The following are ongoing transportation projects that are achieving notable results. Increasing Transportation Options for Western
North Carolina
Linking residents who often have poor access to transportation services with
growing educational, health care, and employment opportunities has been a
key challenge in North Carolina. To address these transportation problems, the Transportation Options Project
created a coalition of transit, civic, health care, educational, business,
and senior citizen interests to map out a better-coordinated and more expansive
regional network of public transportation services.
A 32-member Policy Advisory Committee established the overall goals and direction
of the project, and a 60-member Intermodal Technical Advisory Committee conducted
the work. The resulting report offers specific recommendations on how to better
coordinate existing transportation resources, and calls for new transit services.
Outcomes
Based on the strong local consensus achieved through the working group, the
North Carolina Department of Transportation has awarded more than $500,000
in state funds to launch two new regional transit bus services and to support
a local marketing and public awareness campaign that was administered through
the local development district in support of existing and new transit services.
The project resulted in improved and expanded public transportation to and
from key educational, health care, and employment centers throughout the five-county
region.
Project Dates: January 2001 to the present
Sources of Funding
ARC: $50,000
Local: $18,000
Local Project Contact:
Ms. Linda Giltz
Land-of-Sky Regional Council
25 Heritage Drive
Asheville, NC 28806
(828) 251-6622
Linda_g@landofsky.org
Port Itawamba Intermodal Transportation Center Attracting New Business
The Itawamba County Development Council recognized the importance of freight
transportation, product and supply storage (warehousing), and logistics service
to a community's ability to attract new businesses. The Itawamba County Development Council created a comprehensive intermodal
strategic plan for the future of the Port Itawamba Intermodal Center. The
strategic plan calls for improved highway access to the port, site preparation,
rail line extension directly to the port, and construction of an intermodal
bridge crane that can serve water, rail, and truck operations from a single
location. The Port's transportation and warehousing capabilities are intended
to create new services and efficiencies that are attractive to prospective
businesses.
Outcomes
In response to the Port's proposed plans, PSP Industries/Monotech chose the
Port as home to a major new steel fabrication center. The new business will
bring over $10 million of investment and hundreds of new jobs to the small
northeastern Mississippi community of Fulton.
Project Dates: April 2002 to the present Sources of Funding
ARC: $300,000
Federal: $1,938,800
Local: $1,351,600
Project Contact:
Mr. Tim Weston
Itawamba County Development Council
PO Box 577
Fulton, MS 38843
(662) 862-4571
Reclaiming Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroads
Over the last 25 years, rail lines in many Appalachian communities have been
abandoned and local rail transportation services lost. In the 1980s,
the former Erie Lackawanna mainline railroad, which once served as a major
transcontinental rail corridor moving passenger and freight trains, became
part of Conrail and service decreased, leaving many communities with no freight
rail service.
In western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania, public and private sector
interests joined forces not only to stop the abandonment of an important railroad,
but to create an institutional entity that would assume control of the rail
line and oversee the capital redevelopment of the railroad's infrastructure,
in addition to relaunching freight operations in the corridor.
Local business and civic leaders used an ARC planning grant to conduct a
marketing and engineering analysis of the railroad to confirm that it could
be commercially viable. Outcomes
Today, the New York and Pennsylvania region controls the 90-mile rail line
and has arranged for nearly $25 million of public and private investment to
upgrade the line. A shortline railroad operator has been secured and trains
are ready to help meet the transportation needs of businesses in the region.
Construction work to upgrade the rail line is underway and the first trains
are rolling.
Project Dates: June 2002 to the present
Sources of Funding
ARC: $60,000
Local: $70,000
Local Project Contact:
Mr. Don Rychnowski
Executive Director
Southern Tier West
4039 Route 219, Suite 200
Salmanca, NY 14779
(716) 945-5301
Redeveloping Land for and Improving Access
to Queen City Shopping Center, Cumberland, Maryland
Built originally to manufacture steel rail
for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the former Rolling Mill industrial site
(used to produce materials for the construction and maintenance of railroads
until it was shut down and demolished in the early 1980s) is being transformed
into an 11-acre shopping center in downtown Cumberland, Maryland.
Transforming the industrial site into a shopping center required some difficult
work, as the soil was contaminated with volatile organic chemicals and petroleum
hydrocarbons: it had become a brownfields site. To convert it into a commercially
successfully retail center, the community worked closely with public and private
sector interests.
While ARC Area Development Funds are helping to prepare the site for new
businesses, ARC Local Access Road funds are being used for roadway improvements
to help ensure that area residents enjoy safe and convenient highway access
to the shopping center.
Project Dates: August 2003 to the present
Sources of Funding:
A key to the site's success is a project to upgrade roadway access, supported
by ARC Local Access Road funds, which are being used for construction and improvements
of approximately 0.86 miles of local access roads.
Local Project Contact:
Mr. Jeff Rhodes
Director, Community Development
City of Cumberland, Maryland
(301) 722-2000
Additional examples of ARC projects:
Transportation
Best Practices
Examples of ARC Transportation Projects
News and Events
Tranportation Reports and Data
Appalachian Development Highway System
Access Road Program
Intermodal Transportation
|