TxDOT TPP staff briefed Texas MPO directors about an organizational change in TPP, new guidance documents, and tools meant to standardize and speed MPO administrative and planning work.

Casey Wells (TxDOT TPP) said the former “systems planning” section has been renamed Advanced Transportation Planning and restructured into three branches—STIP, Statewide Planning and a new Regional Planning branch that folds MPO technical functions and travel‑demand analysis under a single manager, Janie Temple. Wells said the reorganization, effective Sept. 1, is intended to align TPP work with district advanced planning teams and centralize MPO technical support.

Wells and Temple described a program of publications and web resources: an MPO Planning & Programming Handbook, a parallel STIP handbook, a catalog of templates and checklists, and a planned externally accessible SharePoint site to house resources, templates, checklists and workflow forms. Wells said the SharePoint portal will allow MPOs, TxDOT and FHWA partners “to access templates, checklists and submit routine workflows” and that the agency hopes to roll out the site by year‑end.

Travis Norton (consultant/HNTB) and TxDOT staff summarized progress on the MPO handbook’s chapters, reporting drafts for most of the handbook’s 11 chapters and a schedule to complete and publish the materials by December. The chapters will cover MTP requirements, public involvement, performance management, UPWP administration and related topics. Wells said FHWA and district staff are participating as reviewers.

On finance and billing, Maria Salazar (TxDOT finance) said TxDOT and MPOs have a new TPF invoice template that will be required beginning with billing 1 of the 2026 program year; the template standardizes required metadata (PO number, payee/EIN, project IDs) and reduces submission errors. Salazar said fiscal offices reported fewer processing issues with pilot submissions and that TxDOT will track whether finance can accelerate its payment timeline as a result.

Wells said these tools—handbooks, templates and the partner SharePoint site—are intended to create a more consistent statewide set of procedures, reduce repetitive requests, and provide a single place where MPOs and TxDOT can find templates, checklists and published targets (for performance measures). He asked MPOs to provide feedback on missing resources and called for volunteers to review forthcoming chapters.