2018 GDOT Annual Report

M E T R O P O L I T A N P L A N N I N G O R G A N I Z A T I O N

Looking to 2020: Future Funding Priorities

Under the state Strategic Investments Act, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) administers a needs-based multimodal prioritization process to identify, rank, and select transportation projects for implementation using state and federal funding. The process ranks projects on needs-based criteria such as congestion, safety, and freight, as well as input points allocated by the local municipal or rural planning organization and the NCDOT Division Ofce. The process is modifed for each Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) based on a review of performance, the availability of new data, and refnements in the ways certain criteria are measured, scored, and weighted. The current process is known as Prioritization 5.0 (P5.0), since the current TIP cycle marks the ffth time it has been used. One of the most important responsibilities of the Greensboro Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), stafed by the Greensboro Department of Transportation (GDOT), is its role in identifying, prioritizing, and securing funding for area transportation priorities under this process. This involves making tough choices on which projects to submit for a limited number of slots for evaluation and how to allocate its very limited supply of local input points. Staf continues to think creatively in an efort to identify additional needed projects and on how to break related projects into phases. This includes sorting through the data, coordinating with other departments and stakeholder groups, and listening to the community. Staf also works very hard at projecting potential results, identifying which projects are most competitive, and ensuring that NCDOT tallies its scores correctly for MPO area projects. The MPO submitted its project list to NCDOT in September 2017 for the P5.0 quantitative analysis after public review and approval by the MPO’s Transportation Advisory Committee. NCDOT released the results of the analysis in April 2018 for all projects submitted from across the state. This list refected needs-based quantitative scores, prior to the application of local input

points by the MPOs, RPOs, and NCDOT Division Ofces. Draft Statewide funding results were also announced at that time, since local input points are not assigned at the statewide level. Draft regional and division needs funding decisions will be announced by the end of 2018 once the local input points assignments are completed. This prioritization cycle will conclude with the approval of the FY 2020-2029 Transportation Improvement Program in summer 2019. State Completing Key Projects, More Beginning Soon The Greensboro Urban Loop has been decades in the making. By all accounts, this $1 billion-plus investment is transformative – not just for Greensboro, but also for the larger regional economy. Now, after years of planning and eforts to prioritize and fund construction, completion of the project is in sight. In late 2017, NCDOT began construction of the Battleground Avenue to Lawndale Avenue section. In early 2018, the department opened the Urban Loop between Bryan Boulevard and Battleground Avenue. It also recently began construction of the last remaining section of the loop between Lawndale Avenue and US 29. NCDOT also opened a new section of I-73 to trafc in 2017. This freeway connects US 220 out of Rockingham County to NC 68, Piedmont Triad International Airport, and the Greensboro Urban Loop, I-840. The project included a new taxiway bridge, a key part of the regional economic development strategy enabling substantial expansion of industries on land owned by PTI on the other side of I-73. NCDOT will also complete the widening of US 220 from Horse Pen Creek Road to Rockingham County in 2018. NCDOT has also accelerated the full reconstruction of the US 29 and Reedy Fork Parkway Interchange (R-4707) from 2024 to 2020, eliminating the need to replace the existing bridge.

PAGE 5