The Virginia Department of Transportation and Fairfax County have signed a memorandum of understanding that will cut in half the process time it has taken to acquire land, and design and build a bus shelter. The memorandum of understanding streamlines the reviews and approvals for the design, right of way acquisition and construction process from nearly two years to less than a year.

“Everyone wins with the new streamlined partnership,” said Virginia’s Commissioner of Transportation Philip Shucet. “The county will be able to provide bus shelters more quickly for its residents and VDOT reduces its paperwork and staff time.”

VDOT provides funding for bus shelters through the federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program. Last year, Fairfax County received $920,000 for its bus shelter program.

Under the new process, VDOT will issue a single annual authorization to the county for design, right of way acquisition and construction rather than requiring separate individual authorizations for each bus shelter site. VDOT will also give the county an annual Land Use Permit for all new bus shelter installations rather than requiring a separate permit for each site.

Fairfax County's Deputy County Executive Robert A. Stalzer said, “The memorandum of understanding grants the county greater responsibility and authority in the bus shelter implementation process. This is an important step in our continuing effort to encourage increased use of mass transit in Fairfax County, which will continue to improve the air quality in the county and the region.”

Formal VDOT design reviews and approvals will be eliminated but VDOT retains the right to audit the process.

# # #

Page last modified: March 11, 2003