Area Transportation Partnerships

South Central Minnesota ATP was established to bring together the transportation improvement recommendations of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), regional development commissions (RDCs), Mankato-North Mankato Area Planning Organization (MAPO), cities, and counties into an integrated list of transportation investments in the form of the Area Transportation Improvement Program (ATIP).

South Central Minnesota ATP also:

• Reviews and comment on the draft STIP
• Establishes criteria for project selection
• Partners with the MAPO to incorporate projects from the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)
• Participates with MnDOT District 7 in the development and review of policies and procedures for managing the program.
• Develops and review priority lists for programs that are not included in the target.

Project changes

Program Committees are charged with reviewing project scope changes, year changes, and cost adjustments and will make recommendation to the ATP for approval. Project changes, including added inflation costs, are to be managed within the current STIP funding guidance.

Funding protection

Once a project has been listed in the approved STIP, that project will continue to retain funding unless:

• The ATP determines that the scope of the project has changed substantially from the original submittal.
• The sponsoring agency requests that the project be withdrawn.
• The ATP experiences a significant decrease in funding target resulting in reprioritization of all projects in the affected years of the STIP.

STIP amendments and administrative modifications

The STIP, once approved by the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA), may be updated throughout the course of the year, and needs to be updated prior to a project’s federal authorization and bid letting, if certain project changes have occurred.

• Typical STIP amendments:
  • A new project is being added to the STIP
  • There is a change in overall project length of more than 0.3 miles
  • Adding or removing phases of work which increases or decreases the total project cost
  • Changing project scope
  • When the project cost changes by a certain percentage based on the overall cost of the project.
• Typical STIP administrative modifications:
  • The project cost changes by a certain percentage based on the overall cost of the project
  • Project identified that will use a set aside
  • Change the STIP year
  • Addition of a state-funded project to the STIP
  • Adding a locally-funded project to a federally-funded project
  • Technical corrections
  • Adding or removing advance construction
  • Removing a project
  • Splitting a project
• Process:
  • MnDOT District 7, or its partners, will initiate the amendment or modification and the District, in consultation with its partners, will determine which document is appropriate and if and how financial constraint is maintained.
  • The needed document is drafted by MnDOT District 7 and send to MnDOT’s Central Office for review and processing. Central Office compiles the requests statewide and submits a batch to FHWA (or Federal Transit Administration) for their approval.
  • If the project is located within the MAPO planning boundaries, the MAPO TIP will also need to be amended, following the process identified in the MAPO Public Participation Plan.
  • For STIP amendments, District 7 staff will briefly describe to the ATP the project changes during the STIP status updates at the ATP meeting.
  • The ATP will be informed of and MAPO TIP amendments.
  • Further detail is provided in April 15, 2015 FHWA/FT and MnDOT STIP Amendment Guidance.

South Central Minnesota ATP meetings are open to the public.In-person meetings are held at the MnDOT District 7 Headquarters Building (2151 Bassett Dr., Mankato, MN). For virtual meeting links, please see the meeting agenda.

• View meeting notes, agendas and documents

Accessibility

To request an ASL or foreign language interpreter, call 651-366-4720. To request other reasonable accommodations, call the Minnesota Relay Service toll-free at 1-800-627-3529 (TYY, Voice or ASCII) or 711, or email your request to adarequest.dot@state.mn.us.

• November–January: Receive funding targets, solicit projects
• February: Evaluate and prioritize projects
• March: Draft ATIP presented at ATP meeting
• April: Public comment and review period
• May: Submit draft ATIP to MnDOT Central Office
• June: Draft STIP review and comment
• July: STIP approval by Commissioner

Transit

• Shawn Schloesser, Greater Mankato Transit
• Pat LaCourse, Brown County Transit

Mankato / North Mankato Area Planning Organization

• Seth Greenwood, Nicollet County
• MAPO Alternate

Cities

• Jeff Johnson, City of Mankato
• Joseph Stadheim, City of New Ulm

Counties

• Dave Tiegs, Le Sueur County Engineer
• Aaron Holmbeck, Nobles County Engineer

Elected officials

• Darrell Pettis, City of Saint Peter City Council
• Don Wachal, Jackson County Commissioner
• Jack Kolars, Nicollet County Commissioner

Regional Development Commission

• Richard Peterson, Southwest RDC
• Robert Goblirsch, Region Nine

MnDOT

• Sam Parker, Planning Director
• Greg Ous, District Engineer
• Zak Tess, Assistant District Engineer
• Lisa Bigham, State Aid Engineer

MnDOT is responsible for staff support.

Operating procedures and policies

We review operating procedures yearly for any improvements or updates needed to procedures or policies. 

• South Central Minnesota ATP operating procedures (PDF)

• FY 26 PROTECT Application
• FY 26 PROTECT Scoring Criteria

• FY 25-26 CRP Application
• FY 25-26 CRP Scoring Criteria
  

South Central Minnesota ATP considers the transportation priorities of the area’s partnerships:

• Mankato / North Mankato Area Planning Organization
• Southwest Regional Development Commission
• Region Nine Development Commission
• MnDOT District 7 Office

How the STIP is tied into the CHIP

The STIP is created by drawing projects from the Capital Highway Investment Plan (CHIP), the 10-year plan of which the first four years are the STIP and years 5-10 are the work plan years.

• View the CHIP

Maps

• 2023-2026 draft MnDOT District 7 Area Transportation Improvement Program (ATIP) (PDF)
• 2022-2025 draft MnDOT District 7 Area Transportation Improvement Program (ATIP) - Local Projects (PDF)
• MnDOT District 7 2023 construction map (PDF)