The Technical Coordinating Committee (TCC) of the Sandhills Metropolitan Planning Organization (SMPO) reviewed travel demand model updates at its May 7 agenda meeting.
The TCC SMPO encourages regional local governments to cooperate on a multimodal transportation system plan that addresses residents’ mobility needs and boosts the regional economy.
Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) update on travel demand model projections revealed two colossal tasks coming up over the summer. One is to project data results into 2055.
The travel demand model maps follow census boundaries.
The second task is to confer with each municipality on the data: households, employees, traffic, hospitals, schools, businesses, and hotel units.
A consultant is currently calculating the data, such as how many vehicles are in each municipality’s peak-hour traffic. Some data is purchased, such as employee numbers, and it is not perfect.
“We might do it as one big group,” Scott Walston, of SMPO, said, about working with all municipalities simultaneously to have a solid MTP. “The county’s land use plan is due in November, and we can’t wait … Could use all our funding. Need it by December of 2026 … and we need the county’s participation.”
The data spreadsheet sent to stakeholders will include a list of zones with existing and missing hotels, households, schools and businesses. The goal for completion of the MTP is September 2026.
During the Carbon Reduction Program (CRP) Projects Submission discussion, the board moved to review submitted project ideas and return next month for a vote.
Pinebluff needs a Wellspring Walking Trail bridge off U.S. Highway 1 over a creek converted to an All-Terrain Vehicle accessible bridge for EMS purposes.
Other proposed projects include an Airport Road extension in Pinehurst and an extension of Niagara-Carthage Road in Whispering Pines.
CRP funds cover projects designed to reduce transportation carbon dioxide emissions from on-road highway use.
During the February SMPO meeting, NCDOT Engineer Mark Eatman reviewed CRP funds. Eatman said he was not confident the funding program would continue past 2026, and that a project needs to be implemented by May 2026, with a minimum cost of $120,000.
SMPO officials speculated that their funds could be redacted, although there had been no evidence of such a measure and wanted to expedite a date of May 2025 as a deadline for implementation of a CRP-funded project.
With Moore County’s population growing faster than the state, the awarded CRP funds seem insufficient. The state receives about $34 million, and SMPO will receive about $325,581 to use at their discretion.
During the director’s report, attendees learned New Bern had recently conducted their first transit study and offered to help with theirs.
“We will need to decide which projects to submit, not only highway, but other modes of transportation, like railroad [railroad separations in Cameron, Vass, and Carthage],” Whitaker said.
Learn more about TCC at their website.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel journalist Stephanie M. Sellers. Stephanie is also an English instructor at Central Carolina Community College. She is the author of When the Yellow Slugs Sing, Sky’s River Stone, GUTTERSNIPE: Shakespearean English Stage Play with Translation, Amagi, Amagi Study Guide, and EZ Essay Study Guide for Holocaust: A History.
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