WILMINGTON—Traffic concerns are nothing new in Wilmington, as more development takes hold, and more homes and apartments are developed, additional traffic will follow. For some, the solution is simple, stop development until road improvements are made, but that is not how things work, NCDOT Spokesman Brian Rick said.
READ MORE: What goes into understanding traffic in Wilmington?
In a perfect world infrastructure would be in place before traffic congestion manifested, but the reality of the situation is different, Rick said. Essentially, without traffic there would be no evidence that improvements were needed.
In North Carolina the state is largely in charge of infrastructure improvements to public roadways, but local entities are typically the first to notify NCDOT of local area needs, Rick said.
Once the NCDOT is made aware of local needs, it prioritizes the projects based on needs and feasibility of completing a project.
Simply knowing there is a need for infrastructure improvements does not mean that the improvements will happen. As an example, Gordon Road in New Hanover County is a two-lane road that will soon be welcoming two new residential developments. That will add hundreds of cars to the road but plans to widen the road have been put on hold.
Infrastructure improvements also take time, in fact projects can take years to go from concept to concrete, Rick said.
At the state level, getting a road built is a six-step process:
- Planning
- Programming
- Project development and environmental analysis
- Design
- Property Acquisition
- Construction
Local input as a guide
The first step of planning comes from local entities like the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the City of Wilmington, and New Hanover County identifying needs for the future. These needs are put into a comprehensive plan that outline transportation priorities for an extended period of time.
According to Executive Director of the WMPO Mike Kozlosky, “The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is a federally mandated organization for the Wilmington Urban Area. We partner with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to prepare a comprehensive transportation plan. This plan typically has a 30-year planning horizon and is not fiscally constrained.”
Simply knowing there is a need for infrastructure improvements does not mean that the improvements will happen
Once the plan is adopted, NCDOT analyzes the needs of a region and prioritizes different projects.
“The North Carolina Department of Transportation and Wilmington Urban Area MPO plan and program projects in the State/MPO Transportation Improvement Programs. The MPO and NCDOT must mutually adopt these programs,” Kozlosky said. “The North Carolina Department of Transportation and its partners utilize a prioritization process to submit projects and then prioritize those projects for funding.”
Once a project is selected as a priority project, it can be placed on the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) which is updated every two years and consists of 750 highway projects across the state.
“This STIP/MPO TIP is updated every two years and we are currently utilizing Prioritization 5.0 to submit and prioritize projects for the Draft 2020-2029 STIP/MPO Transportation Improvement Programs” Kozlosky said. “Under this prioritization process, projects are scored at the Statewide Mobility, Regional Impact and Division Needs tiers.”
After a project is given the green light, acquiring funding for the build out is still a process. Property acquisition is also necessary which can take a significant amount of time if eminent domain is required.
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