Abstract
An innovative public agency partnership between a city, a state department of transportation (DOT), and a county road commission (CRC) led to the early construction of a new interstate ramp to relieve congestion in a central commercial hub. To achieve this, the city and the CRC purchased the property, addressed environmental concerns, and performed preliminary design. This grassroots approach was the first in the state and among the first in the country. The DOT in fact had to seek approval from the Federal Highway Administration, which then classified it under its innovative financing pilot program. The DOT is open to working with similar public agency partnerships in the state to expedite project construction. However, as the city discovered, gaining community consensus is paramount to success.
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