Title
Alternate Scoring Criteria and SPOT 6 Update (10 minutes)
Anne Phillips, LPA Staff
Narrative
According to the Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) law, alternate scoring criteria can be used for highway projects for SPOT 6.0 if there is concurrence among Divisions and their respective MPOs and RPOs. Division 5 and its MPOs and RPOs support moving all points from the Freight and Accessibility and Connectivity categories to the Safety category. Divisions 7 and 8 and their respective MPOs and RPOs are currently discussing whether to move all points from the Freight category to the Safety category. MPO staff supports the proposed alternate criteria for all three Divisions.
While NCDOT Regions can also make changes to the scoring criteria for Regional Impact projects, there is not yet concurrence for Region C (includes Divisions 5). Regions D and E have not discussed alternate scoring criteria since there is not yet concurrence at the Division level.
Area specific weights are due to the SPOT office on October 23, 2020.
SPOT 6 Update
The P6 Ongoing Prioritization Committee met in September to discuss NCDOT’s current revenue and financial situation as well as its potential impacts on the P6 scoring schedule and funding results. The committee received a presentation from the STIP unit on the current reprogramming effort and potential P6 funding availability amounts. The committee has made a recommendation to proceed with quantitative scoring for P6 projects since this is mainly an internal NCDOT process that may also benefit local decision makers. The P6 process will pause after quantitative scoring is completed and before Local Input Point assignment windows, and the Ongoing Committee will meet again to reassess the financial situation and determine next steps for P6.
Recommendation
TC Action: Recommended that the MPO Board endorse the proposed alternate criteria for highway projects in SPOT 6.0.
Board Action: Endorse the proposed alternate criteria for highway projects in SPOT 6.0.