After a meeting with congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., leaders of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization left not disappointed but prepared for a change in funding that they say will have an effect on some of the area’s planned roadway projects over the next several years.

“I think we came back with a reality check,” said Tom Kane, executive director of the MPO. “This is the way it’s going to be for the next few years. Funding in Washington is very tight right now. Transportation is a discretionary program, and given the issues with the war and hurricanes and entitlement programs, there’s just going to be less money in the discretionary areas.”

In fact, one congressional staffer indicated it may be 2010 before cities receive the same levels of funding that were awarded last summer through the reauthorization of the transportation bill.

“I think with last year being a reauthorization year, the Greater Des Moines area did extremely well in obtaining federal funding,” said Johnston Mayor Brian Laurenzo, a member of the MPO’s executive committee. “We should be prepared for greatly reduced expectations and even perhaps less (funding) than in the years leading up to the reauthorization.”

This wasn’t breaking news for Kane and MPO board members. The Greater Des Moines Partnership made it clear months before the delegation left for Washington that, unlike last year, it would not be possible to submit funding requests for a large number of road and trail projects either this year or in the near future.

“We, in the past, have tried to fund as many of the projects as each of the member communities brought forward,” Laurenzo said, “but we just can’t do that going forward.”

The MPO submitted funding requests totaling $41.8 million for six high-priority roadway projects. That list had been whittled down from approximately 20 roadway projects and 18 trail projects, Kane said.

Kane and Laurenzo said each project’s regional significance was the most highly scrutinized component involved in narrowing that list. A $19 million request for funding to complete Interstate 235 reconstruction was the only project left unquestioned. Last week, the House approved $1.25 million in funding for that project through the Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development Bill for fiscal 2007. The Senate will draft it’s own version of the bill, with the final version ultimately decided upon by a conference committee.

“I think they’re all equally important at this time, but if we were to not get funding for I-235, that would really affect getting it done,” Kane said.

Laurenzo said the region’s planning projects, specifically the Northwestern Transportation Corridor Study, which the MPO requested $1 million to conduct, are of the highest priority because of their ability to plan for future growth and development. Several federal funding requests for the corridor study have been denied in recent years.

City leaders in the northwest quadrant of Greater Des Moines have been involved in ongoing discussions about growing traffic concerns in that area. Planned construction of the Northeast Beltway is expected to further aggravate the current situation.

“It is absolutely critical that (the corridor study) receive funding immediately because it has such potential for assisting us on a lot of these other projects in the northwest planning area as well as future projects,” Laurenzo said.

Also included in the MPO’s list of high-priority surface transportation projects are:

• $9 million for construction of the Southeast Connector;

  • $2 million for roadway improvements on Northeast 56th Street between Altoona and Pleasant Hill;

  • $5.4 million for construction of an Interstate 35/80 interchange at Northwest 100th Street; and

  • $5.4 million for construction of an I-35/80 interchange at Northwest 26th Street.

  Kane expects to receive word in August or September regarding final funding amounts for the high-priority projects. For federal fiscal year 2006, Greater Des Moines received close to $60 million in funding for surface transportation projects. Kane expects that amount will decline in 2007.

Whether all six of those projects receive full funding this year may have implications for planning for next year’s round of funding requests. Among next year’s planned requests is $55 million for construction of the Northeast Beltway. With that and other significant projects planned for upcoming years, Kane said it would be prudent all of the MPO’s 18 member governments get on the same page in determining which projects have the greatest level of significance to the entire region. “It’s going to be very difficult,” he said.

Which means the time is now to begin preparing for next year’s round of federal appropriations. Jay Byers, the Partnership’s senior vice president of government relations and public policy, said this year’s lobbying efforts emphasized the need to prioritize the transportation projects that have the highest level of significance to the entire region.

“Transportation funding is very much a component of solid economic development and you have to have a strong transportation system to have successful economic growth,” Byers said.