Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

Within the North Front Range, the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) provides a quick reference of the surface transportation projects to be carried out over a four-year time frame and is federally required to include all roadway, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements that are federally funded or regionally significant. Projects included in the NFRMPO TIP are then added to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

The TIP is not a wish list. The projects included in the TIP have funding that is either committed or reasonably expected to be available. Because all projects are funded, the TIP is considered “fiscally constrained.”

The TIP complements the long-range transportation plan, known as the  Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) . The RTP provides the transportation vision over the next 20+ years, while the TIP identifies projects over a four-year time frame that are consistent with the RTP vision.

Projects in the TIP must also follow the regional  Congestion Management Process  (CMP), provide all interested parties with a reasonable opportunity to  provide comment on the proposed TIP , and within nonattainment areas, it must show  conformity according to air quality budgets  outlined in the Statewide Implementation Plan (SIP).

Surface transportation projects are selected for funding by a variety of agencies, including CDOT, local agencies, federal agencies, and the NFRMPO. Projects are often funded with a combination of federal, state, and/or local funds. The TIP includes the selected projects and, prior to adoption by the Planning Council, is open for a 30-day public comment period. The TIP is reviewed for environmental justice, financial constraint, air quality impacts, and to ensure projects programmed into the TIP help the NFRMPO meet  Federal and Regional performance measures .

For more information about how the NFRMPO awards Federal and State funding, visit our  Call for Projects webpage .

Minor changes to project funding are updated in the TIP via Administrative Modifications, which are processed monthly. Major changes to the TIP such as adding new projects, removing projects, scope changes, or major funding changes are processed every other month via Policy Amendments. All Policy Amendments are open for 30-day public comment periods which are posted on the  Public Comment page of the NFRMPO website .

The TIP document consists of two major parts: the narrative and the tables. The TIP narrative outlines the requirements and policies for the NFRMPO. The TIP tables are a listing of all the projects covered under the four-year timespan of the TIP. Below is an example of one TIP project and a breakdown of the components of a TIP project listing.

1. Project Information - The project information section outlines the basic details of the project including title, agency responsible for completion of the project (sponsor), general project type, if the project qualifies as an air quality significant project, a description of what will be completed in the project, and two unique identifying numbers: STIP ID and TIP ID. STIP IDs are assigned by CDOT and TIP IDs are assigned by the NFRMPO. Want to know when a project first received funding? The first four digits of the TIP ID will tell you what year the project was originally programmed in the TIP.
2. Funding Information - The funding information section lists the funding source (Federal, State, or Local) and the funding program. All of the funding program acronyms are defined in the  'Funding Sources' section of the adopted TIP . The funding information section also lists how much funding (in thousands of dollars) are programmed to each project in the four active years of the TIP. Projects which have funds under the 'Rolled' column had funds initially programmed before the beginning of the Colorado State Fiscal Year (which begins on July 1 of each year) that were not utilized. These unutilized funds are then 'rolled' into the following fiscal year. The Future Funding column is for any funds which are reasonably anticipated to be available for a project in beyond the active years of the TIP.
3. Revisions - The revision section of a TIP project listing shows all the changes which have been made to a project since the adoption of the current TIP. As mentioned in the previous section, projects can be revised either by an Amendment or a Modification. The Revision number will specify the calendar year the revision was made, if the revision was a modification (M) or amendment (A) and the month it was revised in (1-12). In the example, the project was Amended in August of 2022 (#2022-A8) and modified in January of 2023 (#2023-M1).

The map below shows the location of all location-specific projects currently programmed in the TIP. Click on a project to see more details.

Currently, there is over $586M programmed into the FY2024-2027 TIP (as of August 1, 2023). The table below shows the dollar amount and the percentage of total funding programmed to each project type.

It is important to identify where significant numbers of disadvantaged communities, including minority and low-income households, are located within the region to comply with the requirements of Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority and Low-Income Populations, and DOT Order 5610.2(a). These Orders were enacted to ensure the full and fair participation of potentially affected communities in transportation decisions. The intent of EJ is to avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse impacts on minority and low income populations. Additional guidance from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) was enacted in 2021 through the Justice40 Initiative. The goal of Justice40 is to ensure 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Additionally, in 2021, the Environmental Justice Act was signed into law (Colorado HB-1266) which defines disproportionately impacted (DI) communities within Colorado.

The NFRMPO has identified equity index areas within the region to conduct equity analysis within the RTP, TIP, and Calls for Projects. Census block groups which qualify as disadvantaged based on any of the above standards are included in the NFRMPO Equity Index.

During NFRMPO Calls for Projects and with the addition of any new location specific projects into an existing TIP, project sponsors are required to complete an Equity Impact analysis. The Equity Impact analysis includes whether a project is located within 1/4 mile of an Equity Index area, documentation of project burdens, both short term (during construction) and long term (post construction), a description of anticipated project benefits, and documentation of public outreach which has been or will be completed for the project.

The most updated Equity project analysis tables can be found on the  TIP webpage  under Current Documents.

The map on the right shows the location specific projects in the FY2024-2027 TIP along with the Equity Index areas within the NFRMPO region.

To learn more about Equity considerations at the NFRMPO visit the  Environmental Justice webpage  to view the EJ Plan adopted in 2021, or the  Equity Resources ArcGIS Online StoryMap .

To stay up to date on the TIP and other NFRMPO plans and programs click the link below to sign up for our newsletter.

For questions about the NFRMPO Transportation Improvement Program, contact AnnaRose Cunningham ( arcunningham@nfrmpo.org ).