Mr. Cempel creates context-specific transportation plans to match a community’s needs.
Mr. Cempel has done MPO, county, city, and transit planning work in Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Memphis, San Francisco/Oakland, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, among others. Mr. Cempel developed a unanimously approved performance-based regional transportation plan for the Memphis MPO, utilizing best practices for project prioritization and tradeoff analysis. The plan includes a financially constrained list of transportation projects, along with recommendations for additional innovative funding sources. He worked closely with the MPO board and other elected officials and led numerous public meetings and events to achieve this community-driven plan in a region where transportation is truly a lynchpin for achieving equity and public health.
Mr. Cempel led the Chicago DOT River North/Streeterville Transit Alternatives Analysis: this led to recommendations for BRT and other bus-related improvements in Chicago’s core. He identified improvements that would have the greatest impact on low-income communities’ access to opportunity. He was the Deputy Project Manager for the AC Transit Berkeley/Oakland/San Leandro Corridor BRT EIS, prepared ridership forecasts on behalf of the Mid-America Regional Council for a proposed commuter rail line in Kansas City, managed an operating cost analysis for Metra capital projects, and evaluated the financial feasibility and funding options for a Thailand-Myanmar Railway Link. For the Minnesota DOT, Mr. Cempel analyzed and prioritized different managed lane corridors with congestion pricing, active traffic management, and express bus/BRT service as part of the MnPASS System Study Phase 2, and further analyzed an individual corridor in greater detail as part of the I-35E Cayuga Bridge project. He managed an FHWA project to determine how to improve performance on multi-state, multimodal corridors of national significance.
Mr. Cempel has worked on numerous highway corridor studies across the country, including an Indiana DOT feasibility study for the proposed Illiana Expressway as Deputy Project Manager, for which he evaluated benefits, costs, revenues, and economic impacts. He managed the traffic and revenue analysis for potentially tolling four interstates in Indiana. Mr. Cempel also managed an I-67 corridor feasibility study, looking at the potential for a new interstate in Indiana.
For the World Bank, he analyzed the causes, consequences, and potential ways to deal with congestion in Cairo, Egypt. He also developed a national transport framework plan for the Philippines on behalf of the World Bank. For both studies, he managed multiple firms across the globe.
The current and future impacts of the pandemic are a permanent part of today’s planning “context.” CempelITC, as part of a team, is helping Chicago DOT navigate these impacts for a right-of-way and curb usage study in the city’s core.
Mr. Cempel helps create effective, accountable transportation agencies that deliver transportation and economic outcomes in line with a community’s goals.
Mr. Cempel helped “write the book” on transportation performance management at the Federal level. He worked directly with FHWA and AASHTO to help Federal, state, regional, and local agencies prepare for the MAP-21 Federal transportation legislation. He managed Cambridge Systematics’ on-call contract with FHWA’s Office of Performance Management and oversaw tasks relating to rulemaking and guidance. He conducted training for FHWA leadership and staff on best practices in performance measurement and facilitated a National Forum on Performance-Based Planning. He helped develop a National Highway Institute course on Performance-Based Planning and Programming for state, regional, and transit agencies across the country, and delivered courses providing an overview of MAP-21 performance management provisions to states and MPOs. Prior to drafting the legislation, Mr. Cempel managed the evaluation of what measures to include in any national performance-based Federal-aid system, in separate projects for both AASHTO and FHWA. This work has included training and workshops for states, MPOs, and FHWA staff. Mr. Cempel also led the development of NCHRP Report 666 – Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies. Mr. Cempel managed the staff who lead Cambridge Systematics’ asset management work, incorporating the same elements of performance management, risk assessment, and tradeoff analysis as the work above.
Mr. Cempel has applied these approaches to the development of long-range plans and performance measurement schemes in states and regions across the country, including Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Arizona, among others.
For the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority (CIRTA), Mr. Cempel managed the development of a high-level policy framework describing how a regional entity could deliver regional transit services throughout the Indianapolis metropolitan region; these recommendations have now been drafted into legislation. Mr. Cempel facilitated board discussions on best practices around the US related to RTA governance, agency powers, funding sources, MPO-RTA relationships, and coordination with rural operators. Mr. Cempel also managed the strategic plan for Hennepin County Public Works and assisted in developing a passenger rail governance plan for Minnesota DOT.
Mr. Cempel helps agencies identify and acquire funding to implement their plans.
Mr. Cempel and his staff – at the request of the Indiana legislature – did a complete statewide assessment of funding across all levels of government, developed tools for quick assessment of different funding scenarios, and compared to needs via a statewide asset management assessment. He and his staff worked directly with the Commissioner of Transportation to disseminate the results to the legislature. Mr. Cempel examined tolling options for new highway facilities in Illinois, Indiana, California, and Minnesota. His staff prepared grants for agencies across the country, including numerous highly successful grants for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) program in Chicago. He is currently assisting Suffolk County, NY, with their countywide grants strategy, and helped the Peoria MPO through a series of large workshops develop a strategic approach to prioritizing projects and applying for funds. For the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (TA), Mr. Cempel led a study to develop a downtown parking pricing and regulation program examining both the public and private supply of on- and off-street parking. He also advised the TA on restructuring the City’s taxi system, focusing on medallions and franchising.
As program manager at Amtrak, Mr. Cempel worked with agency partners and elected officials to identify funding sources. He wrote grants, acquired local matches, and worked internally at Amtrak to dedicate funding. He used these funds to advance a nearly $1 billion program of investments through design, environmental review, and ultimately towards construction.
Mr. Cempel also helped to develop Amtrak’s nationwide strategy to leverage Opportunity Zones.
Mr. Cempel helps regions capture the economic potential of freight transportation while mitigating potential neighborhood impacts.
Mr. Cempel managed the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways Freight Plan, which will help determine the County’s role in freight planning and investment in the region. He prioritized Chicago’s freight needs and strategies for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), and he and his staff led planning and grant preparation for Chicago’s massive, successful CREATE rail infrastructure program. Mr. Cempel managed the evaluation of economic impacts of freight inter-modal facilities in Chicago’s southwest suburbs and Virginia on behalf of CenterPoint Properties, and more recently for such facilities in western Nebraska (which led to state grant funding). He also was the Deputy Project Manager for the Indiana DOT Freight and Mobility Study.