The East-West Gateway (EWG) Council of Governments needed a defensible framework to show how transportation investments affect economic outcomes across the region, including access to jobs, employer competitiveness, freight and business operations, and the fiscal realities of maintaining and improving transportation infrastructure. They were also looking to connect technical analysis with regional collaborator and partner priorities so recommendations could be applied to actionable future decision-making—our team was there to help.
Our team led an assessment, including project management, data assembly and analysis, workforce mobility and job access assessment, business and resident retention, and attraction assessment. We also performed a transportation infrastructure and service cost assessment, scenario planning, peer and subregional benchmarking, economic vitality scorecards and dashboards, recommendations development, and integration of findings into long range transportation plan/transportation improvement program (LRTP/TIP) evaluation criteria.
Our assessment produced a regional framework, final report, recommendations matrix, updated evaluation criteria, scorecards, dashboards, and public-facing summary materials. Key takeaways helped EWG better demonstrate the economic value of transportation investments, align regional partners around high-priority actions, and apply economic vitality considerations to future transportation planning and programming decisions.
This data-informed, regionally coordinated study for the St. Louis metropolitan region examined how transportation infrastructure and investment decisions influence workforce access, business and resident retention and attraction, fiscal sustainability, and long-term regional competitiveness.
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