Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments
Transportation Advisory Committee
15 South 7th Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
September 12, 2024
RPP (Regional Priorities Program) funds are allocated statewide at the direction of the State Transportation Commission (TC) and are a flexible funding source programmed at the discretion of each Region Transportation Director in consultation with each Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and rural Transportation Planning Region (TPR). The objective of RPP funding is to supplement other formula-driven funding allocations to each CDOT Region with flexible funding. RPP funding comes from the Highway Users Tax Fund (HUTF) and other Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sources. The current annual Statewide RPP distribution is $50,000,000, and the historical average Region 2 RPP distribution is approximately $9,500,000 annually.
Region Transportation Director Shane Ferguson is proposing to retain a small percentage (~15.8% or $1,500,000) of Region 2’s total annual RPP distribution amount in a Region 2 reserve pool to be able to quickly address maintenance or other issues that arise where otherwise no funds are programmed, nor does any project exist in a plan. Of the annual average $9,500,000 total R2 RPP distribution, RTD Ferguson proposes to retain $1,500,000 annually to be able to quickly program funds so CDOT can move quickly to address unforeseen issues. An example pertinent to the PPACG region for the quick deployment of RPP funds to address a previously unidentified issue is the natural spring that has surfaced in Palmer Lake on CO-105 at S Valley Rd/Spring St. This project does not currently exist in a CDOT or PPACG transportation plan but needs to be addressed quickly with design/engineering and construction funds. As you are aware, programming funds to correct this issue via our normal CDOT transportation planning process takes time and does not fix this significant maintenance/state of good repair concern in a timely manner.
To maintain full transparency, Region 2 staff would report to each MPO and TPR on a regularly recurring basis how RPP funds are being programmed and spent from this Region-wide RPP reserve fund. Creating this R2 RPP reserve fund would affect the Region-wide distribution of RPP funds, which after retaining the initial $1,500,000, would then continue to be distributed following the existing TC-determined distribution formula (50% population, 35% on-system lane miles, and 15% truck VMT). Since RPP funding has been approved through Fiscal Year (FY) 2028, this proposal would begin starting with FY 29 RPP.