The Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) received an award in September for excellence in MPO coordination and partnership from the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO). The award recognizes Strafford MPO's Partnering for Performance NH (PFPNH) initiative for its innovation, impact on profession, implementation, and coordination.
Senior transportation planner Colin Lentz accepted the award on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at this year's annual AMPO conference in San Antonio, Texas. The AMPO conference is the largest yearly gathering of transportation planners and stakeholders in the country.
PFPNH is an ad hoc working group whose members come from the four New Hampshire MPOs, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, and the NH Division of the Federal Highway Administration. The group was formed in 2016, several years after Strafford MPO began preparing for performance-based transportation planning mandated by the federal Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act and the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act.
"The recognition of PFPNH on a national level is significant as it allows Strafford MPO to share outcomes of the initiative as an example for our peers throughout the United States," said Strafford MPO Executive Director Jen Czysz. "The strengthened and formalized partnership between the four New Hampshire MPOs is one of the greatest achievements of the PFPNH initiative," Each MPO now has a framework through which capacity can be expanded and operations can be run more efficiently. The team environment allows for sharing iterative tasks, minimizing duplication of efforts across the state and provides a sounding board for new ideas and staff."
In addition to this award, PFPNH has been recognized by several federal and state agencies for its success. The PFPNH working group continues to meet in order to streamline MPO processes and track transportation performance measures related to areas such as safety, transit, and emissions. Learn more at partneringforperformancenh.org.
