Orange County NC Website
Approved 9/18/13 <br />Ted Triebel: I appreciate your excellent presentation. Regarding the economic competitiveness under the Statewide <br />Mobility Formula, I understand they are pushing to make that 15% to 20% instead of 10 %, have you heard that? The <br />Board of Transportation chair wanted to get that 15% to 20% and this has not yet been approved on Jones Street. <br />Bret Martin: I didn't know that. <br />Paul Guthrie: It occurs to me that since so many of the projects will require federal involvement and a fairly <br />significant financial investment, has anyone determined if this will pass the environmental impact test? <br />Bret Martin: The NEPA process is project level. One of the things I was concerned about was that the original <br />proposal was to do 40/40/20 instead of 40/40/30, and I stated I don't think it is legally possible to do that under <br />federal laws governing what could be done with the portions provided to the states from the federal highway trust <br />fund. That was changed at the division level because a large part of the money they get from the federal government <br />must be divided up by population. They changed it from 40/40/20 to 40/30/30. 1 don't know how the NEPA process <br />would impact any of this. <br />Paul Guthrie: Obviously on a project by project basis. <br />Bret Martin: Part of the NEPA process requires for a need and purpose to be established for each project and there <br />has to be a case made before you can use federal money. <br />Paul Guthrie: I have a map produced on the daily traffic volumes of US interstate highway systems across the United <br />States and the highest travel routes that I would like to share. 1 -40/85 from Durham to Winston -Salem is one of the <br />highest peak highway interstate traffic problems in the country from the standpoint of this map. I don't think we are <br />dividing up the money on this formula with that in mind. <br />Jeff Miles: How often are the division rank and the MPO /RPO that different? <br />Bret Martin: Every MPO /RPO has an internal ranking process. Typically, they have tried to make their scoring <br />methodology similar to that of the state because they don't want to have criterion that works against the state. The <br />division rank is the same criteria as what you see here. (Continued presentation). <br />Jeff Charles: DOT controls 75% and the division rank of 25 %. The MPO /RPO had 35% before and now it has only <br />25 %. From my perspective we have less input under the new system. <br />Bret Martin: The division ranking criteria can change. Regions and divisions can devise their own methods. <br />Jeff Charles: How do we get our division to do this? <br />Bret Martin: We need to get all the MPOs and RPOs in our division to agree to it. You can adopt a variation of <br />scoring factors. <br />Abigail Pittman: Do we have to wait until 2015? <br />Jeff Charles: Because we didn't do it soon enough we have to wait until 2015. <br />Paul Guthrie: We are not be able to change it now but if we wish to get it changed and make an argument at that <br />time that these are the factors we should be using to score the projects we should be funding and be loud enough, it <br />might be effective. <br />Bret Martin: Scoring criteria have to be approved by the Board of Transportation. Part of the reason they set a <br />deadline is because they tried to say these are the rules, no more changing. (Continued presentation). <br />Jeff Miles: Does the `no right -of -way rule only apply to projects that cost less than a million dollars or for all bike and <br />ped projects? <br />