During the development of the NJTPA Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) every two years, the NJTPA Board must make difficult funding decisions among numerous projects and programs since federal law requires that the TIP be fiscally constrained.
The NJTPA has established prioritization procedures to help evaluate and score projects. The criteria used to prioritize projects is available here and summarized below as follows:
- Application of Project Prioritization Criteria - During the development of the Study & Development program or when the project first appears in the project pool to advance into Preliminary Engineering, projects are evaluated and scored based on technical measures of how well they fulfill the goals of the current NJTPA Long Range Transportation Plan, known as Plan 2050. All projects eligible for the TIP are ranked using these scores.
- Application of Additional Priority Factors - Additional factors such as feasibility of project delivery, funding availability and project timing are then considered. This entails consultations and negotiations among the NJTPA Central Staff, professional and elected officials from the subregions, as well as staffs of the NJDOT and NJ TRANSIT.
The NJTPA Central Staff administers the project prioritization process, with participation by the implementing agencies, the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee (RTAC) and the Project Prioritization Committee (PPC) of the Board of Trustees.
The NJTPA began the Project Prioritization Scoring Process Update in July 2024. The effort will result in new project prioritization criteria and an improved scoring system. The anticipated project completion is in June 2026, and the new system will be used to prioritize projects beginning with the FY 2028-2031 TIP.