This Statewide Transportation Improvement Program is the product of months of staff work and deliberations involving the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ TRANSIT), county and municipal transportation planners and engineers, other transportation implementing agencies, the public and elected officials at the state, county, and municipal levels. The main decision-making forums for selecting projects for this program were the state's three metropolitan planning organizations:

* The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), covering Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren counties.

* The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), covering Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Mercer counties.

* The South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization (SJTPO), covering Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties.

The process of building the current STIP began in the fall of 2006, with intensive staff work by NJDOT, NJ TRANSIT, and the MPOs.

All projects that were identified as potential candidates for inclusion in the regional transportation improvement programs of each of the three MPOs were subjected to intensive screening to verify project scope, status, schedule, and cost. The resulting "pool" of projects was analyzed independently by NJDOT, NJ TRANSIT, and the MPOs to assign each project a priority based on the extent to which it would advance identified regional and statewide objectives, such as objectives set forth in the state and regional long-range transportation plans, the New Jersey Capital Investment Strategy, air quality objectives, and the broad social and economic goals of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan. NJDOT developed and circulated revenue projections for planning purposes to each of the MPOs, based on the best current assessment of available state, federal, and other funds. NJDOT, NJ TRANSIT and each of the three MPOs entered into intensive discussions to negotiate a list of deliverable transportation projects that best fit the composite statewide and regional priorities within a financially constrained program. These negotiated project lists were used as the basis for publishing the Fiscal Year 2008 Proposed Transportation Capital Program by NJDOT and NJ TRANSIT on March 30, 2007, and for preparing TIPs for further analysis by each of the MPOs.