TIGER Builds Momentum for Metro 2025

August 6th, 2013

Federal TIGER Grant-funded bus priority projects are moving forward, setting the stage for the Metro 2025 Priority Corridor Network.

In 2010, a local consortium of agencies including WMATA was awarded a $59-million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant for bus priority in the Washington Region. The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) is the primary project manager and recipient of the of the grant, and TPB staff provided a briefing of the status of the implementation of the TIGER projects (PDF). This post provides a summary of the projects in which Metro is engaged, as well as a history of the TIGER grant award to the region.

Construction of the Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway, from May 30, 2013.

Construction of the Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway, from May 30, 2013. Source: TPB.

When will you see projects being built?

Since the grant was awarded, Metro and our partner agencies have been steadily advancing the TIGER projects, and some have already begun construction. Last year, the City of Alexandria broke ground on the Crystal City/Potomac Yard Transitway, which will host the new MetroWay (PDF) Premium Bus service next spring. The Maryland Transit Administration awarded a contract in May to build the Takoma/Langley Transit Center, which is expected to be complete by 2015.

    • Metrobus P12, J4, and Greenbelt-Twinbrook Line (C2, C4) riders along Addison Road and University Blvd will notice installation of bus shelters and sidewalk construction this month.
    • Metro awarded a contract for the customer information displays (bus arrival predictions) in May, and they are expected to be installed on various corridors in the region beginning next year.
    • Metro expects to award the Leesburg Pike/MetroExtra 28X (PDF) Transit Signal Priority (TSP) contract later this year, with the installations complete by 2015.
    • The Pentagon and Franconia-Springfield Station Improvements are currently in concept design and scheduled to be complete by 2016.

TIGER Grant Projects

TIGER Grant Projects

For DDOT’s projects, as noted in the presentation to the TPB, bus corridor enhancements and signal optimization/enhancement projects in the District are due to be completed by October, 2015.

All projects must be completed on or before September 2016, when the TIGER Program mandates that all grant funds must be expended.

TIGER & Metro 2025

The TIGER Grant bus priority projects will provide a solid foundation for Momentum and the Metro 2025 Priority Corridor Network. Work performed under TIGER for real time arrival displays and TSP will allow Metro and the DOTs to work through the technical specifications, design standards, compatibility issues, and costs so that full implementation of the Priority Corridor Network can move forward more smoothly once funding is secured for that initiative.

Background

The early foundation of the region’s bus priority efforts began with Metro’s Regional Bus Study (PDF) in 2003, which recommended a regional “Rapid Bus” network along major arterial corridors. By 2008, Metro adopted its Priority Corridor Network Plan of 24 regional corridors which Metro still uses to guide many of it’s investments in Metrobus. In early 2009, the TPB developed a set of initial bus priority projects which might attract outside funding, should it become available. When the TIGER program was announced in early 2009, the TPB refined (PDF) and submitted the set of priority bus projects which was ultimately awarded a $58.8 million dollar grant by the US Department of Transportation in 2010.

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