Institute for Trade and Transportation Studies
Objectives: The purpose of the Institute for Trade and Transportation Studies (ITTS) is to support member states in developing their competitive advantages to capture and quantify trade opportunities and economic benefits through improved transportation planning, investments, collaboration, and operations by:
Ø Providing a platform for regional collaboration by facilitating workshops and conferences to enable coordination of freight program activities and to provide a continuing education and peer exchange opportunities
Ø Providing support to member states such as:
o Inform members of current and anticipated freight trends
o Develop effective freight planning tools and maintain existing tools
o Assist to integrate freight planning into their core business procedures
Ø Identifying and nurturing close and collaborative working relationships with relevant federal and state agencies, associations, academic institutions, and private sector firms, to keep up-to-date of developments in freight planning and trade and to enhance the outcomes of work on common interests
Ø Partnering with other organizations, including but not limited to, public agencies, private firms, multi-state coalitions, and industry associations, to advance freight planning through research and collaboration
Background: Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development was the lead state for the previous Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Study along with Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Virginia, and West Virginia and had a contract with Mentis LLC that expired on June 30, 2018. The Scope of Work for that contract encompassed providing planning, research, and peer exchange activities for participating states that yielded products and accomplishments such as state freight profiles, freight data integration, and freight traffic model analysis.
Participation: The Mississippi Department of Transportation is the lead state for the new TPF Study to continue facilitation of the ITTS and its objectives. The new contract for this study will be executed late Spring of 2019. Additional participation details include:
v $39,800 annually which includes travel funds for related ITTS events
v Eligible for 100% SPR-A funds
v TPF-5(390) @ https://www.pooledfund.org/Details/Study/643
v RFP legal advertisement @ http://mdot.ms.gov/portal/LegalAD.aspx
For questions contact Trung Trinh @ ttrinh@mdot.ms.gov.