Work Program | Advisory Committee | Transit | Trail Plans | Safe Routes to School Plans | Construction Projects & Resources
Area Transportation Partnership
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and its re-authorization in 1995, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), gave states more flexibility in determining transportation solutions and required the development of a Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. TEA-21 authorized the Federal surface transportation programs for the 6-year period 1998-2003, and was extended into 2005. In 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) which authorizes Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for a 5-year period (2005-2009), and was extended through continuing resolutions until 2012. MAP21 (Moving Ahead for Progress into the 21st Century) was a new performance-based two-year bill (2013-2014) that was designed to streamline the federal transportation programs. In 2015, President Obama signed fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act which provided for long term funding certainty for surface transportation and infrastructure (2016-2020).
With the passage of the first TEA act, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) decentralized the program decision-making process to a more local level. Area Transportation Partnerships (ATP) were established to facilitate a broader input into the project selection process. The ATPs provide more local input on the investment of federal transportation fund.
There are nine ATPs in Minnesota. The ATP boundaries follow the MnDOT District State Aid boundaries. The Southwest Regional Development Commission participates in two Partnerships: ATP 7 (Mankato) and ATP 8 (Willmar).
The SRDC Participates in ATPs Through
- An evaluation process with respect to Regional Significance criteria or regional comment to maintain its utility in transportation decision-making.
- The ATP public participation process.
- The provision of technical assistance to the ATPs to facilitate programming.
- Membership on ATP 7 and ATP 8
- Current member on ATP 7: Mike Kuhle (Nobles County) and Richard Peterson (Jackson County)
- Current membership on ATP 8: Bob Byrnes (Lyon County) and Mic VanDeVere (Lincoln County)
ATP 7 ATP 8