City wants projects included in state’s transportation plan

Published 11:49 am Monday, March 21, 2016

Washington officials plan to add airport-related projects to the city’s list of prioritized items the city wants funded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation during the next several years.

The list will be forwarded to the Mid-East Regional Planning Organization, which helps area local governments with planning issues such as transportation. Eventually, the list will make its way to NCDOT to be considered for inclusion in the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan.

During the City Council’s March 14 meeting, John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources, reviewed the proposed list with the mayor and council members. That list includes the following proposed projects (in descending priority): building a U.S. Highway 264 bypass around Washington, improving Carolina Avenue (U.S. Highway 17 business), improving 15^th Street from Carolina Avenue to Brown Street, improvements to Fifth Street and John Small Avenue and improving Highland Drive to Slatestone Road and continuing on Slatestone Road to Washington High School.

The city has been supporting those proposed projects for several years. “As you see, those were the top five projects we had in 2014,” Rodman told the council.

Mayor Mac Hodges asked about the status of the 15^th Street project, which has been modified several times in recent years. Rodman said that project is included in the state’s TIP and scheduled for construction in 2019.

Councilman Doug Mercer said its his understanding that if the city does not include airport projects on its list of transportation needs those project will not be including in the TIP and funded. Mercer said thought a sewer-line project at the airport and construction of a maintenance facility at the airport had been included on the city’s list. “If those projects are not on this list, they won’t get considered at all,” Mercer said.

“We certainly need to get them on there. And that’s a great point. Not only are we looking at motorized transportation needs, we’re also trying to address pedestrian needs — sidewalks, walking trails, bike trails can also be addressed in that transportation plan,” Rodman said, adding he was not familiar with the proposed airport projects.

Rodman said he would make sure the airport projects are added to the list being submitted for inclusion in the state’s TIP.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.