Chesapeake Gateways Partner Profile: Volpe Center

The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) was established by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) in 1970 to serve as a federal resource positioned to provide world-renowned, multidisciplinary, multimodal transportation expertise on behalf of U.S. DOT’s operating administrations, the Office of the Secretary, and other federal agencies, state and local governments, academia, and industry. For more than 50 years, the U.S. DOT Volpe Center has been advancing transportation innovation for the public good. The Volpe Center is a trusted and on-going National Park Service partner, helping the agency to tackle its most acute transportation challenges and to adopt industry best practices.

The Interagency Agreement between the Volpe Center and the Chesapeake Gateways provides technical assistance from the Volpe Center to Chesapeake Gateways partners, focusing on transportation and equitable access needs of the Chesapeake Gateways partners identified in planning, developing, and implementing mission- appropriate programs and projects.

Phase One of the Interagency Agreement involved the Annapolis Department of Planning and Zoning, working with financial assistance from the Chesapeake Gateways and technical support from the Volpe Center, the Annapolis Deptartment of Planning and Zoning solicited public input about how to best expand equitable public water access in Annapolis. The community survey was disseminated in 2022 and can be accessed directly at https://arcg.is/0DWS8r with a Spanish translation available at https://arcg.is/0z004O. 

As subject matter experts in transportation, the Volpe staff will support Chesapeake Gateways in the development of high-level materials that convey the importance of transportation planning and implementation for equitable water access, public access, and resilient systems that is clear to the general public. The audience for the materials may include strategic partners, Chesapeake Gateways network partners, sister Federal Agencies, and residents throughout the watershed.