The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) is seeking comment on draft Swap Recommendations within the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The STIP is a ten-year funding document that contains transportation projects across the state of North Carolina and DCHC MPO projects are a subset of these projects, which the MPO maintains in its own Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), who oversee the STIP, have determined projects that are eligible to be swapped in the STIP and those can be found in the 2024-2033 Draft STIP.
Project swapping is an atypical situation that was the result of fiscal constraints over the course of the COVID pandemic. The state typically goes through a strategic prioritization process (SPOT) leading up to the adoption of a new STIP, where projects are scored, reprioritized, and can receive funding. The most recent cycle, which was being processed in advance of the FY2024-2033 STIP, was canceled due to funding issues; projects already in the STIP were then reprioritized based on existing funding, which resulted in projects being removed from the STIP.
Given the nature of this reprogramming, and the displacement of projects due to budget constraints, MPOs could now request to "swap" STIP projects if they met certain criteria. This would allow projects to either be moved up within the STIP, or for projects that were not included in the ten-year STIP to be moved into the STIP, provided that other projects were therefore removed.
The MPO has provided a list of six projects to be swapped in while three projects would be swapped out. Recommendations are based on existing local and regional priorities. More information on the DCHC MPO TIP can be found here and details on the draft recommended swaps can be found here. For project specific information, visit our project database.
Public comments can be submitted via our online survey through Tuesday, March 7, or submitted to Kelly Fomenko at (919) 560-4366, ext. 36498, or Kelly.Fomenko@dchcmpo.org.