Planning Process Overview
The Arizona-Sonora Border Master Plan (BMP) study began in Fall 2011 and is scheduled for completion in November 2012. The planning process involves the following five major phases:
- Project initiation – Includes the creation of a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) and Technical Working Group (TWG) to ensure stakeholder involvement
- Existing and future conditions – During this phase, data is collected from various sources and reviewed
- Identification of operational and infrastructure needs – The needs of all the Ports of Entry (POE), rail and roadway/bridges are identified and analyzed during this phase
- Evaluation and prioritization of potential POE and transportation projects
- Draft and final report preparation
Phase 1 (completed):
The PAC consists of executive level managers from participating stakeholder agencies. The PAC is responsible for providing BMP project team direction and final approval of all project parameters and criteria.
The TWG is comprised of participating stakeholder agency senior staff. The TWG is tasked with providing requested data and information. They are also involved in making recommendations to the PAC. Both the PAC and the TWG will meet regularly throughout the BMP development.
The PAC and TWG members have already been recruited and are actively meeting to contribute to this study.
Phase 2 (completed):
Data collection and review began in late 2011 and will continue through early 2012. Information on existing conditions in the Study Area has been gathered and data related to future conditions has been developed. Additionally, an inventory of information for each POE regarding operations and infrastructure has also been completed.
Phase 3 (completed):
The identification of potential challenges that may arise within the border-related transportation networks (roadways, rail and POE) and development of the BMP will lead to the identification of possible improvement strategies. The goal is to develop a list of planned and potential future transportation projects along the border, ultimately developing a prioritization for each of these identified projects.
Phases 4 and 5 (under way)
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