, I think we all touched upon this, working with the railroad sometimes can be challenging in terms of having that project and having the right project that will help both private and public benefits. That said, I want to give more of the emphasis where we are having a lot of the goals to put more of the cargo towards rail in terms of air quality mitigation. But those exact projects have been determined.
Jennifer Symoun
Yatman, what kind of freight coordination is Caltrans doing with neighboring states such as Oregon, Nevada, and especially Arizona? It looks like this question can be skipped as you did already address that. But go ahead.
Yatman Kwan
Actually, I do want to touch on it. There are a number of coalitions. I think one of the participants included that we are working with the number states for the 10 corridor for truck parking. TXDOT recently got a grant for MTD grant regarding truck parking information. From that venture we are partnering with four states for those project implementations. And that is not only headquarters effort, but as well as district project delivery effort to implement these projects. Aside from the 10, we also have partnership in Nevada regarding the 15. We have partnership in Nevada regarding the 80. So, we do have a number of studies and partnerships that we already have established to make sure we are talking for these corridors. One of the fortunate things we are looking forward to is that MDOT will be coming to present what they are working on in terms of freight. We want to establish a good foundation in terms of working with our neighboring states for freight initiatives. Freight doesn't stay in one area, it goes all over the place, so we want to make sure we are very conscious of it.
Jennifer Symoun
Let's see what else we have. Based on the success of the TCIF program in California, is there any plan for continuing that program?
Kenneth Kao
I think that was answered in the follow-up response from Eric about the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program that was approved in 2017. So that was the idea to continue that TCIF program. It's a little bit different, but the goals are very similar.
Yatman Kwan
Yeah, as Kenneth and I mentioned in our presentations, there's the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program; $300million in state funds and about $500million through the federal formula dollars, so about $800million annually.
Jennifer Symoun
Another question, this one is for all presenters. Has there been much explicit consideration of the National Strahnet System in your respective statewide or MPO freight movement plans?
Darryl Fields
One of the things we did at our last freight plan was we identified corridors of significance for the nation highway system. We have identified Strahnet as a major national route within the Kansas City area. So we have major national, we have in-trust state, and we also have local.
Jennifer Symoun
Thank you, anyone else? We will move on then. Another one for all presenters. Can anyone share the details of a freight related project that was eligible for CMAC funding?
Kenneth Kao
I'm trying to remember, I think we did have a CMAC project about a decade ago that was to provide the on port plug-in for the ships to use onshore. So, I am pretty sure we used CMAC funding for that.
Yatman Kwan
I can't recall right now, but I can definitely get back to the person who asked this question. It's been a while.
Jennifer Symoun
This one is for Kenneth and Darryl. Yatman noted in his presentation that some smaller MPOs sometimes feel like they get lost in the shuffle when it comes to larger scale freight planning initiatives. How much mentoring or coordination assistance do you provide the smaller MPO's that are closely tied to your regions?
Kenneth Kao
I can take a first stab at this. So, we do work closely with some of our smaller MPO neighboring counties. San Joaquin actually does take a leadership role with the San Joaquin Valley, so they do help coordinate with points South. And we work closely with San Joaquin to help coordinate that. And then Sacramento for the most part takes the northern California counties as well. So, what we do here at MTC is we mainly coordinate with those two neighboring MPO's and assist them to make sure that our other stakeholders and our other regions neighboring to us are included and kept apprise of our developments and the strategy and planning that all of us are undertaking.
Darryl Fields
Speaking for Missouri and Kansas, MoDOT had started back in the earlier years a meeting that allowed the MPOs to come together and discuss issues that are going on and provide help to one another. That one kind of slid to the side, and then Kansas decided to do the same thing and that was called KAMPO. We meet twice a year where all the MPO's get together. We discuss issues, we discuss problems, we discuss best practice, we discuss what's going on and what help is needed, how much they can share. The Missouri MPOs attend, as a matter of fact our next one is Thursday. At that time, we discuss about our freight projects, and within we offer all of the smaller MPO's as much help as they want. They can call me or the staff anytime they want. We will come and do presentations and will give them as much help as they want.
Jennifer Symoun
Alright, thank you. We don't have any other questions typed in. We might have a few more coming in. But since we have a little more time, let's see if anyone wants to ask a question over the phone. To ask a question over the phone, press *5 and I will open up your phone line. Does not look like we have any questions on the phone, and I do not see any additional questions typed in at this point. If you do think of anything else you might want to type in you can jump back in the questions, in the meantime it looks like we will end a few minutes early. I want to thank all of our presenters for presenting our freight webinar. Thank you all for attending today's seminar. The recorded version of this event will be available within the next few weeks on the Talking Freight website. There will be a second Talking Freight Seminar held this month on August 28, to make up for a missed webinar in June. The topic is on Using Real Time Information to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency. If you haven't already registered I encourage you to do so through the link showing on this slide. The Freight Planning LISTSERV is the primary means of sharing information about upcoming seminars. I also encourage you to join the LISTSERV if you have not already done so, and the link in on the slide. Certificates will be emailed next Thursday. With that, thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.
