Air Quality Analysis of MDT Transportation Improvements, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the MACI Program

Under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), part of Montana's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) apportionment is dedicated to Missoula and at the direction of the Montana Transportation Commission, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) directs the remainder of the CMAQ apportionment to areas in nonattainment status that were previously ineligible for CMAQ funds to proactively address air quality and automobile congestion problems through the Montana Air and Congestion Initiative (MACI) program. The purpose of this project was to assess the cost-effectiveness of projects funded to date through the MACI/CMAQ program. To establish a common framework for comparing different projects, total costs and estimated emissions were converted to annualized estimates and project costs were amortized over the project life using a discount rate. Annualized costs for the PM10 projects ranged from $15,581 to nearly $1.8 m. The most cost-effective projects tended to be paving projects and projects associated with purchasing air quality equipment with traffic flow projects the next most cost-effective. Transit projects and bicycle-pedestrian projects tend to be least cost-effective relative to others that have been funded through the MACI/CMAQ program. Annualized costs for the CO projects ranged from $14,185 to nearly $1.8 m. The most cost-effective CO reduction projects tended to be traffic flow projects and transit projects tended to be least cost-effective relative to others that have been funded through the MACI/CMAQ program.