SRPC 2023-2026 TIP Amendment 5

April 22, 2024

Commissioner William Cass

New Hampshire Department of Transportation

PO Box 483

Concord, NH  03302-0483

RE: 2023-2026 S/TIP Amendment #5

Dear Commissioner Cass:

This letter is to inform you that at its meeting held on Friday, February 16, 2024 the Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization (Strafford MPO) Policy Committee approved Amendment #4 to the Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). This amendment contained project changes that impacted various transportation projects and programs in the Strafford Region.

Amendment #5 was approved following a public input process as stipulated in federal law and the NH STIP revision procedures as agreed upon through the Interagency process. A 10-day comment period began on Monday, April 8, 2024, to Thursday, April 18, 2024. A public hearing was held at the SRPC Policy Committee meeting at 9:00 am on Friday, April 19, 2024.

On July 20, 2013, all of New Hampshire became unclassifiable/attainment for the 2008 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). On April 6, 2015, the 1997 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS was revoked for all purposes, including transportation conformity, thus alleviating the Boston-Manchester-Portsmouth (SE) NH area from having to demonstrate the conformity of transportation plans. However, due to a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (South Coast Air Quality Management District v. EPA), as of February 16, 2019, transportation conformity for the 1997 ozone NAAQS again applies in the Boston-Manchester-Portsmouth (SE) NH “Orphan Area. Transportation conformity no longer applies to the ozone NAAQS in New Hampshire in accordance with the “geographic applicability” of the transportation conformity rule at 40 CFR 93.102(b). On Oct. 16, 2015, the EPA issued a final rule reducing the NAAQS standard for ozone to 70 ppb from the previous 75 ppb. The region was still in compliance with the new standard, so this ruling did not affect the development of the Strafford MPO TIP.

The amendment and public notice of resulting changes are attached to this letter and were available at the Strafford Regional Planning Commission office, Rochester, Somersworth, and Dover Public Libraries, and on the SRPC website: www.strafford.org.

During the public comment period for Amendment 5, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) raised a question of eligibility for project 44367. This project was formerly added to the TIP through amendment 4, to be managed by the Cooperative Alliance for Seacoast Transportation (COAST), and was approved and funded through the Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ). The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) requested that project 44367 be removed from the Strafford MPO TIP until questions of eligibility could be resolved. The Strafford MPO Policy Committee voted to remove the project from the Strafford MPO TIP.
[Note: following the vote and adjournment of the meeting, FTA determined that project 44367 was ineligible for CMAQ. Further discussion between COAST, NHDOT, FHWA, FTA, and MPO staff is anticipated to confirm]

The approval of TIP Amendment #5 by the Strafford MPO Policy Committee officially amends the Strafford MPO 2023-2026 TIP and the 2023-2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Project 44367 is officially removed from the TIP.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Czysz, AICP

Executive Director

Strafford Regional Planning Commission

cc:  Strafford MPO Technical Advisory Committee and Policy Committee, NH MPO’s

Leigh Levine, FHWA; Leah Sirmin, FTA; Jessica Wilcox, NHDES