Regional and Project Level Conformity Process

Air quality conformity applies to two levels of transportation activity:
  1. To Metropolitan Transportation Plans (MTPs) and Transportation Improvement Plans (TIPs) develop by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in accordance with the Federal Highway Administration-FTA planning regulation (
    23 CFR 450
    Planning Assistance and Standards).
  2. To projects funded by FTA and located in areas that do not meet (nonattainment areas), or previously have not met (maintenance areas) the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for a transportation-related pollutant.
For project-level conformity, FTA must find that a transit project located in a nonattainment or maintenance area meets the project-level conformity requirements before FTA can make a grant for any element of that project’s implementation. To conform, a transit project must come from a currently conforming Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), must not cause or contribute to any air quality hot spots, and must follow any other requirement in the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for air quality that pertain to the project.