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Here are some highlights from the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Executive Committee meeting last week.

M.L. King Jr. Parkway extension

A proposed extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway from Euclid Avenue north to Interstate 35/80 is at the top of the agenda again for the MPO. The project has been talked about and highly supported, according to the MPO Executive Committee, for more than 20 years. Documentation in a half-inch-thick packet that contained support from city councils, public meetings and past MPO actions was provided to demonstrate the support and the length at which the project has been discussed. The main criticism of the proposed project is that the area is environmentally sensitive, but the committee said it doesn’t feel the area is pristine, as opponents have claimed. The committee wants to move the process forward and called it one of the top projects, if not No. 1, in the metropolitan area.

Ames-to-Des Moines transit corridor

The MPO was going to provide a grant to the Ames Public Transit Agency (CyRide) to study public transportation service in the Ames-to-Des Moines transit corridor. The corridor, however, is already being analyzed by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Statewide Passenger Transportation Funding Study. That study should be completed in December, at which point the MPO will work to help implement the recommendations made, and use the study to determine if additional studies are needed. CyRide, the Ames Area MPO, Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority and the Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency all are working on the project.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) update

The city of Bondurant was fully funded for its request of $405,000 for a Second Street multi-use path, but the letting of the bid came in at $342,498. The excess $62,502 goes back into a general pool, which will be redistributed to other projects at a later date. The MPO has awarded nearly $17 million in ARRA funding for 19 projects across the metropolitan area.