Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board

Statewide Transportation Improvement Program

Statewide Transportation Improvement Program

What is STIP?

The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is Virginia’s federally required four-year program that identifies the transportation projects (highway, passenger rail, freight, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian) that will utilize federal transportation funding or require approval from either the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) or Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

The program must include all projects in an urbanized area that are included in an MPO’s TIP (Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Improvement Program). The STIP is comprised of all of the MPO TIPs as well as federally funded projects in the rural areas of Virginia. Currently there are fifteen MPO areas.

For more information about each MPO’s TIP, please click the corresponding link for the area.

STIP Timeline

Federal regulations require each state to produce a STIP at least once every four years; however, VDOT updates their STIP every three years to ensure the program never lapses. Federal regulations require that the STIP demonstrate fiscal constraint to show that the state is not scheduling more transportation projects for construction than it has funding to support.

Virginia provides many opportunities for the public to provide input on transportation projects and priorities as part of the continuing transportation planning process for the development of the STIP and the state required Six-Year Improvement Program. Comments were received and incorporated as a result of federally required public involvement for each MPO’s TIP, the Fall Transportation Meetings and Spring Public Hearings. On Sept. 30, 2020, the FHWA and FTA approved the federal Fiscal Year 2021 - 24 STIP.