SHA Organization

Office of Planning and Preliminary Engineering

The mission of this office is to coordinate transportation planning statewide and perform project planning activities. This includes working with federal, state and local agencies on long term transportation plans; conducting public meetings and preparing environmental documentation for projects. This office is responsible for producing the Maryland Highway Tourist Map and many other highway map products including the electronic maps and maintaining and dispersing SHAs highway information database. This office is also responsible for preparing the six-year funding program for state highway projects known as the Consolidated Transportation Program .

The Office is organized into four divisions:

The Highway Information Services Division (HISD)
HISD maintains the database of highway information in both electronic and graphic form. This inventory is a compilation of State and county roads and is the basis upon which Highway User Revenues are distributed to counties and municipalities. The division also produces Marylands Highway Tourist maps, as well as many other map products, including the Traffic Volume Map, which are available to other state agencies and the general public. The division is responsible for the development and support of SHAs Geographic Information System.

The Program Development Division(PDD)
PDD has the lead for coordinating and producing SHA's portion of the Department's Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP). This includes projecting SHA's six year funding levels and allocating the appropriate categories of Federal Funds. PDD is also a key player in preparing for the annual CTP tour meeting with local governments and elected officials, and analyzing the fiscal ramifications of federal funding changes and proposals for changes in funding of individual projects.

The Regional and Intermodal Planning Division (RIPD)
RIPD is responsible for long range systems planning and the integration of SHAs program with local and regional transportation plans. The Division coordinates with the Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the counties, and local jurisdictions, to develop SHAs portion of the metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program. RIPD provides briefing packages for the annual Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP) Tour and tracks follow-up assignments generated at Tour meetings. The division manages the Transportation Enhancement Program and supports the Maryland Bicycle Advisory Committee. Regional Planning Teams are based on geographic regions (Baltimore Metropolitan, Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, Washington Metropolitan, and Western Maryland.) Each Team is responsible for long range planning activities for their areas. Specific Regional Planners are assigned to specific areas and counties.

The Project Planning Division (PPD)
The Project Planning Division has the lead responsibility for the project production activities necessary for obtaining federal and state agency approvals which allows a project to advance phases of the highway development process.  The division is responsible for the development and acquisition of engineering mapping, performs preliminary engineering, develops travel demand forecasts, performs local goverment and agency coordination and prepares required engineering and environmental analyses and documentation required to satisfy both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Maryland Environmental Policy Act.  The division also takes the lead on the coordination of public involvement for all major projects in SHA.