MPO approves $17,500 contract with Texas Tech researchers for travel demand model micro‑simulation
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Summary
The committee approved Resolution 2025‑05 to contract with Texas Tech University to develop a micro‑simulation dashboard and update the travel demand model (forecast year 2027). Staff said the fixed‑price contract is budgeted in the 2025–26 Unified Planning Work Program; the packet listed payments and an 18‑month schedule.
The Transportation Policy Committee approved Resolution 2025‑05 on March 18, 2025, authorizing an agreement with Texas Tech University (TTU) to develop a micro‑simulation dashboard and begin implementation tasks for the travel demand model under task 2.1 of the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP).
LMPO staff said TTU’s civil engineering group will perform the micro‑simulation work and that Dr. Lu Hung Chao was present to represent the university team. The project will expand the MPO’s model to cover all of Lubbock County, update the urbanized area boundary and move the forecast year forward to 2027 so the MPO can provide a locally calibrated input to the TxDOT model update cycle. Staff said the work is required to maintain model accuracy for investment decisions and to incorporate projects that were not previously in the model (for example a local shallow water bridge and city bond projects).
Staff identified the contract as a fixed‑price agreement budgeted in FY25 and FY26 for $17,500. The packet shows a payment schedule described in the meeting as an initial execution payment of $5,250, a secondary payment of $10,500 upon completion of the first four tasks, and a final payment that the presenter said will be made upon final review and completion (the packet’s final payment line in the transcript contained a typographical rendering; the presenter affirmed the total project cost budgeted is $17,500). The project schedule in the packet was described as an 18‑month scope; staff said start dates in the draft agreement will be adjusted to follow formal approval and legal review.
Committee members asked about deliverables; staff said the product will produce a 2027 forecast year model and a micro‑simulation dashboard that allows staff to test proposed projects and see their effects on the network. A motion by Mayor McGrayer, seconded by Dr. Wilson, carried with no recorded opposition.
The agreement will be forwarded to TxDOT for review and execution, and the micro‑simulation product will feed into the MPO’s next full model update and TIP/Ten‑Year Plan analyses.