Through the Broward MPO's leadership of the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council's (MPOAC) Freight Committee, I was brought in to support a statewide forum where Florida's MPOs could discuss freight planning issues, project development, funding coordination, and the practical problem of making local freight needs visible at the state level.
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L. No. 114-94) into law, the first federal law in over a decade to provide long-term funding certainty for surface transportation infrastructure planning and investment. The FAST Act authorized $305 billion over fiscal years 2016 through 2020 for highway, highway and motor vehicle safety, public transportation, motor carrier safety, hazardous materials safety, rail, and research, technology, and statistics programs.
It was during this time that the committee witnessed the FAST Act strengthening the federal freight planning context and establishing the National Highway Freight Program (NHFP), creating new pressure for MPOs to document credible, ready, and regionally significant freight priorities. The committee needed a process that FDOT, MPOAC, and Florida's MPOs could understand, trust, use, and repeat.
From Committee Support to Statewide Process
When I first started supporting the committee, the work was unglamorous. I delivered the pieces that make committees function: agendas, minutes, progress reports, printed meeting materials, review cycles, and follow-up notes. I also supported educational white papers on the role of freight in regional economies and how MPOs could influence freight planning and funding priorities. There was coordination with Broward MPO staff, MPOAC leadership, FDOT representatives, MPO members, and consultant partners.
Even during those early years, one theme ran consistently through every meeting: freight does not move according to MPO boundaries. Trucks, goods, port traffic, warehouse activity, rail connections, and supply chains move across regions, often linking places that are planned, funded, and governed separately. A bottleneck in one MPO area can affect reliability in another, and a project that looks local on paper can carry statewide freight significance once you understand the network around it. Over time, my role became more than meeting support, and that theme became the foundation for something larger.
That became the core idea behind the "unified voice." The goal was not simply to create another project list. It was to give MPOs a way to coordinate across jurisdictional lines, identify freight needs with shared regional and statewide value, and present those priorities to FDOT in a consistent, credible format. For me, that was where the work became meaningful.
By 2018, our team helped the committee move from education toward action. Workshops and white papers started asking a sharper question: what would it take for Florida's MPOs to identify freight projects consistently, document their importance, align them with FDOT investment criteria, and advance them as a unified statewide list? The answer became the inaugural Freight Priorities Program (FPP).
I served as Task Manager for the launch, working with MPOAC leadership, including Carl Mikyska and Greg Stuart; consultant partners Michael Williamson of Cambridge Systematics and Todd Brauer of Whitehouse Group; and FDOT's Freight and Multimodal Operations Office, led by Rickey Fitzgerald.
The value was not just a list. It was a repeatable process that helped MPOs show why a project mattered, how ready it was, where it fit within adopted plans and freight networks, and how it could compete for advancement through FDOT's funding process.
Building the First Cycle
The first cycle required turning policy intent, drawn from the committee's deliberations and the requirements of the FAST Act, into usable tools. I helped develop the program structure, schedule, eligibility criteria, submission process, review approach, fact sheet, instructions package, screening checklist, and application template. The screening process asked MPOs to document project readiness, freight significance, Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) goal alignment, adopted-plan inclusion, freight network designation, economic competitiveness, and regional support.
That meant the program did not only ask whether a project was important locally. It asked whether the need could be connected to system roadways, freight generators, adopted plans, FTP goals, and the funding channels FDOT could realistically act on.
Michael Williamson and I also served as primary technical contacts for participating MPOs, helping deliver online training, reviewing incoming submissions for eligibility and completeness, and coordinating follow-up when project information was missing or unclear. The 2018 project list included 37 projects submitted by 16 of Florida's 27 MPOs, spanning all seven FDOT districts. The list advanced through the MPOAC Freight Committee, Staff Directors, and Governing Board before transmittal to FDOT and each District Freight Coordinator.
Repetition Was the Work
The annual rhythm became one of the most valuable parts of the experience. Each cycle created a chance to learn from the prior year, refine the materials, improve the training, sharpen the review process, and make the program more useful to both MPOs and FDOT. I eventually served as the primary point of contact for all 27 Florida MPOs, FDOT District Freight Coordinators, and FDOT Central Office.
In 2019, I served as Project Manager for the next cycle. By then, FDOT had formally incorporated the FPP into its NHFP project prioritization process, increasing project scores for submissions that appeared on the FPP list. That meant MPOAC endorsement could directly improve a project's competitive position in FDOT's internal selection and funding decisions. The 2019 list included 30 projects submitted by 14 MPOs across six FDOT districts, with funding requests totaling $2.7 billion. Public program materials later identified five projects from the 2019 cycle as funded or partially funded.
In 2020, I led the cycle again and introduced improvements that made the process easier to use and easier to defend: a simplified checklist, a clearer "defined action" section in the submission form, a District Freight Coordinator workflow, and an interim list transmitted to FDOT mid-cycle. Even through a disrupted COVID-era schedule, the program reached its highest participation rate at that point, with 18 MPOs submitting 32 projects spanning more than 137 roadway miles and more than $1.2 billion in funding requests.
In 2021, the program matched that participation rate and reached all seven FDOT districts, with 18 MPOs submitting 36 projects and more than $2.3 billion in funding requests. District Freight Coordinator alignment improved from the prior year, and FDOT used the FPP list to increase project scores within its annual NHFP prioritization process. Six projects from the 2021 list were later funded with NHFP funds through 2027, totaling nearly $59.8 million.
Program Results at a Glance
From 2019 through 2021, the cycles I managed helped organize more than $6.2 billion in documented freight project funding requests. Public MPOAC materials later identified funded or partially funded projects from the 2018 and 2019 lists, and six 2021-list projects programmed with nearly $59.8 million in NHFP funds through 2027. Figures reviewed June 2026.
| Cycle | Participation | List Scale | Documented Follow-Through |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 Launch | 16 MPOs; all seven FDOT districts | 37 projects | Two projects were later identified as receiving NHFP funding. |
| 2019 Cycle | 14 MPOs; six FDOT districts | 30 projects; $2.7B in funding requests | Five projects were later identified as funded or partially funded. |
| 2020 Cycle | 18 MPOs; six FDOT districts | 32 projects; 137+ roadway miles; $1.2B+ in requests | The cycle added stronger submission tools, District Freight Coordinator review, and an interim list for FDOT. |
| 2021 Cycle | 18 MPOs; all seven FDOT districts | 36 projects; 133+ roadway miles; $2.3B+ in requests | Six projects were later funded with NHFP funds through 2027, totaling nearly $59.8M. |
This is not presented as a final disposition audit of every project. It is a concise public record of the program's scale, participation, and traceable funding influence.
Where Policy Became Practice
Much of the work was technical, but it was also important in building relationships. It required teaching people about the program, helping MPO staff think through project eligibility, encouraging early coordination with FDOT District Freight Coordinators, and translating committee feedback into better forms, clearer instructions, and stronger transmittal materials.
It also gave me the kind of learning that only comes from repetition and travel. I got to return to the same problem year after year, but never in exactly the same context. Meetings in Sunrise, Cocoa Beach, Orlando, and online shaped how I understood statewide planning. The relationships are built in presentations, workshops, side conversations, questions from staff, edits to forms, motions from committees, and the steady building of trust.
By 2021, the committee was ready to ask what came next. After two motions expanded the program's direction, I was tasked with researching and authoring a white paper on broadening FPP eligibility to include pre-PD&E and multimodal freight projects and incorporating passenger rail into the committee's mission. I presented the findings in Orlando, facilitated discussion with committee members, and helped translate the workshop into a path forward for what became the Freight and Rail Committee.
The Value Created
Looking back, the value I created was helping build and sustain a system. The FPP gave MPOs a more visible and institutionally supported pathway to advocate for freight projects, together.
It also shaped how I manage complex planning work. I learned how to move between policy and implementation, how to coordinate across agencies, how to make technical requirements usable, how to improve a repeated annual process without losing continuity, and how to help people work together across boundaries.
Most of all, it let me help. It helped MPOs advocate for projects that mattered in their communities. It helped FDOT receive a clearer picture of statewide MPO freight priorities. It helped Broward MPO continue a leadership role in a statewide conversation. And it helped me grow into a planner and project manager who understands that the adventure of a career is often found in the work you get to return to, improve, and carry forward year after year.