The board of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization will hear updates from regional transportation officials about possible changes to area projects, the organization's leader said Monday.

The board is slated to hear from Chad Kimes, N.C. Department of Transportation Division 3 engineer, about upcoming changes to the state's 10-year programming of funded projects, said Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) Executive Director Mike Kozlosky.

He said he did not have any details about the changes to share as of Monday.

Regional changes are on the way to the state's overall State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, which is a capital improvement outline that lays out scheduling and funding for construction projects across the state over a minimum four-year period as required by federal law, the agenda stated.

The state's current STIP covers a 10-year period, "with the first six years (2020-2025 in this version) referred to as the delivery STIP and the latter four years (2026-2029 in this version) as the developmental STIP," stated WMPO documents.

Kozlosky said the department is facing a variety of challenges to its current program as the prices for right-of-way acquisition, or buying land needed for roadway construction, as well as the costs of construction are increasing. 

"There are programming issues, or challenges, over the next several years. And so those challenges are going to need to be addressed in some form or fashion," he said. "There's not going to be specific recommendations on how to address those challenges. But the purpose of this briefing is to update the board on these challenges and the expectation is there'll be additional work over the next several months to try to address challenges that we see."

The WMPO board in 2020 identified the top five funded transportation priorities for the region that are in the current NCDOT capital plan. Those projects include the Hampstead Bypass, the Independence Boulevard extension, and improvements to three major interchanges: at Market Street and Eastwood Road; Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Kerr Avenue; and Military Cutoff and Eastwood Road, he said.

There is also one unfunded priority, which is not in the STIP plan, for the regional priority list – the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement, he said. At the last board meeting in July, the WMPO board voted down a private proposal to explore a toll bridge to replace the aging bridge.

"We did see a slip on project let dates," Kozlosky said of previous changes to the STIP plan. "But now we are seeing these additional programing challenges that the department has identified and we are going to have to identify some solutions to address them."

Following Wednesday's presentation, a "collaborative process" to address upcoming issues is expected to take place, he said.

Also on the board's agenda is a strategic planning exercise for the WMPO board's long-range transportation plan, Cape Fear Moving Forward 2045, when the WMPO will work on developing a strategic business plan for the next five years, Kozlosky said.

The WMPO board is scheduled to meet in the sixth-floor conference room at 320 Chestnut St. in downtown Wilmington. Due to COVID-19, the meeting is being conducted remotely. 

The meeting can be viewed on Zoom by clicking here or dial in for a live audio at 646-558-8656 and enter meeting ID No. 917 8988 5982 and passcode 464328.