Connections 2050 Financial Plan

The Connections 2050 Plan conducts a robust needs assessment for maintaining all existing road, bridge, and transit infrastructure. It also includes desired transportation investments to improve operational efficiency of existing facilities, and to expand roadway, transit, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The sum of all these needs is also known as the region's Vision Plan, shown as 'what we need' in the chart below.

bar chart
All figures in billions of Y-O-E $. Figures may not add up due to rounding. | Source: DVRPC, 2021.

Federal requirements mandate that the Long-Range Plan be fiscally constrained and only include projects that can be funded with reasonably anticipated revenue sources, shown as what we can afford in the chart above. Due to the gap between future needs and anticipated funding, not all identified projects in the Vision Plan are able to be included in the fiscally constrained financial plan. Major regional projects and other investments that cannot be afforded within available revenues are shown as part of the Plan's aspirational vision.

Funding Allocation to Project Categories

The financial plan contains separate budgets for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey portions of the DVRPC region as well as for both roadways and transit. The financial plan allocates revenue to different project categories within the road and transit budgets: system preservation, bicycle and pedestrian, operational improvements, system expansion, and other. These categories serve as placeholders for funding projects over the life of the Plan. This table shows how revenue is allocated to different roadway and transit project categories.


Mode

Project Category
Pennsylvania New Jersey
Target Allocation Allocated Revenue Target Allocation Allocated Revenue




Roadway
System Preservation
- Pavement Preservation
- Bridge Preservation

21.5%
55.0%

$ 5.1 B
$ 12.9 B

31.5%
38.4%

$ 4.5 B
$ 5.5 B
Operational Improvements 11.0% $ 2.6 B 19.0% $ 2.7 B
Bicycle and Pedestrian 4.0% $ 0.9 B 5.0% $ 0.7 B
System Expansion 4.0% $ 0.9 B 4.0% $ 0.6 B
Other 4.5% $ 1.1 B 2.1% $ 0.3 B
Roadway Subtotal 100% $ 23.5 B 100% $ 14.3 B
Transit System Preservation
- Rail Infrastructure
- Vehicles
- Station Enhancements

7.5%
54.4%
5.0%

$ 2.0 B
$ 12.0 B
$ 0.5 B

8.3%
55.0%
10.0%

$ 0.5 B
$ 2.8 B
$ 0.5 B
Operational Improvements 1.7% $ 0.6 B 4.0% $ 0.2 B
System Expansion 12.9% $ 2.1 B 1.0% $ 0.0 B
Other 18.5% $ 5.2 B 21.8% $ 1.1 B
Transit Subtotal 100% $ 24.4 B 100% $ 5.2 B
Region Total 100% $ 47.8 B 100% $ 19.5 B
Revenues in billions of Y-O-E $. Figures may not add up due to rounding. | Source: DVRPC, 2021.

For the sake of brevity, smaller-scale projects that were identified in the needs assessment are not listed in the Plan document. Instead, the various funding categories in the Plan serve as placeholders for their funding. These needs may be programmed in future iterations of the Transportation Improvement Program, which lists projects of all scales that are eligible to receive federal transportation funds and serves as the short-term implementation of the Plan. For more detailed information about the Connections 2050 financial plan, see the Process and Analysis Manual's 'Transportation Investments' section.

Plan Amendments

In between four-year update cycles, the Plan is occasionally amended to account for significant changes to the cost or scope of Major Regional Projects. See Appendix D in the Connections 2050 Process and Analysis Manual for more information on the Plan Amendment process. The following table tracks Plan amendments since DVRPC Board Adoption of the Connections 2050 Plan.


Amendment

Type

Summary

Board Adoption
1 Minor Cost increase to MRP 164 Philadelphia Central Waterfront Access cap over I-95. 2/23/23

Major Regional Projects (MRPs) are large-scale projects that will have a significant impact on regional travel.

The  View Map button on this page shows a map of Greater Philadelphia with a line or point outlining each mapped MRP in the Plan. Unmapped MRPs include communications systems, the Circuit Trail Network, transit vehicle replacements, and other projects that potentially cover a large portion of the region.

  • Mapped MRPs are color coded by their project category – roadway or transit projects that are categorized as system preservation, bicycle and pedestrian, operational improvements, system expansion, or other.
    • Due to their large scale and complexity, an MRP may include components of several of these categories.
  • Mapped MRPs that can be funded with available revenues in each category have a darker color, while those that are part of the Plan’s unfunded aspirational vision have a lighter color.
  • All mapped MRPs within a project category can be turned on or off by clicking the checkbox in the left column.
  • Clicking on a line or point on the map brings up information about the MRP, including: which facility the project is one, the county or counties the project is located in, a description of the project, the timing for its construction (if its funded), a link to the project's website (if there is one), any MPMS (in Pennsylvania) or DB numbers (in New Jersey) associated with the project in the Transportation Improvement Program, and total cost—which is also split out by project category.

The  View Table button shows this information for all MRPs in a tabular format. The table has all MRPs, including those that aren't mapped.

The interactive MRP webmap includes toll authority and other agencies' planned 'externally funded projects'. These projects do not use federal transportation funds, but must be accounted for in DVRPC's air quality conformity analysis.

For further information about DVRPC's Long-Range Plan webpage for more information about the Plan.

For more information about Connections 2050 and DVRPC's LRP contact:

Brett Fusco
Associate Director, Comprehensive Planning
Phone: 215-238-2937
bfusco@dvrpc.org

Jaclyn Davis
Manager, Office of Long-Range Planning
Phone: 215-238-2818
jdavis@dvrpc.org

Major Regional Projects

This table shows how revenue is allocated to different funding categories for both roadway and transit projects.
Illustrative classification represents preservation projects that need to occur over the next 25 years, but have not yet moved into the TIP.

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