About the RIC MPO

In 1975, RIC was designated as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Charleston Urbanized Area. Later, this was expanded to include the entire Metropolitan Area (Kanawha and Putnam counties), to match the air quality non-attainment area. All urbanized areas in the U.S., as a condition of receiving federal highway and transit funding, must have an official MPO, whose responsibility it is to carry out a coordinated, cooperative and comprehensive planning process. This includes development of various transportation plans and programs in cooperation with state and local officials, transit agencies, and local citizens.

In July 18, 2012 the US Census Bureau released the Urbanized Area Delineation from the 2010 Census. The new Huntington Urbanized Area stretched into Putnam County; with the population increase the Huntington Urbanized Area is now designated as a Transportation Management Area (TMA). The RIC is the MPO for Kanawha and Putnam Counties, and now has several new planning requirements to fulfill in coordination with our the TMA in Huntington.  

Requirements of the planning process include development and 4-year updates of a long-range (25 year) Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP), an annual (or biannual) Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and a yearly unified planning work program. In addition, RIC conducts corridor, subarea and intersection studies to look at particular problem locations in the area. RIC also works with the Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority (KVRTA) to carry out transit planning. Plans are submitted to the West Virginia Department of Transportation and/or KVRTA and are intended to help guide their investment decisions.

RIC staff maintains Geographic Information System (GIS) databases in support of RIC transportation planning activities, in addition to providing mapping and analysis for its members and local agencies.

Public Involvement

Coordination and public involvement are key principles of the transportation planning process. RIC’s policy board, comprised of a combination of elected officials, officials from appropriate state and public agencies, citizen and minority representatives, must approve all plans and programs. RIC has a standing committee, the Transportation Technical Advisory Committee (TTAC), which advises the RIC Policy Board on transportation matters. Various ad hoc committees are created for special studies and sometimes for a particular focus area, such as the RIC Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee (BPAC). Public meetings are held at key junctures during MTP development and during other studies. The public is also accorded an opportunity to comment on projects to be included in the TIP. More specific public involvement is detailed in our Public Participation Plan (PPP).  

Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

RIC updates its TIP every two years. The TIP is a multi-modal transportation document required by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to fulfill the objectives of the MTP process. For the purposes of conducting comprehensive regional transportation planning and implementing transportation improvements, the Charleston, WV Metropolitan Planning Area includes all of Kanawha and Putnam counties. 

Unified Planning and Work Program (UPWP)

The UPWP identifies the annual transportation planning activities that are to be undertaken by RIC in support of the goals and objectives established by local, state and federal transportation planning requirements. Updated annually, the UPWP summarizes the transportation planning activities of the RIC staff over the course of the fiscal year, beginning July 1 of each year.

(Amended) FY 2023 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)

Congestion Management Process (CMP)

The MPO’s CMP sets forth planning objectives to effectively improve transportation system capacity while managing traffic congestion into the future. The CMP offers tools and methods for tracking transportation-system data such as travel times and traffic count and offers a set of alternative transportation solutions for addressing the growing problem of traffic congestion in our region. RIC partnered with KYOVA and the consulting firm Stantec to complete the Huntington Urbanized Area’s Congestion Management Process. During the last MTP Update RIC expanded the previous CMP to include all of Kanawha and Putnam counties in the Kanawha-Putnam Congestion Management Process. 

The RIC MPO System Performance Report was developed as a component of the CMP. The report details the current adopted performance measures and performance targets. A report of this nature aids in assessing the efficiency of the existing transportation system and serves as a guide to implement the initiatives of performance-based planning to influence future transportation investment decisions.