Metro COG Regional Freight Plan

Project Background Information

In 2016, Metro COG undertook its first regional freight plan to better understand and inform regional leaders about transportation service and infrastructure needs in the Fargo-Moorhead MSA. This plan examined freight infrastructure and freight service demands across all modes in the regional transportation network. It also provided an assessment of how goods move to, from, and within the Fargo-Moorhead MSA, and included infrastructure, policy, and operational improvements to support freight-dependent industries and regional economic growth. Eight years after the completion of this plan, Metro COG is looking at an update to its initial freight planning efforts.

Project Objective

The new Metro COG Regional Freight Plan will address a number of logistical, infrastructure, land use, and economic impact issues that have been created due to the area’s significant population and industry growth over the past two decades. These include:

• Assessing the current state of air, truck, and rail freight system operations and identifying ways to effectively prioritize and address future freight congestion issues, key regional bottlenecks (if any), infrastructure deficiencies, potential technologies to increase flow and safety, and land use requirements and policies;
• Identifying links that connect mobility of air, truck, and rail freight modalities to regional economic development goals and addressing key opportunities, gaps, and barriers to improve and promote economic development and job growth within the region's logistics and manufacturing industries as it relates to transportation and/or transportation planning; and
• Aligning recommendations and action steps for regional partners based on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), NDDOT, and MnDOT requirements, including qualitative performance measurement strategies that are responsive to federal and state freight mobility and efficiency goals.

The objective is a comprehensive regional plan that provides project partners (public and private) with a series of short-term and long-term strategies and guidance for strategic processes and policies to guide future investments to facilitate the mobility of truck and rail freight movements within and through the Fargo-Moorhead MSA.