over three billion dollars in transportation investment. Ms. Kaufman explained what is contained
in the 2025/26 - 2029/30 TIP including over $760 Million for highway projects. There was a
public comment period with a survey from March 7th to May 7th which we received 508
comments with the majority of comments related to US 27. Ms. Kaufman requested to approve
the FY 2025/26 - 2029/30 TIP as presented.
Chairwoman Pfeiffer opened the floor for public comment.
Sharon Garrett was present to speak. Ms. Garrett has concerns about the statistics and
analysis behind the TIP.
Vice Mayor Nancy Daley stated over passes over US 27 would relieve the traffic and lights.
Roll Call vote was taken and approved without dissent.
11.
Review/Approve Draft 2025 Priority Transportation Projects
Attachments:
Minutes: Ryan Kordek, TPO executive director, presented the 25 priority projects that
included highways, intersections, complete streets, transit, bicycle/pedestrian, and multi-use
trails. The majority of these projects come from the TPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan
(LRTP) and annually the TPO sets priorities and requests funding from the FDOT to implement
these projects. Mr. Kordek stated similar to last year, FDOT continues to see a significant
resurfacing need on the state highway system and these projects must be funded first before
new roads or road widening projects can be programmed by FDOT. Ryan displayed a map
that depicted the level of congestion currently experienced on Polk County’s major road
network and highlighted the highway priorities being considered this year. One of the top
priorities of the TPO, he emphasized, is State Road 60 in eastern Polk County between CR
630 and the Osceola County Line. The TPO applied for grant funding through the National
Highway Freight Program to help fund right-of-way (ROW) and design phases for this project
and staff is recommending the Board allocate $2M in TMA-SU funds as a match for the grant.
Mayor Birdsong asked about the carbon reduction funds that Florida DOT returned to federal
DOT and were programmed on a Winter Haven project.
Wayne Gaither of FDOT responded that 3-5 years ago there was a federal bill passed that
provided funding for projects that can lead to a reduction in carbon emissions (Carbon
Reduction funds). FDOT programmed these funds on projects such as complete streets,
multimodal, and transit projects. Recently, the decision from FDOT was to send the monies
back to Washington due to certain stipulations associated with the Carbon Reduction funding.
However, FDOT was able to fund a majority of the projects that were impacted by this decision
with the exception of the Eight St. NW and Avenue L NW Complete Street project which is still
in need of funding, and this is why the Polk TPO has made it a priority project.
Commissioner Scott asked about the scoring method of the need based on the priority list.
Mr. Kordek responded, there are different funding sources along with criteria with a detailed
scoring system, and a subcommittee who helped develop the priority list.
