Press Release

Vancouver, Washington -- Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council Board of Directors, in its role as Metropolitan Planning Organization for Clark County, is issuing a notice of its intent to take action on the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for the Fourth Plain Transit Improvement Project at its August 7 Board meeting. A concurrent action will be to amend the Metropolitan Transportation Plan for Clark County to include the LPA description.

The Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) is a part of the required federal and state transportation planning process. The Plan represents the collective strategy for maintaining and developing the regional transportation system.

The overall analysis process for the Fourth Plain Transit Improvement Project has included input and participation from citizens, business owners, Vancouver City Council, the C-TRAN Board, and the RTC Board over the last year and a half. The process has narrowed a wide range of alternatives down to a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA).

The LPA's purpose is to broadly describe a recommended project mode, termini, and alignment which set the guidelines for the far more detailed project development phase. The Fourth Plain LPA includes Bus Rapid Transit in primarily mixed traffic as transit mode. The project's termini are downtown Vancouver and an eastern terminus in the vicinity of the Westfield Vancouver Mall Transit Center. Future BRT Corridor extensions should consider extending the corridor easterly to the vicinity of 121st Avenue and/or to 162nd Avenue. The proposed alignment would follow the Columbia River Crossing's Light Rail Transit route in downtown Vancouver then travel north on Fort Vancouver Way and turn east on Fourth Plain to serve the Westfield Vancouver Mall area and Transit Center with future Fourth Plain Corridor eastern extensions to 162nd Avenue.

LPA adoption and MTP amendment are proposed at this time in order to satisfy the Federal Transit Administration's requirements for federal New Starts grant funding application for project development. Project development includes preliminary engineering, final design for all related improvements, and final cost.

At the August 7 RTC Board meeting, the RTC Board will be asked to take action on the Fourth Plain Transit Improvement Project Locally Preferred Alternative and amend the MTP to incorporate the project description. The RTC Board meets at 4 p.m. in the Public Service Center, 6th floor Hearing Room, 1300 Franklin Street, Vancouver.

You can contact RTC for more information or send comments as indicated below.

###

For general inquiries