About Us
The Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) is the Regional University Transportation Center (UTC) for Federal Region 10. PacTrans was established in January 2012 with an initial grant of $3.5 million from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) as part of The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). This was supplemented later with extension funding of $3.4 million which equated to a total grant of $6.9 million over four years. This original consortium included member universities: Oregon State University (OSU), the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), University of Idaho (UI), University of Washington (UW), and Washington State University (WSU).
In January of 2014, The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), funded PacTrans with a second grant of $5.1 million from the USDOT, which was supplemented with two additional extensions and $1.7 million and $860,000 respectively. Thus the total Center Two grant was $7.72 million for its four-year lifespan. This center was a safety focused University Transportation Center.
In December of 2016, The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), funded PacTrans with a third grant of $14.35 million from the USDOT. This 5 year grant from FY2016 through FT2020 will provide $2.75 million for FY2016, $2.85 million for both FY2017 and FY2018, and $2.95 million for both FY2019 and FY2020. This award was similarly extended for one additional year (FY2021) at the same funding level. During this award, PacTrans added two education partners in Gonzaga University (GU) and Boise State University (BSU). This center was a mobility focused University Transportation Center with a theme of, “developing data-driven solutions to the diverse mobility needs of people and goods in the Pacific Northwest.”
In June of 2023, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), or Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), awarded PacTrans its fourth competitive grant of $15 million over 5 years. For this grant the composition of the PacTrans team changed. The new team includes Northwest Indian College (NWIC), Portland State University (PSU), the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the University of Idaho (UI), the University of Washington (UW), and Washington State University (WSU). This center is a mobility focus University Transportation Center with a theme of, “developing human-centered and transformative multimodal mobility solutions for an equitable Pacific Northwest.”
