Adapted with permission – original by Adam Howell, Marketing and Communications Manager, New York State LTAP Center – Cornell Local Roads Program & Co-Chair of the National Local Technical Assistance Program Association Communications Work Group
Each time you leave for work, receive a delivery at your doorstep, or hear the sirens of first responders, you make use of a complex system of roads and bridges that allow modern life to function. The maintenance and construction of our public roads are the responsibility of dedicated men and women who use skill, experience, and innovative thinking to get the job done. And while the capability and commitment of local highway departments and public works agencies across the nation is unmatched, even they need help sometimes.
For decades, local highway agencies have been able to seek assistance from a program known today as the Local Technical Assistance Program or LTAP. Each state is home to its own LTAP Center serving as a critical pillar of support for highway departments that manage local transportation infrastructure across the nation.
This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of this unique program that serves local transportation agencies in every state, Puerto Rico, and Native American lands.
Early Support for Local Roads and the Formation of LTAP
The LTAP program (originally called the Rural Technical Assistance Program or RTAP) was established on December 23rd, 1981, when President Ronald Regan signed House Bill 4209 into law. Initially the program was allocated $5,000,000 for numerous projects related to rural transportation agency assistance with the establishment of state “centers” being just one (albeit the largest). The Delaware T2 Center joined the Local Technical Assistance Program 2-3 years after the system was founded (1983 or 1984). In 1991, the audience served by the RTAP was changed when the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) widened the program’s scope to include urban areas with populations over 50,000, effectively expanding the definition of who is served from Rural to Local. RTAP became LTAP. The Tribal Technical Assistance Program (TTAP) serving American Indian tribal governments was also established at this time.
We recently had a chance to sit down with Larry Klepner, who directed the Delaware T2 Center during its formative years (1992 to 2010), after Oscar Sebastian retired. During the interview, we asked Larry to reflect a bit on the history of the Delaware program, hear about some of the people that supported it at the local, state, and federal level, and get his perspective on how LTAP has impacted local agencies with their transportation challenges.
Over the years the program itself expanded in size to bring in more centers from across the nation and by the early 2000s, there were LTAP centers in every state. Some go by different names (Cornell Local Roads, Baystate Roads, Vermont Local Roads, Delaware T2 Center, etc.), but what’s in a name? By the way, T2 is just geek-speak for technology transfer, one the three legs in the stool that is LTAP.
The success of the LTAP program was evident from the very beginning. LTAP Centers, including our own, have been an instrumental part of increasing worker and roadway safety, enhancing sign retroreflectivity, and advancing progress to remove pedestrian barriers in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), just to name a few.
Local Technical Assistance Program Centers across the Nation
So how do these programs support local roads? Primarily, LTAP Centers provide training, education, and technical assistance to meet the needs of local transportation agencies. The work of LTAP centers include areas such as workforce development, infrastructure maintenance, highway safety, worker safety, infrastructure design, asset management and much more.
Each LTAP center offers a wide variety of unique programs and services developed specifically to meet the needs of the states they serve. In fact, variability and customization is a hallmark of the LTAP system.
For instance, because the Delaware Department of Transportation maintains approximately 90% of the lane miles in the state, the Delaware T2 Center works more closely with its DOT than in many other states, where local agencies more significantly share the lane miles. Our Center hosts many high level engineering and planning courses with subject matter experts from the National Highway Institute (NHI), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Resource Center, and other sources in support of the complex projects DelDOT undertakes. We also develop and teach more practitioner-oriented courses that DelDOT and municipal personnel both find helpful.
Our Center also has a full-time circuit rider engineer to provide technical assistance and training to local agencies. Matt’s onsite visits can range from intersection and safety analysis to safety briefings to peer review of local projects to training courses, or even just a second look at an approach to a problem.
We also are involved in a host of professional societies, committees and other agencies associated with Delaware roadways to provide technical input, research, and training. Because we are part of the University of Delaware’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, we are at the heart of innovative research that can be relevant to many of the needs of our local agencies.
Despite the unique nature of every LTAP center, there are some very important similarities between programs across the country. For instance, all LTAP centers attempt to make their training and education accessible for local agencies regardless of location, size, or proximity to an urban center. In fact, the entire national program was originally called the Rural Technical Assistance Program because congress recognized the need to provide resources, training, and assistance to the sprawling road networks of American rural areas. Many LTAP services are free or delivered at the lowest cost possible to ensure that communities can connect with the resources they need.
Another common feature of LTAP center programming is that there is always an effort to create resources, training, and education that is practical and relevant to the people who are in the field. For instance, LTAP centers will often focus on teaching low-cost solutions to common problems that affect a wide variety of local agencies. LTAP Centers themselves are always looking to innovate and better connect with their audiences. As an example, the Delaware T2 Center routinely moves training sites around the state to make it easier to access for everyone. Overall, the goal of every LTAP is to meet a need that is not being met by others in a manner that works for the audience being served.
LTAP centers also deliver services to communities by establishing important partnerships at the national, state, and local levels. At the federal government level, the FHWA’s Center for Local Aid Support is an important partner for all LTAP centers across the nation. Other areas of FHWA, such as the Resource Center, the National Highway Institute, and the Every Day Counts Initiative are critical to the partnership between centers and FHWA. Other important national partners include:
- The National Association of County Engineers (NACE)
- The American Public Works Association (APWA)
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
As a family of programs spread out across the nation, one of the greatest sources of strength LTAP centers have is each other. To that end, the National Local Technical Assistance Program Association (NLTAPA) exists to help states share knowledge and resources to the benefit of all. Under this association, LTAP centers have a central organization through which to coordinate, exchange best practices, share training expertise, and cooperate on the development of new ways to improve local highways. In Delaware, we routinely borrow ideas and information from colleagues at other centers and we have benefited from the expertise of other centers in the form of guest instructors providing training that we would not have otherwise held and, of course, we ourselves have reciprocated by helping train in other states.
In our Mid-Atlantic Region, centers from Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia work especially close to bring resources to our local agencies and one of the ways we do that is with our annual Roadway Management Conference, a three-day event that moves around the region and brings technical training and demonstrations to a wide range of operations and maintenance personnel, supervisors, local elected officials, planners and engineers.
How LTAP Programs Meet the Challenges of Today
Today there is a greater need than ever to provide quality training, education, and technical assistance to local transportations agencies. Workforce pressures like increasing retirements, difficulty recruiting workers, critical skills gaps in new workers, and rural flight are all on the rise. On the regulatory side, state and federal mandates add strain to local departments without always providing the corresponding resources to facilitate compliance. Currently, LTAPs across the nation are providing resources and training to help meet these workforce development and agency administration needs. Whether it is vocational training, basic safety courses, or management and leadership education, LTAP centers develop resources to meet these needs.
Of course, the nation was given its own education on the importance of local transportation workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Regardless of viral transmission rates or public lockdowns, these essential workers continued to perform their duties or assist neighboring municipalities when workers fell ill. LTAP programs similarly rose to the challenge by pivoting their training to online formats, creating COVID-specific guides, and working with partners to connect agencies with even more resources to assist them as the pandemic raged.
Moving into the future, LTAP centers will also be on hand to help local agencies navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by a nation facing a crisis of aging infrastructure. Recently passed state and federal legislation will infuse communities with much needed resources to upgrade, replace, or better maintain their infrastructure. Educating local agencies about the availability of these resources and how to access them will be an important part of future LTAP work. Also, LTAP centers are helping communities connect to information and education about how to prepare for a future where infrastructure must be more resilient to changes in global climate and weather.
A Celebration of Local Transportation
The 40th anniversary of the LTAP system is really a celebration of local communities across the country. While things are a bit different in Delaware, local agencies across the country manage over three-quarters of all centerline miles in the US and Puerto Rico. Local roads, streets, and public works systems are the backbone of American commerce, public safety, communication, and so much more. Recognizing that there is a need to support the people holding together these critical systems is important for the future of the nation.
The Local Technical Assistance Program exists to serve those who work day and night maintaining a safe, reliable local roads system across the country. More than just a national network of resources, LTAP centers are a family of like-minded people dedicated to improving local transportation and supporting those who manage it. Happy Birthday LTAP.
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