Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)

Overview

The Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) is a description of the multi-modal transportation planning projects to be conducted in the Bismarck/Mandan MPO area in any specified one or two-year period. This document is the foundation for requesting federal funds as well as a control tool for scheduling, budgeting and monitoring the transportation planning process.

The UPWP is developed with the input of the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT), Bis-Man Transit, and the jurisdictional partners of the MPO (Bismarck, Mandan, Lincoln, Burleigh County and Morton County). Also, public input from previous MPO studies is used to form the UPWP.

The UPWP serves as the MPO's budgeting action tool that takes the goals and projects from the active MPO Metropolitan Transportation Plan and formats the chosen projects into a budgeting action plan. The projects listed in the UPWP represent the selected projects that were developed from either a specific project description or a goal set forward in the MTP.

The UPWP provides the MPO with a very useful budgeting, scheduling, and monitoring tool, and provides the public with an understanding of the MPO's current and future goals. 

Active UPWP

The 2026 UPWP (PDF) was approved by the Policy Board of the Bismarck-Mandan MPO on August 19, 2025.  It became the active budget of the MPO January 1, 2026 and will remain in effect through December 31, 2026.

Occasionally, it becomes necessary to amend the UPWP to accommodate expenditures that were not initially budgeted. All proposed amendments to the UPWP must be approved by the MPO Policy Board, as well as NDDOT and FHWA/FTA (as applicable). Once approved, amendments become part of the UPWP document. Alterations to the UPWP that do not rise to the level of an amendment (typically involving minor textual changes or cost adjustments less than 10% of the cumulative yearly budget amount) are presented as administrative modifications.  Administrative modifications are presented to the MPO Policy Board and MPO oversight agencies for informational purposes but do not require any formal approval.  

Modifications to the 2026 UPWP

• November 2025 Administrative Modification (PDF)

Amendments to the 2026 UPWP

There are currently no amendments to the 2026 UPWP.