Transportation Improvement Programs

Need for the TIP

The U.S. federal government distributes funds to states and metropolitan areas based on the federal transportation law. Per federal law, every metropolitan area in the United States with more than 50,000 in population must have a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) responsible for preparing the Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and the TIP.

While the 20-year-horizon LRTP provides a vision for the transportation improvements for the region based on economic, land use, and demographic projections, the TIP provides a list of projects that are consistent with that vision. It is expected that the projects in the TIP will lead to the implementation of the vision put forward in the LRTP. It should be noted that the TIP represents an agency's intent to construct or implement a specific project and the anticipated flow of federal funds and matching state or local contributions. It is not a commitment.

Contents of the TIP

The TIP lists all projects that intend to use federal funds, along with nonfederally funded projects that are regionally significant. The TIP can also include other state-funded capital projects, which are not required but are often shown for information purposes.

The TIP not only lists the specific projects but also documents the anticipated schedule and cost for each project phase (for example, preliminary engineering, final design, right-of-way acquisition, and construction). The projects in the TIP are expected to be implemented during the TIP period.

Bridge maintenance can be challenging, as there are only a few accurate techniques to test for integrity and safety. The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) allots the scheduling of federal funds to projects such as maintaining or improving existing bridge infrastructures.

Time Span and Update

The list of projects in the TIP must be financially constrained to the amount of funds that are expected to be available. This means the TIP is not a “wish list” of projects but a realistic one. Projects that are not progressing might be removed from the TIP, and this makes the inclusion of projects in the TIP competitive.

Per the federal law, the TIP should cover a minimum of the next four years and follow the federal fiscal-year schedule. The usual practice is to cover the next five years and include a post-five year period, too. The TIP is updated every year in addition to adding amendments from time to time. The approved TIP can be modified or amended in order to add new projects, remove projects, advance projects, and/or accommodate changes in cost, phase of work, or scope of a project.

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