** MEETING RESCHEDULED**

Regularly Scheduled TRAC Meeting Rescheduled

COLUMBUS – Ohio’s Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) has postponed its regularly scheduled February 19, 2009 meeting for Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 10 a.m. at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Central Office in Columbus.This will be the first TRAC meeting for Jolene M. Molitoris, who was named ODOT director by Governor Ted Strickland last month. Ms. Molitoris will serve as the chair of TRAC.

Last year, the TRAC debated, voted, and approved new scoring criteria to more evenly measure projects of various modes. New highways, passenger rail, transit, and freight projects all have a level playing field to compete for state dollars. In the future, the TRAC will also score projects using a benefit/cost ratio, added to measure the full public benefit of the project, not just how many cars are moved from point A to B. A new environmental category gauges air quality impacts of a project and a “beefed up” economic development category scores whether projects reclaim brownfields and improve access to job centers and job ready sites. The scoring also emphasizes the need for land use planning and “Smart Growth” strategies, and rewards communities who partner with state on investments in transportation.

Link to: TRAC Web site |