A compilation of prioritized transportation improvements projects is now ready for public review and comment, the Washington State Department of Transportation said in a news release. More than 1,300 statewide transportation improvement projects using $4.5 billion in federal funds are included in the 2022-2025 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP for short.

The draft 2022-2025 STIP is a four-year program of multimodal transportation projects that have been identified through state, metropolitan, regional, tribal and local agency planning processes.

The STIP is developed annually by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Projects that use Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) or Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds must be included in the STIP to authorize using the federal funds.

The comment period for the STIP is the final step of the community engagement process that began locally during development of individual transportation improvement programs. WSDOT will accept comments until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15. Any comments received by WSDOT will be sent to the local agency, metropolitan or regional planning organization for their consideration.

The current 2021-24 STIP can be viewed online and a similar, searchable database of the 2022-25 STIP will be created in January 2022, following FHWA and FTA approval.

Written comments can be sent to Nancy Huntley or Steve Ahlsten, WSDOT, P.O. Box 47390, Olympia WA 98504-7390, or by email at Hqlpstip@wsdot.wa.gov.