Area Transportation Partnerships

West Central Minnesota ATP was established to bring together the transportation improvement recommendations of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), regional development commissions (RDCs), Fargo-Moorhead Area Planning Organization (MPO), cities, and counties into an integrated list of transportation investments in the form of the Area Transportation Improvement Program (ATIP).

West Central Minnesota ATP also:

• Reviews and comment on the draft STIP
• Establishes criteria for project selection
• Partners with the MPO to incorporate projects from the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)
• Participates with MnDOT District 4 in the development and review of policies and procedures for managing the program.
• Develops and review priority lists for programs that are not included in the target.

Project changes

Program Committees are charged with reviewing project scope changes, year changes, and cost adjustments and will make recommendation to the ATP for approval. Project changes, including added inflation costs, are to be managed within the current STIP funding guidance.

Funding protection

Once a project has been listed in the approved STIP, that project will continue to retain funding unless:

• The ATP determines that the scope of the project has changed substantially from the original submittal.
• The sponsoring agency requests that the project be withdrawn.
• The ATP experiences a significant decrease in funding target resulting in reprioritization of all projects in the affected years of the STIP.

STIP amendments and administrative modifications

The STIP, once approved by the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA), may be updated throughout the course of the year, and needs to be updated prior to a project’s federal authorization and bid letting, if certain project changes have occurred.

• Typical STIP amendments:
• A new project is being added to the STIP
• There is a change in overall project length of more than 0.3 miles
• Adding or removing phases of work which increases or decreases the total project cost
• Changing project scope
• When the project cost changes by a certain percentage based on the overall cost of the project.
• Typical STIP administrative modifications:
• The project cost changes by a certain percentage based on the overall cost of the project
• Project identified that will use a set aside
• Change the STIP year
• Addition of a state-funded project to the STIP
• Adding a locally-funded project to a federally-funded project
• Technical corrections
• Adding or removing advance construction
• Removing a project
• Splitting a project
• Process:
• MnDOT District 4, or its partners, will initiate the amendment or modification and the District, in consultation with its partners, will determine which document is appropriate and if and how financial constraint is maintained.
• The needed document is drafted by MnDOT District 4 and send to MnDOT’s Central Office for review and processing. Central Office compiles the requests statewide and submits a batch to FHWA (or Federal Transit Administration) for their approval.
• If the project is located within the MPO planning boundaries, the MPO TIP will also need to be amended, following the process identified in the MPO Public Participation Plan.
• For STIP amendments, District 4 staff will briefly describe to the ATP the project changes during the STIP status updates at the ATP meeting.
• The ATP will be informed of and MPO TIP amendments.
• Further detail is provided in April 15, 2015 FHWA/FT and MnDOT STIP Amendment Guidance.

West Central Minnesota ATP meetings are open to the public.

Meeting materials

• View meeting agendas and notes

Meeting schedule

• Friday, Oct. 4, 2024
• Friday, Dec 6, 2024
• Friday, March 7, 2025
• Friday, April 4, 2025
• Friday, June 6, 2025

Accessibility

To request an ASL or foreign language interpreter, call 651-366-4720. To request other reasonable accommodations, call the Minnesota Relay Service toll-free at 1-800-627-3529 (TYY, Voice or ASCII) or 711, or email your request to [email protected].

• October to January: Solicit projects
• February: Evaluate and prioritize projects
• March: Draft ATIP
• April: Public comment and review period
• May: Submit draft ATIP to MnDOT Central Office
• June: Draft STIP review and comment
• July: STIP approval by Commissioner

West Central Minnesota ATP membership consists of 13 voting members and six non-voting members, comprised of individuals representing counties, cities, regional planning agencies, tribal nations, transit, MnDOT, and other transportation interests.

Voting members

• Ken Johnson, County commissioner, Grant County
• Rusty Dimberg   Big Stone County Commissioner, Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission
• Jeff Kuhn, City Engineer, Morris City Engineer,
• Brian Giese, County Engineer, Pope County Engineer,
• Jonathan Large  Mahnomen County Engineer Headwaters Regional Development Commission
• Bob Kopitzke, County Commissioner, Stevens County Commissioner
• Chad Gillespie, County Engineer, Traverse County Engineer
• Kayla Sullivan, Transit Director, Transit Alternatives
• Ben Griffith, Executive Director, FM COG
• Nathan Gannon, District State Aid Engineer, MnDOT District 4
• Shiloh Wahl, District Engineer, MnDOT District 4
• Michael Bowman Sr., Director of Public Works, White Earth Nation
• Tom Lundberg, Assistant District Engineer, MnDOT District 4 

Non-voting members

• Dan Farnsworth, Fargo-Moorhead Metro COG
• John Groothuis, Transit Project Manager, MnDOT Office of Transit
• Dawn Hegland, Upper Minnesota Valley
• Wayne Hurley, West Central Initiative
• Tony Klaers, Headwaters RDC
• Mary Safgren, Planning Director, MnDOT District 4
• Rosemary Bruce-White, Principle Planner, MnDOT District 4

• Operations and Guidance Manual (PDF)

Transportation Alternatives website

Funding available

• For projects that can be delivered in Fiscal Year 2027- $680,000
• For projects that can be delivered in Fiscal Year 2028- $330,000 (120,000 of which will be distributed to the awardee in FY 2029).

Transportation Alternatives funds require a 20% match and can be applied to the construction-related costs to a project.
The Transportation Alternatives Solicitation is a competitive grant opportunity for local communities and regional agencies to fund projects for pedestrian and bicycle facilities, historic preservation, Safe Routes to School and more. Minnesota will be soliciting projects for approximately $12.5 million in available grant funding across the state where the total is sub-targeted to the seven area transportation partnerships.

Interested applicants are required to fill out a letter of interest prior to turning in a full application. Upon completion of a successful letter of interest, a regional representative will reach out to the potential applicant to conduct a letter of interest review. From there, the regional representative will determine if they do or do not recommend the project move forward to a full application. Letters of interest are due by the end of the day Nov. 1, 2024.

Submit a Transportation Alternatives letter of interest

Carbon Reduction Program website

Funding available

• For projects that can be delivered in FY 2027- $510,000
• For projects that can be delivered in FY 2028- $470,000

Carbon Reduction Program funds require a 20% match and can be applied to the total project cost as long as there is a Carbon Reduction Program component to the project.

To use the Carbon Reduction Program funds, Minnesota must select and program eligible projects. This requires teamwork, coordination and cooperation at all levels of government.

Areas that receive funding use a consistent set of criteria and scoring techniques to support prioritization and selection of projects. While the primary intent of the Carbon Reduction Program is to advance projects that reduce carbon from the surface transportation sector, the Minnesota CRS (PDF) also advances goals of equity, safety, transportation access and public health.

Interested applicants are required to fill out a letter of interest prior to turning in a full application. Upon completion of a successful letter of interest, a district representative will reach out to the potential applicant to conduct a letter of interest review. If the district representative determines that the project is eligible for funding, the representative will send the potential applicant a full application.

Submit a Carbon Reduction Program letter of interrest

PROTECT program website

Funding available

• For projects that can be delivered in Fiscal Year 2027- $300,000
• For projects that can be delivered in Fiscal Year 2028- $330,000

PROTECT funds require a 20% match and can only be used for the PROTECT elements of the project.     

Projects eligible for PROTECT Formula funding will respond to a weather-driven, climate vulnerability. Use internal experience or scientific data to show that a project is in a climate vulnerable place.

“The purpose of the program is … to protect surface transportation assets by making the assets more resilient to current and future weather events and natural disasters, such as severe storms, flooding, drought, levee and dam failures, wildfire, rockslides, mudslides, sea level rise, extreme weather, including extreme temperature, and earthquakes.”

Interested applicants are required to fill out a letter of interest prior to turning in a full application. Upon completion of a successful letter of interest, a district representative will reach out to the potential applicant to conduct a letter of interest review. If the district representative determines that the project is eligible for funding, the representative will send the potential applicant a full application.

Submit a PROTECT letter of interest

How the STIP is tied into the CHIP

The STIP is created by drawing projects from the Capital Highway Investment Plan (CHIP), the 10-year plan of which the first four years are the STIP and years 5-10 are the work plan years.

• View the CHIP