We will hold the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget hearing at next week's May 20th meeting, seven o'clock here in the council chambers. There's certainly be ample opportunity for the town council to ask questions about the budget, the workshop, which is going to be held on May 22nd, Thursday evening six PM at a law enforcement center. Following budget presentation tonight, we're going to transition into the workshop around transportation issues. With that said, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Harrington. Good evening, sir. Thank you, Mayor and members of council. Great to be with you.
this evening. I am honored to share my recommended fiscal year 2025-26 budget with you this evening,
but before I begin, I would like to share a couple quick comments related to yesterday's
exciting announcement by Genentech to build a life sciences manufacturing site here in Holly Springs.
As mentioned yesterday, Genentech a widely considered the founder of the biotechnology industry
announced a $700 million investment in creation of 400 jobs in Holly Springs with a very competitive
average salary of $119,000. I thought it might be helpful to share why an announcement like this
is important for Holly Springs and how it benefits our community. First, it expands job opportunities
for residents both current and those who are in future generations, those who might be in school now,
So that they can have an opportunity for a job in the town that they grew up in.
Two, it continues diversification of local property tax base.
As commercial tax base grows, this leads to less reliance on residential property taxes
in the future to fund municipal services and gives us the best opportunity to have one of
the lowest and most stable property tax rates in White County.
For those of you wondering when our community will really start to see and feel the financial
benefits from these investments, it has already begun in some areas, in some ways, as evidenced
by the lower property tax rate increase required last year to support the $100 million park spawn.
That went from originally projected a five-set property tax rate increase down to a three-cent
property tax rate increase as a result of that type of economic development.
Further tax-based diversification will be reflected in the next weight-counting
property revaluation in 2027. The impact to residential property tax rates
won't happen overnight because these companies are still building out, but it is
already showing a positive impact.
Three, it expands small business opportunities.
Companies like Genentech need to procure the products and services of our local business
community, which will help support the small business ecosystem in Holy Springs and
again help bolster job creation and local business growth.
For, with the towns up to 13.7 million economic incentive grant, it is important to note
that this future grant back to the company is directly reliant upon Genentech's performance
and investment level in Holly Springs and is only reimbursed for a limited number of years
using only Genentech property taxes. No other property taxes from any resident or business
will be used to fund back those grants back to the company. Five, and finally, companies
like AMGEN, FUJIFILM dials and biotechnologies, CSL Securis, AMGENentech are investing significantly
to our community. They are supporting our local schools with new STEM-based learning in
science, technology, engineering, and math. And all are funding new road improvements.
Some of these improvements have started and more will start soon. So, congratulations
Mayor and Council, a great win for our community, and we look forward to welcoming Genentech to
our community over the next several years. So, thank you for the opportunity just to share
that little bit of information, and with that I'll go ahead and transition into the budget
recommendation.
This is the manager's recommended budget, but I think it's fair to say that
this budget really reflects a lot of teamwork, and that teamwork starts with you, the mayor
and council, and it also incorporates the wonderful staff that we have in the audience this evening
to help support this effort. So it's a big reflection of a lot of components.
The budget also reflects, I think, three important elements.
First, obviously, the budget recommendation includes current, new recommended expenditures
to carry out your priorities, but it also reflects and incorporates past decisions and direction
on investments and policy and policies.
and also it reflects future intentions for addressing service desires and council and resident priorities.
The other thing too, Mayor and Council, just before I get started, a couple logistical items.
I think a little bit earlier this evening you received an email from Cory Peterson,
our Budget Innovation and Strategy Director with some of the material that you have before you there tonight.
It includes a public release, an information graphic, the budget book, the budget message,
the presentation, personnel policy updates, and the fiscal policy update.
All of these items are also on our website, and certainly recommend and encourage our community
to check out these documents.
So Mayor and Council last year, I used the term a winning strategy to describe the budget's
overall mindset to accurately describe the level of service excellence expected by this
governing body and our community. This effort reflects one resident feedback through the
community survey that we recently had in 2003, which in turn then helps inform your strategic
plan, which serves as our roadmap for the direction of our organization. In three, this
This winning strategy includes the amazing staff who care greatly about our community and
the delivery of high quality services.
Our winning strategy is making headlines and achievements for our community, from
from visioning how Ting Park area can potentially build out.
To job growth, to new amenities coming to town, as well as how our businesses are impacting
the global world. Certainly, there certainly is a lot of positive momentum going on in
Holy Springs.
And there's a lot to be proud of. Here recently, you heard us announce
earlier this in the late winter that we have been upgraded by Moody's Rating Service to
be a AAA rated financial, our finance is rated AAA.
That, along with S&P global ratings, also rating us as AAA means that when this municipality
goes to the debt market to sell debt to fund new infrastructure, we can acquire that
at the lowest possible cost, which saves our taxpayers money.
Also, we are an ISO Class I Fire Department.
ISO, meaning the insurance services organization, which is a group that rates the ability
for communities to respond to protecting fire or property from fire damage.
This is a reflection of the quality of our fire department as well as our utility system
and its capacity and ability to fight fires.
Also our police department is consistently ranked as one of the safest communities in
North Carolina, a tremendous achievement that we have had for many years.
And finally, as part of the citizen satisfaction survey that we have done every two years,
years, in the most recent one, the company that we use, they do surveys all across the
entire United States. And in that, we were recognized as the top 10% of communities
nationwide in the quality of the services that we provide, in the level of customer service
shown to our residents, and in the value that residents feel for the taxes and fees that
that they pay to the town.
The town, as you know, continues to grow.
We are currently somewhere between 51 and 54,000.
We'll have a new update here in July.
But we know that we are likely to retain 65,000 residents
likely by 2030.
I think it's also important to note some of the demand
on our staff that has occurred over the past five years.
We've had about a 24% increase in population.
We've had an increase in number of street miles
that our staff has to maintain, increasing in the number of water customers, water
main footage that has to be maintained across the town, as well as increase in a
consumer price index that all of us have felt. In that same five years full-time
positions have increased 24%. And the general fund operational expenses have
increased by just 16%. I think it's really important. But within that public
Public safety has received the most amount of those investments over the past five years
at 47% which should come as no surprise to the mayor and council based off your prior
investments in our public safety. Public works is next at 19% and then all of the departments
average out at 5% of operating expense growth over that five year period. I believe these
data points reflect an organization that has become more efficient in its delivery of services
and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
So some of the key recommended budget takeaways.
First, a high level of investing
in transportation infrastructure,
primarily around the Holly Springs Road corridor,
as well as the Avent Ferry Road corridor,
which you'll hear more about here just shortly.
The budget recommends funding design
for in a fun and inviting transformational festival
street in the downtown area.
It also recommends implementing a new microtransit mobility service by early
2026. As you know we're advancing Eagles landing
park to construction.
We're also, I'm also recommending investing
in employees to help improve our market competitiveness for recruitment
and retention of talented workforce. And it invests in
responsible water and wastewater system investments to protect
are resisting infrastructure and secure future water and sewer capacity needs.
So, let's look at these elements a little bit more.
The town manager's $117 million proposed budget is a direct reflection of top council's
strategic priorities and what residents said they wanted in the most recent community survey.
Progress made on managing traffic and growth while adding parks,
greenways, downtown improvements and more.
The
Holly Springs Roadwinding Project to ease crosstown traffic is divided into three sections
East, Central and West. Construction on the East portion is on schedule. The bridge over Middle
Creek is expected to be done by this summer and then construction begins on a roundabout to make
a safer entrance and exit to the schools on this busy road. The proposed budget continues to fund
the roadway makeover through the central portion from Flintpoint Lane to Main Street with
construction starting next year and it also includes funding to design the
widening of the West segment from Main Street to NC 55. Also, NC DOT has given
the town approval to start the design process in 2025 for road widening and
pedestrian safety improvements on Avent Ferry Road between Ralph Stevens Road and
Cass Hold Road. Construction is expected to begin in 2029. Voter approved bond-funded
right turn lanes at both NC 55 and Main Street are also getting underway to reduce backups
at busy times of the day.
The proposed budget also introduces a new transportation concept to Holly Springs, micro transit.
Starting next year, residents will be able to book rides at a low cost to give them another
easy option to get where they want to go without a car.
And the town received a grant to cover half the operating costs, saving taxpayers money.
Excitement is building as the first shovels just hit the ground to begin construction on
Eagle's Landing Park.
This voter-approved bond project will give residents a 56-acre park and a state-of-the-art
recreation center along Cass Hold Road, bringing people together to play in Holly Springs.
More greenways and sidewalks are also enhancing walkability.
The just-completed beautiful Middle Creek Greenway provides many neighborhoods and enhanced
stability to walk all the way to the downtown. Additional residents will also be able to walk
or bike downtown when construction begins later this year on Utley Creek Greenway Phase 2,
which is being partially funded by a grant. And construction is starting soon on an important
sidewalk connection, which will allow walkability between the hospital and downtown Holly Springs.
Downtown Holly Springs is the heart of the community, and the town is moving forward with
investments to add to the ambiance there. Designed for a festival street along
Avent Ferry Road behind Town Hall is included in the budget. Plus,
enhancements like public art, along with new holiday decorations are coming soon.
Holly Springs continues to be one of the safest towns in North Carolina.
This year we celebrated the grand opening of Fire Station 3 to handle growth in the
Northwest part of Holly Springs. This year's budget recommends acquiring land and
beginning design on the new Fire Station 4. This station will be located in the
northeast area of town and will further improve response times to residents and
businesses.
The greatest asset the town has are its employees and municipal
services are delivered through people. Like all business owners know it's very
important to retain and attract quality talent in this competitive region. The
recommended budget contains important investments in employee compensation to
to ensure residents get the best service from top quality professionals in every department.
Now to the numbers.
The property tax rate remains unchanged in the proposed budget, keeping Holly Springs
as one of the lowest property tax rates of the 13 local governments in the county.
Water and sewer rates are recommended to increase by $12.98 per month for a typical residential
home.
As the town continues its important projects to provide clean drinking water to residents
and a safe and efficient sewer system.
Also, there is a modest recommended increase for trash and recycling vendor GFL, with residents
paying 59 cents more per month.
The yard waste and storm water management fees remain unchanged.
Finally, Holly Springs is about to celebrate a big milestone starting in July of 2026.
The proposed budget contains funding for the beginning of the Sesquicentennial celebration,
when the town turns 150 years old.
This year-long birthday bash will celebrate the past, present, and future of Hollys Springs,
building on the town's success for the next 150 years.
It's an exciting time in Hollys Springs, and the fiscal year 2526 budget
is focused on executing of the council's strategic priorities and top desires
from our residents while keeping that small town charm that makes Holly Springs so special.
Mayor Council, we have a tremendous video production team and I want to thank Cassie Haag for the narration on that.
I'm not taking the video so it was a great job. Thank you very much.
So now I'd like to share a few more details about the projected revenues and expenditure highlights.
For next fiscal year, the budget totals 117.7 million.
that's comprised of the general fund of approximately 65 million and that the
general fund includes most of the core basic services that residents have come
to know and need like police, fire, transportation, and solid waste collection.
It also includes around 26 million for the utility fund. This is for water and
sewer. General fund debt service had approximately 17.7 million which accounts for
the investments in long-term community assets, a stormwater management, and as well a special
revenue fund which accounts for unique revenues that are restricted by use, for example, the state-shared
gas tax revenues that we use to augment or help support our road maintenance. It's also important
to note that each one of these areas essentially has to operate like its own checkbook with its
own set of expenses and its own set of revenues that are managed independently from the various
components.
When you look at general fund revenues, approximately 70 percent are comprised
from two sources, property tax and sales tax. This budget recommends no property tax rate
change. And we are seeing continued strong property tax based growth, particularly from
industry, commercial and residential. But we are seeing some slowing in the sales tax
growth. And this budget reflects that. I'll speak on this more in just a second. And there
There is some economic uncertainty as we look ahead in planning our revenues.
You may recall that sales tax revenue is highly sensitive to economic conditions and
influences.
Over the past decade, sales tax has been one of our fastest growing revenues.
In fact, on average or the past decade, sales tax has increased on average 12% each year.
When you look at this chart in front of you, in particular, I'll denote fiscal years
21, 22, and 23, and you notice some pretty significant jump-ups in that time period.
That's attributable to four components.
One, a change in purchasing habits during COVID.
Two, federal stimulus money, that was making its way into the national economy.
3 inflation and 4 population growth. Based on analysis of the current fiscal year sales
tax collections and the likelihood for some slowing or very slow to no growth in sales
taxes over the next fiscal year, I'm recommending budgeting sales tax flat and 0% growth.
The property tax rate recommendation, as I said, no change and maintains your 34.35 cents
evaluation or evaluate a sense per $100 valuation and when you break this out just a little
bit more you recall that by budget policy you split out into two components the property
taxes that you receive.
One component, 21.69 cents goes to the general fund to support the operations there and
then a little over 12 cents is dedicated to your capital program which you have a very strong
and aggressive capital program, and this portion of the property tax rate funds those long-term large-scale investments.
Holley Springs would remain one of the lowest property tax rates among all 13 local governments in
Wake County with this budget recommendation.
In this particular chart, you see the municipal average, and we have also included the fiscal year 26
recommended changes that we know so far from other managers who have given their budget recommendations.
issues. It's not a guarantee whether or not their councils will adopt these rates but
this is what has been recommended. There are three of those. You see Kerry, Apex and a
small component with Wake County related to the library bonds that were passed this past
year. With this, you see here, Holly Springs would go to the second lowest property tax rate
in Wake County.
Next I'd like to provide a summary of general fund expenditures.
And when
over 4 million is related to new expenditures in the general fund, with most of those
going toward organizational excellence, and then you see the other three categories.
But let's look at these from a little bit different view.
within these 4 strategic-
Already areas, the 4 million is parsed out as you see here on the right side. Around market-based
compensation adjustments, again, to help us with recruitment and retention of towns and individuals,
a pay-for-performance program for our employees based on merit, base budget expenditures
that reflect basically keeping the lights on and other types of basic service growth that's
related to basic service growth related to growth in population, also about 500,000
in new expansionary type of investments in the general fund, some benefits and other
personnel change adjustments there, and then new positions totaling a little bit over
200,000.
Now, I'd like to transition to talk a little bit more specifically about key initiatives
in the recommended budget, and it's probably fair to say let me start with the one that's
probably most on your mind and perhaps the minds of our residents and that's transportation.
These were mentioned in the video so I will just highlight a few of the key components
just to drive home some key points.
As you know, the investments on Holly Springs Road Quarter are a tremendous level investment
by the state of North Carolina as well as our local tax payers.
This will be a four lane median divided connection all the way from NC 55 to the I-540.
NC DOT has completed their component at this stage.
The East component is currently under construction and anticipated to be finalized at the end of this year.
As you heard in the video, the central segment, we are in the process right now of property acquisition and we anticipate going to construction next year.
And then the West segment, you recall that we were fortunate to receive a capital area metropolitan planning organization grant,
which will cover almost all of that particular design for the West segment with a small match on the town side.
that is included in the budget so that we can at least get designed going for that last phase of this really important corridor.
Mayor Counsel, you've also stated that your priority is to complete the Holly Springs Road corridor,
but you have also been very clear in your expectation that we also try to find ways to accelerate and ensure
that the timeline for the completion of even ferry road phase two moves forward.
I want you to tell you that we have done just that and I'm grateful for the partnership
that we have with NC DOT to help make that happen.
Phase one has already been completed from Ralph Stevens Road to NC 55 and phase two would
be from Castle Road to Ralph Stevens Road who would begin design in 2025 and NC DOT would
fund the project and the town would be the administrator for NC DOT to administer and implement
and carry out execution of that project a little bit.
Construction is anticipated to start in 2029
after design and property acquisition.
I think it's also important to say that for the community,
we have heard the community,
and we've heard you, Mayor and Council,
in terms of your concerns around Avan Ferry Road,
and that's in this particular section.
And again, being grateful for the partnership with NCDOT
to move this particular project forward.
One of the key transformational recommendations
In your adopted downtown area plan includes an inviting and fun festival street concept.
This is one of the key components in your downtown area plan.
And it involves, in the upcoming fiscal year, I'm recommending 500,000 to begin design
of that particular festival street to get that work going.
And the concept here is you have a street that can function one as a motorist street like
typically experienced today, but that it also has different types of pedestrian components
that can be more friendly and inviting from a public space standpoint and an inviting
atmosphere for festivals, whether those be on the weekends or maybe even sometimes in
evenings.
And this is a really exciting component of the downtown area plan and thrilled to be able
to recommend that to you here this evening.
Also, Council, you have been working on and reviewing microtransit options since your February
Council retreat. In the spirit of not over complicating things, micro transit is
just that. Public transit on a smaller, more flexible scale designed to better
meet the mobility needs of our residents. The town has received an ongoing
operating grant from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Campo to cover one half of the anticipated operating cost.
Next steps include
public engagement to refine the service design and bidding the service to a private company.
The concept as well includes a Monday through Friday service from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
with fares being zero or nothing for seniors and those who are disabled, a standard fare of two
dollars, and those who live in the extra territorial jurisdiction, the area right outside our
corporate limits, but within our planning jurisdiction, those individuals a $4 ride.
In last week, Mayor and Council, we held a really exciting groundbreaking for Eagles
Landing Park.
It's great to see many of you there, which will be an exceptional 56-acre park, Parks and
Recreation and Medicine on the Cast Holt Road, right across from Holly Springs High School.
I invite residents to follow our progress on this important investment on the Towns
website, which we will update as the project moves forward.
With that, next, I'd like to invite up Corey Peterson, our budget innovation and strategy
director to share a few more specific budget highlights.
Thank you, Mr. Harrington.
Mayor Council, I'm excited to now share a few additional highlights in this year's recommendation.
First up, as we prepare to celebrate the town's 150th anniversary, we are going to try to
I teach 50,000 people how to pronounce sesquids intennial.
Cassie, did I?
There we go.
I've been practicing.
So now the celebration won't begin until 2026, but as you know what they say, you only turn 151.
So we're already getting plans underway, more details of course to come on that.
Next, for public safety investments, this recommendation seeks to maintain our status as one of the safest communities in the state with investments in personal protective equipment.
equipment, and swift water rescue training for our firefighters.
Additionally, the manager is recommending to begin the process for replacing one of
our fire department apparatus.
The current engine does have a few more years of expected operations.
However, lead times for new fire vehicles has grown to 24 to 36 months, necessitating
beginning the replacement process in the next fiscal year.
Lastly, the governing body has made significant investments in the town's asset management and
facility maintenance over the past two years, and this recommendation seeks to build
on that with two new positions, one for public works, one for parks, to enhance our maintenance
capacity as well as additional investments for increased preventative and corrective maintenance
and alignment with the town's asset management plans.
Now this year's recommended budget includes seven new full-time positions, however there's
also a recommendation to reduce four vacant positions for a net total of just three new
positions. For the growth management and economic vitality strategic area, a
development engineering and construction manager is recommended to complete the
restructuring plan for the development services department and improve our ability
to address client issues given the number, scale of both private and public
projects underway. Next, a utility technician is recommended to assist in meeting
state requirements to inspect and maintain the town's over 250 miles of sewer line.
Now moving to organizational excellence, a project that
accountant position is recommended to assist in the accounting, reporting, and debt
management for our over 150 and growing number of capital projects.
It's speaking capital projects, an IT technician for infrastructure is recommended
to help support the growing use of technology to improve automation,
efficiency, and the security of town assets.
To round out organizational excellence, a communication specialist position
that will focus on website content.
Our website is the number one resource used by residents,
and this position will enhance that capability
while also ensuring that the town is meeting
federally mandated ADA compliance standards.
Additionally, this position will be working on the web content
for the upcoming assessment centennial.
Now for vibrant community,
I mentioned before the two maintenance positions
to enhance our asset management
and facility maintenance capabilities,
but I also want to note that town managers
requesting authority to begin recruitment in 2026 for an anticipated fiscal year 27 EGLE's landing park manager
that position would not start until July of 27. Also as previously indicated this budget reduces four vacant positions.
I want to emphasize that these positions are not unneeded. However, in consultation with our operating departments
there were opportunities where we felt these resources could be better served within our budgetary means.
I think it's fair to say some of these positions may be requested back in future years as
we continue to assess operational needs.
Now to continue with our personal investments, this year's recommendation seeks to maintain
Holly Springs as an employer of choice.
A few of the notable investments include pay-for-performance merit-based pay adjustments and the phase-to-implementation
of market-based compensation adjustments.
You may recall last year's Phase I implementation focused on sworn public safety officers while Phase II is for our general government employees.
Next, our Human Resources Department is pleased to offer this year a new health plan option with a health savings account for employees.
This new plan will provide a lower premium cost share for employees and a great new option in particular for those with family members on their health plan.
I am also pleased to share that we are seeing great benefits from the town's participation
and the NC Health Insurance Pool in-ship that is mitigating health insurance increases.
The town is positioned to absorb the 3.7% premium increase, which is notably lower than
many of our surrounding peers.
Lastly, the town is paying for a mandatory increase to the employer contribution to the NC
local government employee retirement system or elders, which is the retirement system
for local government employees in North Carolina.
Now Mayor and Council over the past few years, you've heard from the town manager how
water is the lifeblood for our community.
Council you have made the necessary and bold decisions to secure our water future with
a tri-river water plant in Sanford and major upgrades to our wastewater treatment capacity.
And the investment is large, at close to 500 million over the next five years.
I want to also acknowledge the investment by our utility rate payers as significant as well with a 15% rate increase
Recommended to fund these critical infrastructure projects. This is the projected last year of increases at that level
Plan to meet our affordability models.
Now every year we believe it is important to be transparent and demonstrate the value of providing quality municipal services
By outlining the total fees and taxes experienced by our residents.
The table on this slide is to compare existing residential monthly fees for services to
what is recommended for the upcoming fiscal year.
As you heard in the video earlier, our garbage recycling provider GFL is increasing monthly
rates by about 4%, which results in a fee increase of 42 cents for garbage and 17 cents for
recycling for a total of 59 cents.
The town's yard waste and storm water services have no change, and for the typical residential
user we will see an increase on their water and wastewater bill by about $12.98.
This brings the total monthly increase, the $13.57 or about $0.45 a day.
Now let's take some of those same user fees but add property taxes to get a full picture
of what a typical resident will pay over a year and a month or what the daily cost will be.
This chart shows Holly Springs property taxes for homes assessed at $300,000,
about 555,000 and 800,000. I want to highlight that we are talking about assessed values from
Waite County as those can differ from say market or the sale value of a home. The middle
number of about 555,000 is the median assessed value here in Holly Springs. So in other words,
50% of Holly Springs homes have been assessed lower and 50% higher. So if you look at this median
in home valuation, we see a resident wouldn't participate paying about $1,906 in property
taxes to Holly Springs. I do want to note that this is only the property tax for Holly
Springs and that way counties property tax rate is of course subject to change in approval
from their governing body. If we add the user fees covered in the previous slide, garbage,
recycling, yard waste, water, wastewater, and storm water, this comes out to an annual cost
a $3,425 or $285 a month. Now, I think it's the daily number that tells the
story of the value our taxpayers are receiving. Now, if you know our town
manager, you know his favorite unit of measurement for cost is Chick-fil-A. So
earlier today, I pulled up my Chick-fil-A app on my phone and for the record, this
is not a formal endorsement, but this is a true story. I looked up at the cost
was to order the general chicken sandwich combo, their number one, because $9.58.
Now I love me some waffle fries just as much as the next guy, but for less than a chick
filet meal, we will provide roads, sidewalks, greenways, parks, a world-class police and
fire service, garbage and recycling pickup, yard waste pickup, clean drinking water delivered
right to your home and not only that but when you're done with it we'll take it back and treat it.
So as not just an employee of Holly Springs but a resident, I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
And with that I'll hand it back over to our town manager Mr. Harrington.
Thank you Mr. Peter-Zone and I guess it has been outlined for where I'm supposed to eat dinner.
Thank you for that. Mayor council, just to round out the presentation here this evening. I hope that this budget recommendation builds on what is expected and desired in your strategic plan to ensure a winning strategy for our community.
I think, and hopefully you also see that it provides a balanced approach in advancing every area of your strategic plan. It maintains being one of the safest communities in North Carolina.
It provides new investments in transportation, helping people to get around town easier.
It provides investments in staff to ensure that we have a high performing organization,
and it invests in our public spaces.
I know Mayor and Council, it's hard to cover everything about the budget in one 35-40-minute
session.
And I do look forward to talking about these elements as well as other elements that we
highlight at your May 22nd budget workshop.
Now look forward to sharing other elements
of the budget with you at that time.
As always, I want to extend a heartfelt thanks
to everybody who's involved in the budget development process
and of course, Mayor and Council, your leadership
and your clarity in direction is greatly valued.
I thank you for your time and your investment
in what you do in serving our community
and providing the type of direction
that helps me understand what's most important
and to help them reflect that in the budget.
So thank you very much for that engagement
and that help with guidance and leadership.
I also think it's fair to say,
and Mary Council, I thank you realizes too,
that we have a senior leadership team
that is second to none.
It is an outstanding team.
It's a team that I'm honored every day to work with,
and I'm grateful for all the work that they have done
with this budget to help pull it together,
along with our budget staff,
who also play a very important role.
Our assistant manager, Scott Chase,
and Daniel Weeks, do a great job helping to guide to the budget process and keeping me
straight when I need to be kept straight and helping me out.
Thank you for their help and guidance and support.
I want to thank our human resources director Sabrina McDonnell, who's been extremely helpful with all of our
personnel related policy and other adjustments in the budget.
Our communications and marketing team, Cassie Hack, Chris Bell, Tamer Ward and Kelly Miller,
who do such a great job.
We have a really high-performing team here on our communication side, and I think you saw it in the citizen satisfaction survey from the most recent one back in 2023.
And then last but certainly not least, our budget and our finance team.
Thank you to Tina Strup, our finance director, for her great leadership and support in this budget process.
And we have a truly amazing budget team.
I think one of the best in the state, if not the best, with Mary Best or our senior budget and management analyst.
and Cory Peterson, a very talented budget innovation
and strategic planning director.
A great team and I'm really honored
to be part of this mayor and council.
With that, as we look ahead to the next steps,
on May 20th at 7 p.m. we'll have the budget public hearing
and that will be here in the council chambers.
Two days later, on Thursday, May 22nd at 6 p.m.
in the law enforcement center,
we will have the budget workshop,
which is a chance for us to answer any questions,
to dive in more to elements of the budget,
help answer your questions provide additional clarity and to help in to work to ensure that the
budget meets your expectations. And then on June 3rd, Mayor and Council, if you are ready,
we have a scheduled budget adoption for that evening at 7 p.m. again that will be here in the council
chambers. So with that, thank you and Mayor I will turn it back to you and we will take just a
couple of moments here to transition to the workshop here on transportation that will follow this
presentation thank you let's you set up and
Mary council I'll do a just a quick
introduction here to Becca Gales I think if we're ready if everybody else is ready to be sure
I'm really honored tonight that we have Becca Gales with us Becca is the new division can I
still say new I guess as of January the new division five NCDOT division five engineer which
which oversees all of the maintenance and capital for the division that you'll see here
in just a little bit, the scope and scale of what Becca is responsible for is really
quite immense. I'm also really, well, let me add to, Becca has her engineering degree
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, and most recently, prior to this role,
she was the Director of Aviation for NCDOT.
I want to say that, at least in my time, I am some of the most, I would say, encouraged
by Becca and her leadership and in the span of time that I've gotten to know Becca, I've
found her to be someone who's willing to listen, somebody who's willing to kind of understand
the challenges that are occurring in our particular area of division five.
And I'm really quite optimistic that Becca has the type of leadership that division five
I really need to move Division 5 forward.
And they have the right type of partnerships
that all of us want to have with NC DOT.
So with that, let me go ahead and turn it over
to Becca Gallus and she'll take us through the first part.
And then we've got Kendra Parrish as well as Chris Hales
who will also cover some components of this presentation.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Becca.
And I'm gonna walk around and come back around here.
All right, no pressure there.
All right, good afternoon Mayor.
Mayor Tonke also.
All right, I guess that's my whole slide.
It is great to be here.
Thank you, Mr. Harrington and town staff for welcoming me here and for their partnership as well.
As Mr. Harrington mentioned, there are some transformational transportation projects in front of us.
There's a lot of work to do and as several of you have spoke to me before this meeting.
And we need to figure out how do we do that successfully in partnership with our communities.
I'm going to share a little bit about myself and then we'll talk about what Division 5 is and
some of the projects we have coming up.
But I hope one of the things you take away is that I believe in change in doing better every time,
continue with improvement and centering our transportation system around communities,
how people want to move within those communities and making sure that we're responsive to that as a department and as an agency.
So a little bit about me, I started out, I have a very different background from 98% of division engineers.
Typically a division engineer would spend 25 years in the division before moving up the ladder and
and becoming a division engineer towards the end of their career.
I started out with the department in a unit called State Maintenance Operations.
So we did disaster recovery, snow and ice, and supported statewide maintenance operations across the state.
And most specifically spent a lot of time here in Wake County supporting the County Maintenance Engineer
through some significant staffing challenges they were having.
So there is one thing about me is that I am not afraid to do the hard work.
So on the left is actually a picture of me in 2013 sweeping capital board.
because that's what it took to do the job that day.
And that's one of my favorite things about working for the department is it is a group
of people who will do what it takes to connect North Carolinians, we'll do what it takes
to do what happened during Haleen when we sent 120 staff out west to help reopen roads.
That's what makes NCO2 great, that's what makes North Carolina great is when our staff,
when our employees, whenever one comes together to get it done for North Carolina.
I spent a couple years as well as a consultant with throughout North Carolina as well as other
states doing roadway design, rail design, and pedestrian infrastructure before coming
back to the department in 2019 to work specifically in the chief engineer's office with statewide
highway initiatives and statewide policy work.
I had several other roles before coming to the division of aviation and the reason why
I wanted to highlight that so much today is for two reasons.
number one is because airports, we have 72 public use airports in North Carolina, but they are about communities.
They are either run by the county, municipality, or an airport authority.
And my role as the Director of NCDOT's Division of Aviation was to work with those agencies to focus on what their vision is,
and how NCDOT's and the FAs resources could be deployed to best meet that vision.
So one of the highlights of my career and one of my favorite initiatives was a continuous
process improvement work group where we sat down and we worked through pain points in
project delivery because many of these transportation projects needed to happen a year ago, two
years ago.
And so recognizing the challenges with our process and how we can all do better and partner
better has been one of the big things that I am a fan of and look forward to partnering
with Randy as well to figure out how do we continue to do better to deliver high quality
all the projects and projects that are going to matter for North Carolinians and communities
like Holly Springs.
The other reason why I wanted to mention aviation is because the number one talking point
about aviation is economic development.
North Carolina's airport support $88 billion in economic impact here in North Carolina, which
is right around 12% of our gross domestic product.
So in addition to helping airports build, we also helped with community attraction.
We helped with workforce development, so in the middle is actually a groundbreaking
for North Carolina's first electric aircraft charger right down the road in
Hollywood and in Sanford. That was an economic development project that was
initiated by NCDOT Division of Aviation. We did site development and electrical
infrastructure on behalf of that company which is now has over a hundred jobs
within the triangle. And then the right picture is Marshall Airspace which is located
at Greensboro Airport. That airport, if you ever get the chance to go to it, is an incredible
reflection of economic growth and the potential of transportation infrastructure. They have
everything from boom, supersonic, to Honda Jet, to Marshall Aerospace, which is the hangar
we're standing in front today. So although I do not look like your typical division engineer,
I think I have a lot of the skills that are going to serve as well as we navigate some of the
exciting projects that you all have. It's the exciting visions that you all have for what transportation
looks like in your community and how you can drive economic prosperity through transportation infrastructure.
All right, so NCDOT Division 5, what is that?
Right, but it's a number, but it's much more than a number.
It's a lot of numbers actually.
So NCDOT, I like to brag about NCDOT first because we in North Carolina are home to an incredible transportation ecosystem.
North Carolina has the second largest ferry system in the country after Washington State.
We have the second largest highway system after Texas, in part because we maintain so
many county roads that in other states would be managed locally.
We have the fastest growing rail network or rail transportation service that is managed
by the rail division, and we have a robust aviation by a pedestrian facility program as well.
To give you a snapshot of how highways is broken up across the state and CDOT division of
Highways is broken up into 14 different regions.
Every single one of them has different characteristics,
different needs.
If you go out to Division I, which is the Northeast region,
they do things like they push sand off of their roads,
which is very different from what we do here.
If you go out west, you have lots of timber bridges
that have to be replaced,
and that is really hard to replace a timber bridge
on a mountain road.
So what transportation looks like in all of these different regions
is vastly different and very specific to the communities
which occupy those regions when we compare ourselves to other regions we typically compare ourselves to ten, which is the Charlotte region and the division that supports that area.
So here in division five as Mr. Harrington mentioned, we are responsible for a lot.
Seven counties in total, so everything from here we are in South Wake County, all the way to the Virginia line, so seven counties in total.
Durham and Wake are certainly our most urbanized, but as we move forward we're
starting to see that development push quickly into the Grandville and Franklin
regions as well and starting to see that in the person, Vance and Warren as
well. In total we have about 6,700 road miles in division 5 which becomes 14,000
lane miles. So if you have a two lane road that means you have two lane miles per
road mile. If you have a four lane road, four lane miles per road mile to do the math there.
In addition, we have about 500 employees that support the work we do, seven maintenance yards
in just about every county, five construction offices, three district offices which we'll talk about
in a second, and many, many more offices to support the sheer amount of infrastructure that we have
here in Division 5. So I'm from Delaware, which has only three counties, and so my parents are 70
years old and they are not so engineers or transportation people. And so when I try
to talk to a member of the public, I try, I usually call my mom and I say, hey mom,
let's talk about this project I've coming up and how can I explain it to you in a way
that makes sense. So when I took this role, I called her and I said, hey, I'm going to be a
division five engineer and she said, great, what is division five? And what does that mean? And why
do I care? So I went and I pulled division five and compared it to Delaware. So Delaware
has 5,400 road miles compared to Division 5's 6,700.
And when I found that out and started to compare what we were doing here versus Delaware,
it got to keep my interest to see what else was happening across the country in terms of states.
So when you look at our infrastructure here in the triangle, we are larger than 14 states.
That's an incredible amount of infrastructure here in the triangle.
It's a reflection of our growth, it's a reflection of our population,
And it's a reflection of how important transportation infrastructure is here in the triangle region.
And so certainly it's something to kind of help wrap your, it's my version of the Chick-fil-A, right?
Something to give you some perspective on what we are responsible for here in the triangle.
All right, so wanted to do a high-level diagram of what it takes to do the work that we do.
There's a lot of nuance to this, but at a high level, ideas start at the metropolitan planning organization.
and Mr. Harrington mentioned several times Campo.
So we work closely with Campo in the Holly Springs area
to plan the long-range vision
for transportation this area.
Campo is currently working on their-
2050 metropolitan transportation plan and we look forward to seeing the results of that as they work through different scenarios and different investment models to see what the future of transportation will look like here. We take those metropolitan transportation plans and working with Campo, then work them through different funding programs. So the largest one we have is called the state transportation improvement program or the stip, which is our 10-year program for capital projects. It's a multi-billion dollar program that covers
You know all from east to west and covers all the modes as well
So it looks at not just highways, but also rail aviation bike pad and ferry
So that is a complicating large document
But that is how a lot of our work gets done as a step and we will talk about that a little bit more later
After a program or a project has been identified for funding it'll enter the project development phase
Which is where it comes into our hands is at that point so we start getting involved with the project after it has funding
We then deliver that project all the way to construction and then maintenance and operations
and at some point that feeds back into the long-range plans.
So eventually the congestion that happens while we're maintaining and operating the deterioration
of that infrastructure and some of the other challenges we see that feed into that long-range
plan.
So it's really a cycle.
It's not a crater of the grave.
It's a continuous process of monitoring, maintaining and operating our transportation
infrastructure here in the triangle.
All right.
But so one of the things I was talking about with Mr. Harrington is one of the top reasons
why I get emails or calls is because there is a lack of understanding or transparency
about what the department does, who to call.
It's a big organization that can be really intimidating for constituents in the general public
to understand what we do, how we can help, and how best to leverage our resources.
So this next section here is to kind of provide you an overview of what some of our offices do.
do, you may not be aware of some of these programs that we offer to for your awareness,
but also so you know who to call when things come up like you have a pothole or sinkhole
or drainage problems, I want to make sure that you know where some of our resources are
located, as well as some of our visions for some of those specific offices.
So I'm going to start with maintenance.
We actually have two weight county maintenance yards.
The one that is over Holly Springs is called the Western Weight County Maintenance Office.
this. It is located currently on right next to the fairgrounds. What is really exciting
right now is that we just were approved earlier this year for a third Wake County maintenance
office. And that will be focused specifically on South Wake County. So that will have the
most significant impact on you all and Fuqua as you have a dedicated office who will be responsible
for this area specifically. So that's an exciting thing that I'm happy to share with you all
the day, so we look forward to sharing that contact as is available and letting you know
how we're going to do business with that third-weight county maintenance office.
So some typical reasons to contact our weight county maintenance engineer is for potholes
and pavement conditions, drainage problems, so if you see water on the road or if you see
you hear from a constituent about water going from the road onto property as another common
one we hear, damage to signs, roadside hazards and debris, and then inclement weather.
Now, I will mention here that one of the big topics that we talk a lot about is litter,
and I'm sure that's one that you have heard consistently as well.
In Wake County, we spend every year about $2 million on litter pickup.
We have two cleanup cycles a month.
In addition, we can also do spot cleanup of litter.
So if you do see something where it has gotten particularly egregious related to litter,
please do give us a call, because we do have a contract that we can use to do an emergency
clean up to address really difficult sections of litter, but we know that it's one that
you all feel because of the location and proximity as well to the landfill in this area.
So it's certainly something that we are happy to help with, but it is a challenge because
it does take up a significant amount of our financial resources.
Next up is our Division Traffic Office.
So these are the folks who do everything from stock signs to those big interstate signs
that you see overhead, to signals, striping, and different type of reviews.
A frequent reason why you might call a division traffic engineer is if you have a constituent
who says, man, this intersection is really unsafe, I think we should put a stop sign here
or signal here. That's one of the number one things that I get emails about from elected officials
is to do things like safety reviews. So if that's something that you get a request for, you
can send it to myself for the division traffic office and they will be happy to do a study
to see if there is a treatment warranted.
So we can either look at safety, speed,
and a variety of other concerns that you might have
with specific locations along the corridor
to look at both short-term and long-term improvements.
Next, we have our weight district.
So this is the office that works very closely
with the town on some of those locally administered projects
that Mr. Harrington shared about as well as developers.
So they work with developers and municipalities
priorities to do things like driveway permits, encroachment, which is basically if you want to put something in our right away, you have to go ask the district office for commission to do sorts to sell as well they work on other development items.
This district office is the busiest district office in the state period by a significant margin is significantly bigger than the number two, which is the Charlotte district office.
We are currently working on a restructuring and reorganization of that unit to provide additional resources because we have heard consistent feedback from our municipalities and our developers that the turnaround time is unacceptable and is slowing down projects.
So we are currently in the process of working through both technical resources as well as people resources to get the job done because we know that's really important.
And certainly does something we've been speaking with Mr. Harrington as well, is how do we work
with this office and the resources we have to do better every time we get a project
through this office.
Second to last is our resident engineer.
So for instance, with our favorite Holly Springs signal project, our resident engineer's
office is the people who are administering construction projects.
I don't have a specific name on the slide because the resident engineer depends on the project.
They're actually three residence engineer offices alone in Wake County and they work on a variety of projects across the county and are very busy.
So later where I talk about specific projects, where possible I indicated who was responsible for that.
But they see the life cycle of a construction project from letting all the way through project clothes out as well.
So they would be someone that you would contact if you have a question about the status or issues with contractors on an NCDOT construction project.
Then lastly, there's me in our division office, which is much more than just me.
We have a robust staff in our division office, which is located in Durham.
So things that you would typically call me for, email me for is if you just don't know
who to contact.
That's a frequent one.
And I have absolutely no problem helping facilitate getting you to the right spot and also
escalating issues.
So for some reason, you all are seeing delays.
If you all feel like you're not getting the appropriate, correct, accurate quality answer
that you're expecting, that is something that we would like to hear about at the district
office so we can address it and have a conversation with you all.
Next up, we're going to cover active and upcoming projects.
So we talked about the STIP very briefly.
This is a picture of what the current draft 2026 to 2035 STIP looks like.
It's a heck of a lot of projects, right?
That's billions of dollars of projects on a map.
Wanted to talk about one of the things that Randy showed earlier that I thought was really
interesting was they showed the consumer price index, which I think was 24% over 5 years.
My slide over here shows the National Highway Construction Cost Index, which looks, is
produced by the Federal Highway Administration and looks nationwide at the cost to deliver
highway projects in construction.
In just the last three years, we've had a 67% increase in the cost to deliver highway projects,
which far outpaces the consumer price index.
When you hear some of the language around the stip for those of you who are on the camp
aboard, this has been a significant challenge.
We did not get any new projects at the division tier this year in the stip because of the
significant escalation of prices across the state.
We did receive a few at the regional tier, which is a tier above that, but overall the division
tier where a lot of our secondary road projects and local road projects get funded did not see
additional projects, because of construction costing for you, so just something to kind
of frame, we've had to have a lot of hard conversations with municipalities about this,
because we want to deliver projects, right? But as these projects, you create the best estimate
you can, but you can't predict 67% inflation over three years, right? And what that looks like
for the future is something that, you know, will continue to make an educated guess at what
inflation factors we should apply, but this challenge, right? So something that we're going to continue
to work on and work on great estimates and work with our partners to contain costs and
scope projects appropriately. But definitely it's been a challenge as we think about delivering
this suite of projects that we have across the triangle. All right, so the first one is the
one that's almost done. So complete 540. This project is just about wrapped up, it'll wrap
up early this summer. This is one important thing to note about term-pike projects like complete 540
is that the division does not actually administer the projects,
nor do we do maintenance or operation of those projects.
So for anything involving the term pike,
Alan Shapiro, who's the contact on the slide,
would be the best person to speak about for that.
We are also happy to make that connection.
For complete 540, they are working on the final punch list
of items that are being completed
and it is anticipated early in the summer to wrap up as well.
So certainly that will be exciting to have that one done,
and all the cones out of the road
and the contractor to go home as well.
Next up is a hot topic which is the economic development projects in this area.
So you have two really great economic development projects.
The first one being Fujifilm with the access road.
And the second one being Amgen with the improvements to the U.S.1 New Hill,
Holman Road Interchange.
Speaking about the Fujifilm one first.
So as you all are aware, we're working on the project to construct the access road
an associated intersection improvements for that project.
That is currently scheduled to be let to contract next month, so early June 2025.
And then once it is let, it will be available to the contractor in July to begin work.
So we are working on that as quickly as we can, but there is, things are looking good from
a letting perspective.
We feel very confident about meeting that milestone, but still some things to be worked out with
the town on some of the incentives associated with that as well.
The next one is the AMGEN, which is the improvements in the intersection.
One thing important to note about both of these is that they were $10 million economic
development projects fund into the stip.
So once the $10 million runs out, we only have that amount and we have to do what we can
with that amount.
So AMGEN, there's a list of three different items that would be addressed through that project
and we're working down from number one priority to number three priority.
I think we're going to end up getting down to number two and number three might have to be covered by the developer.
But we're working in partnership with the town as well as Amgen to work through those improvements with the goal of letting that in next summer in summer 2026.
We're currently working through the right-of-way plans for that project as well.
All right, the next topic to talk about is resurfacing projects.
So resurfacing is effectively maintenance, but they are very impactful potentially to the general public while you do them.
A resurfacing project means that you go out there, you do something called milling, which means you remove the top layer of asphalt down to below the deficiencies and the cracking.
And then you replace that with a fresh top layer of asphalt.
So, generally, it's a maintenance project, but one of the great tools in a municipality's
toolbox is thinking about how do we restrict that road, what other things can we incorporate
into that resurfacing project, whether it be ADA, curb ramps, or other features to accomplish
some of the projects and some of the visions that you all have for those assets.
So, some big ones coming up, U.S. 1 is scheduled to be resurfaced this year and next year.
It was just that in January 2025, and we anticipate the contractor should begin on that shortly.
The next one is the Sunset Lake Neighborhood, which is that dark brown in the bottom right
hand corner.
It is also scheduled to be resurfacing in 27.
Holly Springs New Hill Road is scheduled for 2028, and then NC 55, which is a significant
quarter in your community is scheduled for resurfacing in 2029, and that's one as we approach
and start to work on the development of those plans.
We'll certainly have to work closely with the town
to make sure we're coordinating all the different projects
that are going on.
I heard quite a few projects that are gonna be underway
during that time frame,
so making sure we're doing our best to coordinate the projects
to minimize the disruption to the general public
and to create a really great transportation facility
here in Holly Springs.
And lastly, before I take questions and turn it over,
Our next speaker is to talk about our signal project on the NC 55 quarter.
I think the first thing to frame this project is that this is a bar setting project.
This is an innovative, transformative signal project.
There have been significant challenges, as you all know, as you all have received comments
from constituents about how this project has been implemented and they impact the general
public.
That's something that we're going to continue to work with the town to figure out how do we continue to do better and how do we continue to contain those delays, as we move forward.
But one of the big challenges with the signal project is that the general public, if you do a traditional construction project, they see laying closures, right, and they see you doing work on the shoulder.
But with signal projects, they're still an iterative project, process involving electrical,
software, all sorts of things that the general public might not see, but still has impacts
as you implement them along that corridor.
So certainly something that we've been talking with the town about, how do we manage expectations?
How do we communicate as we do continue to do signal projects with the town?
And what are some of those key lessons learned from administering this contract as well as
Um, class.
Operating as an agency and as a group. So this project is currently working through the fiber installation along that quarter with some final work to be complete after the fiber installation is done with anticipated completion in our early summer of 2025 as well.
All right. So before I turn over next speaker Mayor and town council would look to take any questions or comments that you have about transportation. First we appreciate the update and the information. I'm sure there's probably a couple questions.
questions that are becoming your way?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Anybody want to jump in?
What about the bridge replacement on
Old Holly Springs Apex room?
Do you have a date on that one?
I can pull it up on my computer afterwards
and correct it to you after the meeting sever.
Okay, thank you.
Anybody else?
Mr. Mayor.
So, if you don't mind, can I ask one
and just clarify a question?
And thank you, Ms. Gales.
Again, you tell something that I was
really encouraged by.
I just want to make sure that we have the right clarity on it.
With the southern access road on the contract being let in June of 2025, we had recently received an email from
another staff member saying that it wouldn't start until the end of this year and not be completed until September of 27.
Sorry, September of 26.
That's a later, so there are several phases of the project that is one of the later components that would be completed.
Did the substantial completion and the sub-base would be completed by this winter of 2025-2026
with additional work to be done in the remainder of 2026.
But happy to provide that update and make sure that schedule and timeline is clear to you all.
So if I understand currently the second phase and being basically the top layer asphalt,
I said what you're talking about.
And do you believe that it will be complete in 18 months because I believe that was the
initial projection we got?
I think that's probably reasonable for that work.
We certainly, I would suspect it could be completed sooner depending on the weather,
but certainly weather is going to factor into that because a lot of that initial construction
is getting into the winter months, so that's always a question whether we have a dry winter
or wet winter.
So I think 18 months gives you sufficient time to finish the contract, but certainly
would love to provide that update to the town with the schedule as well as the anticipated
completion within that contract.
We're not anticipating additional burden on the town.
Is that still correct?
That's still correct.
Yeah.
The questions?
As you have multiple projects, one of those is important is we're very active because we're
reactive to what we hear from constituents.
Is there a way that we can get ahead of some of these things?
like when you see things their way to contact us we ask the same thing in
Campo and they started giving us a little bit of information but the best
example was they were finishing 540 and at a Campo meeting they said hey we're
closing this tonight we were like this would have been a little bit nicer to know
a week in advance so we can let the town know is there a way that we can get
that information so that maybe from us or from the town we can get that
information out quicker. Yeah, that's actually something we have heard consistently from
municipalities is a desire to understand their project, the status, some of those key
milestones that are going to impact the traveling public. So we've been talking about, you know,
standardized monthly reporting and then also training our construction staff to when they see those
impactful moments, making sure that they're communicating and know who they're communicating in
the appropriate contact and working with our communications as well. So work to be done, I think,
great feedback but that is something that I'm passionate about too is being
transparent with the public about the impact of the work that we do so certainly
something that I look forward to working with the town to address and make sure
that you all have the resources to be successful in that space as well and support
us in that. Thank you. Yeah.
You should have an additional light on
event fairer road. I mean we we hear about a puppy of I would say of all the roads
here recently that would be one that we we listen to the most about three schools
there, middle elementary and high school, anything that I guess 29 is when construction is
supposed to start, anything that would delay that, I know we've had changes coming forward
and back, and I know we're under development phase or design phase, excuse me.
So I think from a delay perspective, there's no crystal bar up, but there is confidence in
in that program that is funding that certainly containing the cost of scope is going to be a big part of making sure that you can deliver that in 2029.
I think there's probably some short term things that we can work with the town on particularly looking at we have a school group within our traffic unit centrally that can look at some of those things and see if there's any improvements needed if schools are part of that driving of the congestion in that area so there could be we could do an analysis of that if that's something that town would like to pursue.
because there is some funding available there as well to work with schools to deliver some of those transportation items.
So that's definitely one of the short-term things, but have it have more of a conversation about some of our resources.
You kind of led to the next question, which is a brand new piece that's coming, the witch project,
and they're responsible for the interchange from capstone onto cashhole, which is a big deal,
know, especially for the majority of those regents and parents who walk their kids' school
or ride bike.
It would be awesome if there's some way that we'd be able to coordinate the two.
We're going to do, turn up the roadways to get them in.
They're part of the job, so they would read upon.
Then we're going to go back and do it again three years later, two years later, whatever
the date is and tear it back up again.
So I guess when you said the school thing, I hope that maybe we could take a peek at that.
and see if there is something we could do to, I guess,
energize it to bring it a little bit forward
because just on that section,
you've got the middle school and the elementary school
right on that front edge.
We
can definitely take a look at it and make it do a site,
but how about our staff do a site visit with it
in partnership with the town as well
to look at some of those peak hour congestion
influence factors.
Hey, Glouielsen?
I do thank you for coming out.
I don't remember any of your predecessors
coming to a meeting before.
I'm glad you showed this slide on the resurfacing, just now I know that I'll need to sell my house before 2029, when 55 gets repaved, because it barely functions as a two-lane road each way, let alone going down to one lane and trying to resurface it.
That's going to be like the apocalypse, I feel like.
I think our residents are losing patients with some of the issues that we're having on the roads, and we're bearing a lot of that weight of the complaints and the public hanging for that.
And it's frankly getting a little old.
So like on 55, you go 5 feet in 2012, we were sold this bill of goods on super streets,
put all these lights in, and it's turned to bypass into a parking lot.
Go 5 feet stop, go 5 feet stop, go 5 feet stop all day, and in the morning rush and the PM rush.
And I just don't understand why we can't make that any better.
We've had all the issues with the signals, we've finally got the controllers back into the right place.
I drive it multiple times a week to get the RTP.
It takes 20 to 25 minutes to get from my house to 540, and it's just getting worse and
worse every day with the volumes, people from Harnet County, from Fuqua, stuff that we're
not really accountable for, but it's getting harder and harder to give our residents answers
on why things are getting worse and why nothing's changing.
Do you have any feedback on how we can respond to some of those questions or complaints or issues
that we're constantly being berated about?
Yeah, absolutely.
So a couple of thoughts, there's probably a lot that we could talk about there.
So, you know, when you talk about 55, that's something that we're seeing across the state
is hard conversations when we don't have funding for projects that are clearly needed, right?
We know we have our needs, fire out, pace, the resources that we have to do it.
So it is not an easy conversation to have that with the constituency.
That is certainly something that I would like that we are partners in having that conversation
because it is a hard conversation and it is our road so certainly would be happy for you all to
direct some of that to us as well because we have the resources to address that but it's a
challenging conversation we're spot on. We are constantly having to make hard decisions about
what to fund, what not to fund from everything from our smallest signal projects and sidewalk projects
and things like that all the way up to our big step multi-million dollar projects, right? Our dollar
is worth a lot less than it was even 10 years ago.
And that is hard to explain to someone who has a sit in traffic
and understands the time, the value of their time.
What is the value of our public's time
with these sit in traffic?
So no great solution, but certainly
want to help be a partner in having
those conversations with your communities.
Also thinking about things like, if discretionary grain
opportunities come up, how do we create shelf-ready projects
for those, for 55 and other things, there's some really great funding opportunities out there at the federal level
and at other levels, how can we leverage that as well to do some creative work, kind of like your,
I love hearing about your micro transit project, right, like a great example of innovation in the transportation system,
so certainly look forward to working with you on some of those, but it is challenging.
There's a lot on, and it's something that we feel as well, and we have those conversations too.
How often do we look at the programs on the lights and the synchronization of them going
up and down the bypass?
Currently.
So one of the great things about this project is that once it is implemented you'll
be able to do it continuously from an office and make live changes on the fly based upon
congestion and the reality of the situation and what's going on.
So once this project is complete it is going to transform the way we manage traffic along
that corridor.
right now, it is largely based upon communicate. We rely on our partnership with the town,
so for instance when we were seeing in the last several weeks issues with specific
intersection, the town staff would let us know and then we would go out and do the re-programming
or work with the contractor to make adjustments. So right now it is a very manual as needed function
because we do have so many intersections, but certainly once that is implemented and completed,
it will be much simpler to monitor that and manage it on the fly as we go.
Is there a dedicated person that will be doing that from like the DOT office or is that something that we're going to have to fund later on?
So we have a what's called the TMC, our Transportation Management Center.
It's located right over by the fair grants by many of our offices where we work on and we monitor triangle transportation.
So it monitors everything from the cameras to all the other ITS type infrastructure in the triangle, so that is something that would be part of the traffic management center's responsibility.
So part of the existing group out there, which is a fantastic job.
Does they do things like deploying our IMAP drivers, working on some of the variable message boards, working on all the other smart stuff that we have here in the triangle to make sure we're being responsive when an incident accident occurs.
I
have a couple more questions up here down there.
The light on Lockley and Sunset Lake, if we could get an update on that as well.
And then just a question about the increase in the construction cost index, is that exclusive
to North Carolina?
Or is that enough?
That's nationwide.
But looking at our specifically, it's a very similar threat.
Okay.
And did you answer his question about how often the traffic lights are being assessed or are we confident that we are back to where we were?
I look forward to the town responding that as well. So we have a resident engineer's office who is out there managing the contract.
So there is DOT staff present along the corridor on a regular basis to manage that and as well as relying on the town to inform us
when they are seeing some of those issues too.
And I'm not being a picker here, but what do you mean
by a regular basis?
So I mean, it depends on what is happening along that quarter
and what phase of work the contractor is.
And so it may be daily depending on what is happening out there.
It may be two or three days before they go out there.
It just depends on what phase of work the contractors in.
One last question.
Everything takes a long time.
Yep.
Is there any way to speed things up?
Because here's what my question.
And I was saying this to Dan a moment ago, we're talking about even fair and it's a hot
button.
And if we say, hey, we're looking at, you know, prioritizing that, but we're not going
to start working until 2029.
So that means that's probably not done until 2035, maybe, over exaggerating a little bit.
And so one of the things that we are really, we've all been asking about it and even, may
I'm talking a little bit about it yesterday was an interest on the root one out by Amgen and even if we were to get that approved, we're still talking 15 years potentially.
Is there a way to speed those processes up?
That's a great question. So, if funding is available, right, so let's take that as an if, right, because that's one of the biggest challenges is funding.
What's funding is available? Some of the biggest uncertainty and risk is associated with right away utilities.
So right now we've been looking at different ways to contract and manage right-of-way
utilities.
So we're looking at this on the 64-project, on our capital Boulevard project as well,
which is how do we enter into right-of-way utilities earlier in the design phase?
How do we look at the parcels for risk associated with them so that we can do early acquisition
when applicable and when it's appropriate for the project?
So, that's one of the ones where we're seeing a lot of delays because right away is really
complicated in the triangle.
So, there's a lot of delays associated with those two, so making sure that we're starting
them earlier in the face in the project that we typically would as well as making sure that
we have sufficient dedicated resources to get us across the line on those.
The other thing to think about is we also turn to delivery something that we're looking at
and we're seeing a lot of other divisions look at.
So design build was very popular for a while.
Starting to see other types like construction, manager, general contractor, CMGC, and also progressive design build. So that's one where we are starting to move towards those and are being piloted across the state because to your point projects are much more complex, particularly here in the triangle. And so getting contractor involved earlier in the process is important to the success of it as well. You don't want to find out that you had a design problem. You don't know about all the way down the road, particularly on some of these big projects. And so looking at alternative delivery methods and evaluating
awaiting them for different types of projects is going to be really important for moving
forward, particularly on things like economic development projects.
So like one of the examples, we, I spoke about very briefly, is the Greensboro Airport,
they did an interchange there for boom supersonic and they delivered it in 12 months and how they
delivered it was through alternative delivery, right.
So how can we use alternative delivery and contractor incentives to move those projects along
in an efficient and effective way.
Thank you.
Yeah?
Thank you.
That's something we're talking with our team about.
So your method, current method is three days, a little bit, gets.
Exactly.
Right.
So you design the project and then you build the project, right?
Yes.
So the other concepts would involve designing and hand in hand with the contractor.
There's different, there's slight variations between the different alternative delivery methods,
But really it's about partnership. It's about delivering key phases of the project faster about managing risks throughout the project
So you don't end up getting all the way to letting and find that you don't have enough funding for the project
So you can manage scope and schedule and budget throughout the project as well
Anybody else?
Great. Thank you so much
Okay,
so the next item on the agenda for this evening is to give an update on a very rare widening
Again, I'm Kendra Parrish, Executive Director of Utilities and Infrastructure.
There's no action tonight other than to just receive this information.
So a little bit of the background, we've talked about Avent Fairy Road.
We've heard it called Phase 2.
It's three quarters of a mile.
It's taking an existing predominantly three-ling facility and taking it to a four-lane median
and divided segment along Ava Ferry Road.
The original municipal agreement was executed by the town council in 2017, and here's
a little graphic that will show from Ralph Stevens through the sheet's gas station and
restaurant is right here, and the improvements will run just past the castle, including the
Cape Side intersection and a little bit just past the Cape Side intersection.
And so the original municipal agreement in 2017 was in the amount of $9.8 million.
So in 2017, all of that would be done for $9.8 million.
During COVID, a little bit after COVID, DOT had put a funding freeze on several of the projects on the TIP.
And so a event failure was wrapped into that. So there was a period of time where there was no advancement there.
coming up on the current draft step, the state transportation improvement program.
As the scholars was saying, their cost of projects have increased and so we were actually
in some conversations where it looked like a very may move off the step due to the funding
and the projects that were slated to happen before that project.
Through those conversations, it was discussed that if the town would administer the project,
take on the project, administer it, DO2 would do 100% reimbursement.
That was a way to keep that project on the step program.
And so that is taking on that administration with town resources.
But as Mr. Haryton mentioned, next to Holly Springs Road, this is our next equal priority.
And so in talking with the Division Office, we're looking to do that.
And so right now in this step, the current estimate is 20.2 million.
So that's where we're looking at that increase.
So same project, a few years later, double in price.
Things that the municipal agreement would include are design construction documents,
getting the private utilities relocated, property acquisition, and then construction.
That municipal agreement, we will not get a draft of that until the step is approved later
this fall.
So once that's approved, we would then be talking with DOT about the language within that agreement.
And once we got it to a place that our legal department was okay, then that's when it would be brought before you this fall.
So just a little bit of a reminder, this is an infograph that we've used over the years, the Life of a Raid Project.
and so just understanding and continuing to educate the public on why it takes so long for a
raid project. This is the traditional design bid build and so there's not a lot of
simultaneous activities and so you know we're always looking for those alternative delivery methods
but design, once you have funding in place just design is anywhere from 12 to 18 months. There's a
a lot of community engagement meetings along the way
to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the community.
Also, state and federal agency permitting.
This is key, a lot of times we get federal dollars
that are in the project, and there are a host
of federal requirements that have to be met
that oftentimes add time and money to the projects.
Utility Relocation, this is your Duke energy,
your spectrum getting them to move at the same pace that we would like to move that project
as always a challenge but a partnership but keeping you know making our priority their priority
and getting them involved early is what we're doing there. Property acquisition that is something that
again over my 23 years here at the town of Holly Springs it only gets more complicated.
It's challenging for property acquisition, and we, you know, depending on how many properties are included in a project, that can take a good amount of time, as we saw in Holly Springs Road.
Construction, you know, we've got 18 to 36 months. Of course, that oftentimes depends on the scope of the project as well.
but just continuing to explain the steps of a road project.
So back to you, Avent Fairy Road, we are in, I am here standing, but I also have TEM-A-V
that is our Transportation Engineer and Mike Leonis that's our Engineering Manager.
They've been working on to get this project going as fast as possible.
We have put out a RFQ for a design firm.
We are getting some good participation there.
We've got to interview those applicants, you know, the design firms.
Once we get to the selected firm, we then scope out a contract, and then we begin negotiating.
And then once we get that to a spot, we also have DOT's review because this is DOT project,
DOT has to then review the contract to make sure that it meets all their guidelines.
And we do have somebody from DOT that will be helping us through that process, say that hopefully we can get through that quickly.
Our goal is to get that design contract to town council early fall of this year.
Design and construction documents, say then we're looking at a two year design time frame.
We will be looking in every way possible to try to streamline and do simultaneous or anything in tandem that we can do
to advance that project but looking at you know anywhere from a 18 to 24-month
design period. Right-of-way acquisition we have two years for that right-of-way
acquisition and then construction beginning in 29 and going to 2032. We can
advance as much as we can on these segments but funding is only available as
outland in this step. So even if we were to, you know, had our genie bottle and said we
want designer right away done tomorrow, the funding for construction is not programmed
until those later years. And so we will be talking with DOT, you know, sometimes the funding
like some funding frees up because the project was delayed and so maybe there's ways that
you can do different phases of a project a little bit sooner. We will be working with our
or DOT partners to take the opportunity if available.
And so next steps are just, you know, this fall looking for that municipal agreement
as well as our professional services contract, probably bringing those very close together
and that is this fall for next steps.
So that I can answer any questions on event fairy and then I'll pause and then we'll talk
about the ITS project.
Any questions from Ms. Kendra?
So the DOT mentioned that the construction cost index
1 out 67%, but the cost of this project is 2X.
Now, are there any reasons why we're
seeing such a significant cost delta from what it was
in 2020?
Yeah, it was 2017.
So there's nothing I mean you look at three quarters of a mile it is pretty flat. I'll never say simple construction, but it's not like there's not a lot of challenges.
Pretty straightforward for a lane raid project.
So there's just nothing that we can see that's pushing that other than just the market.
That estimate, the 20.2 was done by the DOT group that does for their TIP, and I know
that in talking with some of those folks, they're definitely trying to accommodate the increases
that they're seeing, the property increases.
So even like market construction costs are going up, we're also seeing property acquisition skyrocket as well.
We're in a great area and that's, you know, there's upsets and downsets.
So other than that, I haven't really been given any kind of key indication of why that doubled in price other than the market the right away.
And then trying to just factor in enough funding so that there's not a shortfall.
All right.
Good.
Thank you.
So, Kendra and Theory, we have 55 being resurfaced working on starting in 29 as Councilman
Barry pointed out earlier, and then this is going to be 29 to 32 as well.
How are we going to mitigate the traffic congestion and flows to navigate people around?
Yeah, so resurfacing in 29, usually the resurfacing is done in the warmer months, and so that is usually
something that you see starting, you know, April to about November as well plants and temperature.
So, 2029, the summer of 2029 will probably be in full resurface mode.
29 is when a contractor will be starting.
And so, usually you don't start to see those lane closures and until they get on-site,
they put in their erosion control, they start, the utility relocations are happening.
I mean, into the progression, when we'll search the in-link
closures for a very road, the resurfacing should be done.
Come back to me in 29.
We'll talk about that.
Right.
Sell, sell, sell.
That's what I heard, and so I heard.
Sounds like Nios bought in the Wadden Droid to me,
but short-term.
Thank you.
Anything else?
I have to concur with Council Member Dries.
I don't understand 22 million for this intersection,
especially we have the MECON development redoing the intersection and
cashhole realigning capes. That's insane. I can't wait to see what the final cost
this is in 2032. To see if it actually did reach 20 million. That would be
impressive and sad. I'll give you a dollar and it's more than $29.
You know, no, because you're usually right. No, for three quarters of a month.
Right. How much is that is right away? I got like $12 million right away and it's three
quarters of it. Well, I don't really want to talk about right away in a public
understood. It's yet to be acquired. But I do think it was around two million
ish. Well, it's right away. $100 for three quarters of it. Crazy. That will probably be
amended because anyone D.O.T. was doing the projections. That woods property was
under-profit, you know, it was going to be widened, purchased, and widened, but
that development project actually has to dedicate the right away. And that's a
good chunk of frontage there. So that is an area where we might see some relief
on that right away budget. Is there joint acquisition because that developer is
going to put in a side path all the way down to even ferry anyway? So the last
thing we want to do is put a side path in and have to rip it up when we come
through to widen the road like how are we going to join way work. I think we've
said that was just recently approved and we are going to have to get DOT the
town and the developer and talk through what is their actual dates for when
they plan on doing their road widening and then overlay that with the TIP
project.
Okay.
Even the realignment of capesad, you know, you can't ever bank on development, right? Like that's market driven. We don't know when and how fast they're going to move. And so we've taken the conservative approach of, you know, this is the scope of the whole project that DOT is funding, which included capesad realignment. It included some of the things that this development is going to do ahead of time. And so what we'll need to do is find out exactly what they're doing when they're doing.
it and what we can do to make sure that we don't do something like that.
That would be the last thing we want to do on a ferry ride is going and ripping up
side pass and then putting a sidewalk five feet past it.
So I think now that we know that that's an approved project and it's real getting with that
developer and finding out what their time frames are.
We have, there's some slight conversation on pro activity and reactivity earlier and I
just think this is one we absolutely need to be more proactive on because McAdams is
out there every day away in state because I see them when I drop my kid off at school.
Every day they're out there.
I got a text from Epcot and people last week, they want to meet with me next week to
give an update on where they're at on the design of that intersection and how they're progressing.
They're like ready to move.
And it's another perfect example of, you know, government doing a project versus the private
sector because they're budget for that intersection realignment is less than a quarter of what
we're going to pay for three-quarters of a mile or what the state's going to pay for three-quarters
of a mile.
So that from a public education perspective, it's just, you know, the bidding restrictions
that we have, the cost escalations that we see in government for what the private sector
does, it's just, it's not just us, it's everywhere in government, but it's out of control.
But we need to be absolutely proactive on that intersection and not let them come in and
do their piece, and we're going to be for three, four years behind them to do the rest
to the road widening, so we need to make sure we're better aligned on that.
Yes, sir.
So Kendra, is the cost continuing to escalate?
I mean, we're 2025, 2029.
Today, like 20 to 2025, we are already seeing it go astronomically high.
Would we ever come to a point where, say, let's take out the median divided,
save land, space, property acquisition, and development?
Is there a point that we would ever do that, you think, in this project?
I think that if we continue with DOG to see the cost escalate, getting back to the operational functionality of the improvements, which is really moving vehicles more effectively, like four lanes versus two lanes, twice as fast, but looking at how we can move those vehicles efficiently and then safety.
Those are the two things on that corridor is the mobility and the safety and looking at ways to minimize the scope to still meet those two intents, right?
And so, you know, maybe it's collapsed in the median through certain areas, looking at the intersections and what we can do at the intersections.
Intersections is what causes congestion, straightaways, not so much.
And so looking to, you know, I think we would be looking to revise, go, cut down on the
nice to have and focus on the need to have for the mobility and the safety there.
I appreciate it.
That is one area that if you're ever out in that area because of the high school, you have
a concentration of teen drivers, so I understand the needs for safety.
And so you're not going to seem to argue that.
I've seen teen drivers at work in some of the parents.
But I appreciate that with the same time, I'd hate to be asking the future question, but I think it probably needs to be asked, what about phase, what we call phase 3, 8, and fairy.
When are we going to touch that, think about that, when are we going to discuss that?
I think that's a great question. And as we look to the future with transportation, we are coming around, we're in the short raise and coming around on finishing up all of the bond projects from 2017.
2018 time frame and so as we start to look towards what is that next decade for look like for transportation
It's
Looking at our comprehensive transportation plan looking at the priorities established through that and then setting up that next round of projects and
So I think that's a great contender for you know in the comprehensive transportation plan which Mr. Hill is we talking about right after me
But I think it's a great question
And it's, you know, we're working on today's issues,
but we got to be looking towards tomorrow.
And what do those look like?
As I've been in discussion at all and mixed in with today's issue about phase three.
I have not seen an opportunity to expand the scope further down the event ferry road
at this time with the budget, but I think knowing that that's coming, I think it's great.
progress of planning on the council's part because that's what was done with Holly Springs Road.
When we first started what we used to call phase one of Holly Springs Road which is Holly Springs
Road East, you know at that time we were like we've just got to get this portion done. Well then we
started talking about Central and West and then there were opportunities to do things that moved
those projects along quicker and I think we're going to you know be able to do that with Ava Perry
right as well. Well that's where I'm going with this. Once you get past the farm area near
to our holly point those developers are already wide those are they're missed up now but those
roads are already wide and almost four lanes straight across. I mean it goes down for a while
and it just you know hourglass right and then with the Reagan property at the end of
even ferry we're doing the intersection four-laneing their frontage you know I just see an opportunity
could we move that earlier at some point and so we'll follow up with
Mr. Hill obviously.
But thank you. Great job as always.
Thank you and I just want to reiterate that we are grateful to
then see DOT for that 20.2 million for the step and it sounds like we have a
good partnership with the town working on the on the administration of the
project will who will be responsible for any cost overruns will that be
the DOT and not the town, I assume?
Usually with the municipal agreements, it is especially for, you know, this is a 100%
reimbursed project.
And so if it is something within the scope of the project, that is something that DOT typically
pays for in a TIP project, the overrun is typically born by the Department of Transportation.
If we, the town, decide we want something above and beyond what is DOT standard, sometimes
those are called betterments.
If it was an overrun on a betterment item than the town is usually bearing that cost.
But those are the types of things that our legal department reviews very closely in the municipal
agreement.
And so once we get that draft municipal agreement and we start working with their legal
department you know those are things that we would definitely get nailed down so
in the fall and there's a few other things that we know we want in those
municipal agreements and so I think that's the time you know when we could
stay for sure who would be covering those costs but that's typically kind of the
breakdown of how it goes. Is that your expectation as well Miss Gales?
And
could I also request that we get your help and in time we
reviews to kind of streamline this process as much as possible. Thank you. I appreciate it.
One other thing. I'd love to see us look at things on a macro level because like we're talking
about even fairy so we're going to do what's property. They're going to come back and do even fairy but
at the same time we've got Eagles landing coming up at the same time. So for any residents that are
living out there in the schools out there, you're going to tear up the things for the park.
We're going
look at these things on a macro level.
There's another section right here in the heart of town
where we have right here at the corner of Main Street
and Holly Springs Road being built,
but we have another coming right up the street
that the things coming down the street.
There are multiple things coming at the same time
and what people are yelling saying,
I'm stuck.
And so there needs to be a better way
where we can, from a macro level, look at that and say,
okay, these things are doing it.
How can we coordinate some of these things?
How can we make these things work better together?
so that sometimes we can time certain things better.
And I don't know how to do that, but that's just a request.
I'll take that.
I think working with our development department
with capital and development and trying to look at
like that macro level, I think that's something
that we've been discussing because we're feeling it too.
Like we're seeing it, development schedules
are usually run by the developer in the market
And so there's, sometimes there's not a lot of opportunity to change their schedule.
And so we are looking at, you know, there's two schedules, how do we combine them and
get that partnership.
But that is something that we are talking about and trying to at least try to guide that
process for better timing.
But
okay, so the next item is our Intelligent Transportation System or ITS.
And again, I won't spend too much time, I think, because Mrs. Gales had talked about
this, and this is kind of a recap, but just wanted to provide an update on that project.
So just, you know, current challenges, as we all have learned, you know, over the years,
it was, the signals were tied together, or not tied together, but they were on modem.
So it was dial-up.
It was complaint driven.
There were lots of interruptions, because of not having a fabric connection, but having
there would be a drift, so like signals wouldn't hold timing plans.
We would get a complaint, we would check it out, we would call the division office that's in Durham.
They have limited resources that are responding to all the counties.
And so this is the problem statement right here.
This is the problem that we were having and what we wanted to do something about and our citizens deserve that.
And so we had a phased approach, phase one was synchronized the signals to, you know,
tie the signals to Fiber, what we've talked about is our IT director, Jeff Wilson had,
you know, long ago looked at running Fiber to town facilities. That was the catalyst for
getting the signal project up and running because there was excess capacity and fiber to get
the signals tied together. So it was a great benefit of that. We were able to get that phase
one was a general assembly. We got some money on behalf to get that project done. Phase two was
then putting the cameras up on the signals. That was completed in 23. Phase three was upgrading the
signal software creating that final fiber connection to the DOT traffic center that Ms.
Gals is talking about. That's, you know, I've got the under construction. That's where we are right now.
In the funding source, you know, town, our taxpayers are paying 10 percent. DOT is paying that 90 percent.
And what this project does is then, again, we've got the checkmark by Facebook.
that was, once we wanted to get all that signal software updated, we then wanted to get new timing plans calibrated.
And so we were able to get this Phase 3 and Phase 4 all within this, you know, taxpayers paying 10% project.
What we're progressively moving up towards, you know, what we call Phase 5 is sort of like, what is the end game here?
and it is to get a higher level of service, real-time response to the roads in
Holly Springs and, you know, to Fuqua and coming out of Apex. The benefits of
this last project that we're currently, we're feeling the pain of it, but what
the benefits will be when it's finished is because DOT was able to fund 90% and
move this up. We were able to deliver this project nine years early. It was, you know, on DOT's
time frame and looking at stuff, it was nine years out. We were able to get that moved up.
It also, once it's finished, then the folks sitting in the traffic center can see what's going on.
They can change the timing plans. It's cloud-based. And so your level of service, your response time
and monitoring all of that goes up.
Looking at emergency vehicles,
we have preemption, getting those timing plans,
which helps our emergency response.
We're also able to then get some analytics and metrics,
like we're able to get data because all of it is,
we've got the software, and then it's tracking it
and so we'll be able to use that for data-driven decisions.
And as I said, the monitoring of the issues.
So the current schedule that we're on is, so right now, May, June, there's still a lot
of calibrating of the signal synchronization.
So as we know, the bypass, you know, you go five feet, you stop, five feet stop.
The synchronization on the bypass is not optimal right now.
And it has not been, and it is something, as we've talked about, it's this iterative process,
us, and they can't see it yet. Like, nobody at DOT can see what's going on. Our IT Director
Mr. Wilson has given them access into our cameras so that they can log on and try to see what
we can see. But right now, it is, you know, they're looking at it. We're giving them feedback.
back, hey, it's a
25 minutes to get up to target. And so there's that calibrating and the synchronization. That is very iterative. And we've told them to focus on the bypass first. And so that's where they are working. July by July, they do. That's when they'll go through and do the whole inspection. They'll look at the timing plans. Like this timing plan is supposed to be this has the contractor delivered the timing plan. And that's when you'll start
to see some of those comparisons in July to kind of troubleshoot and make sure that we have the
delivered outcome there. And August is then the 30-day monitoring. So everything's set into
motion, everything is in and we start, DOT starts to monitor it. And I would even say into August,
like their monitoring, but we'll start to see August September, there still will be ongoing tweaking
going on to get that right timing. As you've seen we were like event fairies
backing up to the school. We need green time on event fairies. They're
tweaking, now we're seeing where event fairies is doing good but the
bathhouse is really backed up. It is like that balloon where you squeeze and it's
I mean you only have a set amount of time and how to balance the timing of all
the approaches. That is what you know we're currently a DOT's contractor is
working on. So we've said we help the event fairy but now we got to tweak the
bypass and get that right balance and so we'll see that continue on. So this is
the current schedule and with that I can answer any questions. I'll say Jeff
What's in his here, if there are some real good detailed questions that I can answer, then
Jeff can.
I can't go on to thank you and Jeff for this multi-year process you've been following.
You know, every year you've been doing a little more, a little more than, and thank you
to the NTOT for really getting face 4 and 5, and I wish this project they had, but you
and Jeff and your teams have done a phenomenal job, so I appreciate it.
I know it's going to be much better off in this, is done at least something we can affect
traffic with now versus you know waiting for rows you built so thank you.
And I mean I would just turn that back and give credit to town council at the
2024 town council retreat. Y'all said get this project done for our citizens and
it's a low cost project with a high benefit you can't pave your way out of
congestion and so thank you for allowing us to do this.
So at what point are the
new controllers going in? Is that July? You kind of confirm the signal timing?
So they have taken out the old controllers. They have put in new controllers. They
are working on tying the fiber to the back end of the controller. And so for most
of them, the new controllers are in and fibers being tied to, um, does that sound right?
Um, yes, they were in front of her.
No.
Okay.
I didn't want to be rude.
Yeah.
Um, so my understanding is, and you picked the wrong, the bypasses had all the old controllers
put back in.
There are some locations that still had the new max time controllers in there and had been
been starting to be updated with the timing plans
from the oil controllers when you've left the case.
And then the fiber is almost done for the contract.
We set loose, start time, everything back together
and work on getting the controllers back down.
One thing to note, and you can correct me from wrong,
is that the new controllers will get
the existing timing plans back in them.
And then that's when tweaked periods
will start occurring where they can do things
remotely and mom for remotely.
And what is our, because, you know, this bit us before, so what is our process for knowing that the timing has been programmed into the new controllers before we put them in? Do we have a plan?
Close coordination with in CDOT at this point, and I believe they're holding their contact closer on the progress on that.
It shouldn't be our job to do quality control, right?
I think that's my biggest gripe with this whole thing is that if I didn't text
Randy and say, hey, something kind of looks weird at Main Street, it's like I drive
the road enough that I know the freaking traffic light pattern, like it's bizarre, but
and then we find out the controllers are wrong, like we can't be doing quality
control. I don't think that's our responsibility, so we need to make sure this
contractor, somebody from the DOTs out there making sure that they're doing the
project, right? And then it's done right the first time.
We're the second. We're the third. Yeah, I don't know.
I'm trying to lost track.
Anything else? Thank you.
Good evening, Chris. Leaving
Mayor and Councilmembers on
Chris Hills, the Development Services Director. I'm excited to come
for you tonight, talk a little bit about the CTP and how that plays into our
transportation tapestry. You know, going after Miss Gales and Miss
Paris and Mr. Wilson. Certainly, let's me bat some cleanup, but they've covered a lot
of great ground already. And some of the things that we'll talk about today have already
been touched on just a little bit. And so this evening, I'll be talking about the CTP
and how it relates to the MTP, which is what Campo manages for us and how we work with
NCDOT to get our local projects into the state transportation investment plan.
And so with
the CCP itself and how we use it. First of all, the foremost, the town uses it for capital
prioritization. So if we have a project we want to do, we use that to inform us. We also
work with NC DOT in Campo on regional coordination. We work through those organizations for federal
funding opportunities. And then we use it for development review, so private development
can invest in it as well. And as you may recall from some of our previous conversations, we've
The estimated value of the improvements in the CTP right now is over $800 million in 2022 dollars.
So we know that's escalated dramatically as well.
So a lot of competition within our own CTP for projects.
But as I noted, the CTP does inform the Campo MTP, which is what we use to get into the state's plan.
So it is a regional version of the CTP.
So if you think about the Campo area and the municipalities and counties that it covers,
that's what we do to get our projects within that regional model and there is an
extensive modeling that occurs with this and Campo uses that to ensure that the
projects that are most in need get funded first and that informs spot and
lap eligibility as projects move forward. Within our community we've been very
fortunate not only through spot step but also through lap programs and had we've
have success with moving projects what we call above the red line.
Here you can see just a couple of years ago, we only had five projects,
excuse me, four projects that were above the red line funded, and now we've
been able to move that in the last few years from the CTP being updated and
the growth we've had in our community, equaling more projects moving above that
cut line to be funded by the state, and that's something that we're very proud of.
That MTP that we put our data in informs the model that Campo utilizes.
And here you can see in these maps, the image on the left reflects the Campo base model
of what current conditions essentially are.
And you can see the red lines equal, bad, the yellow lines equal, getting bad.
And of course green lines equal functioning at an acceptable level of service.
And you can see the Holly Springs Road corridor and how.
That was something that this tool helped our Council and our regional representatives to recognize as a fundable and meaningful transportation improvement in our town, and you can see how in the future, once that project gets done, that Council has funded already through local capital programs as well as through that funding through Campo, that will be improved on the 20-55 model run that we see today.
And so with that being said, knowing that in our community there's over $800 million worth
of need.
We start looking at where is the areas that we anticipate seeing investment in the future.
And for us, that southern part of our community is something that really starts to pop out.
So in the base model you can see here, the Avent, Ferry Road, Corridor, Piney Road, Wolben,
Casseholt Road, and what the model currently says as far as level of service.
As we go to the 2055 model based on known investments,
you can see the level of service begins to degrade pretty significantly.
And so it's really important that as we start thinking about the next round of priorities,
that this is an area that we really look at and scrutinize pretty hard.
Earlier Councilman Forrest, you referenced Event Fairy Road Phase 3,
and certainly a huge priority here.
You can see that the red area starts to stretch out down the road
in the future model, and that's something that we are aware of.
And one of the challenges that we will continue to face
as the state continues to grow is that secondary roads
compete worse and worse and worse in every single run of spot and
step, and that's a challenge for us.
And so, you know, while I know our friends at DOT want to really
help us with that, and I can't, but I want to help us with that,
the model that we utilize for Holly Springs Road,
where it's kind of a combination through lap is probably a likely
the solution for how we do these secondary roads in our community, because we know even
with our larger scale roads that are more of what we call the regional scale, there
is already fierce competition for those monies to make those improvements in the future.
And so with that being said, just wanted to make sure that we shared the known improvements
map.
This map is something that our staff maintains that reflects the known investments and transportation
that work in our community, where we have private investment
shown in blue, town investment shown in purple,
and an NC DOT investment shown in that orange color there,
as well as the new signals that are programmed associated
oftentimes with private development proposals in our community.
And then the last check-in point is just, you know,
we know right now that we've got several lab projects
that we're in the process of closing out.
But we also know what the next two years of lab priorities look like as far as Holly Springs Road Central being year one, this current year application and the Holly Springs West being the following year's application after that period of time, we do anticipate we will have more opportunities to apply for lab funding with Campo as projects start to roll off the books because they only allow, I mean, just to allow you have, I believe, seven projects active at a time and after that,
They only can get one application per year, and we've been so successful.
We're above that seven right now because we've been getting the even the one per year.
And so as the projects that we currently have on the construction start kind of wrapping up,
we'll have more opportunities to apply for lap funding in the future.
And so at the retreat this year, we did dive into what was the known council priorities.
And this is where we left it at that time.
looking at Holly Spurring's road west widening event,
very festival street, castle road widening,
South Main Street road diet, sunset lake road widening,
north sunset lake road widening, and I think that's all of them.
So I wanted to check in and see if there's any additional questions related to
priorities or how the CTP that we have adopted as a community
informs the MTP to get us more funding here locally.
I
had a question about the traffic that we're getting from Hornet County.
I don't know if we have ways, that's not an NCDOT5, is that our conversations being
you have with these other counties that kind of,
okay.
Yeah, so the Campo has continued to grow,
and it actually crosses the vision lines in several places.
And so the interesting thing about that is in some ways
that could benefit the town of Holly Springs
in the way more money can kind of move into this area.
But it is, what you sometimes do see is some equity issues
because those towns are maturing on the edges
of the Campo jurisdiction.
sometimes have the same problems we do, but because they're in a less urbanized area,
they have less competition for that.
And so there are some benefits that we receive from that, but the reality is sometimes those
shoulder municipalities get a lot of improvement that we wish we'd see here because of the way
the state allocates those funds on a division basis.
And do you believe that the Council priorities identified here reflect the developments that
are going to be added?
Is that through, I mean, this is certainly true through today's lens, but my question is for
10 years, one of these developments will be occupied. Do you think this is still true or
is this still what you would prioritize? It's always a snapshot in time. And I say that to say,
things like ITS, things like mode shift, the microtransit, things like that will continue to
evolve the way people move around as well as, you know, 10 years ago, if you think about,
you know, the technology we have now to work for home, where trips to work have decreased because of that.
You know, we're going to see a continued evolution of what may happen.
I do think that these are the right priorities today, but as the model kind of reflects here,
that's going to be continuing to shift south over time.
And what, you know, the reason why I referenced the snapshot in time is the way
and NCDOT, you know, do their funding modeling is all based on...
Capacity and volume and where the biggest problem is at the time they're developing that plan. And so I do think that our plan is sound in terms of trying to keep the major thoroughfares as open as possible. I think the real challenge is to become how we get those secondary roads funded and, you know, whether it's in combination with lap funds and local capital funds or continue to work with our partners at NCDUT and making those be seen as more regional connections.
We know that folks who are coming through our community and in Holly Springs, they're not always their destination, so they're just passing by, which tells me that even though the road might be kind of identified as secondary, it may be functioning as a more regional road, so how can we try to move that needle so that that road can compete better in the future?
And we don't have any biker pedestrian improvements prioritized around the new park.
I know that's an item of interest on how people will get to the park and are we creating
opportunities for people to bite there.
Is that something that we are also looking at?
Our CTP as well as the Parks and Recreation Master Plan does have the Greenway elements
the site path elements associated with it, and we do look for grant funding opportunities
to accelerate those and get them into the CIP. I think when we were at the most recent
retreat, we really focused on the roadway network because of the congestion at this time.
And the event period isn't on here because it's already in the step.
So the current segment is already in the step. So this is what we're looking forward to.
That phase three does become the next kind of challenge of what that is and really trying to say what is that funding mechanism and does a event ferry?
You know if you go back to
This forecast map you can see Pining Grove, Wilburne
Starship maybe you look like it. It's actually conveying more traffic and is a little bit more of a of a priority just by the sheer length in miles
That it's congested for versus the forecast for even ferry is not quite as bad in that manner
Anything
else?
Thank you, sir.
That next up we're showing a closed session there, Mr. Counselor, and I know you're okay.
No such thing.
Well, very good.
Thank you all for seeing you.
Thank you, Mr. Harrington.
Nice work.
Nice job.
Thank you.
Thank you for putting that together.
It was a great presentation.
We got a lot to look at and sniff over for next week.
I don't feel the transportation.
I know a lot was thrown at you there, but I know this is a really important topic for the
the entire council and the mayor.
We thought this was a great opportunity tonight
with Ms. Galas and thank you for being here again
to kind of cover all these elements
to give you that full picture.
So thank you for your patience on that.
Very good, nothing else.
We get a motion.
Motion to adjourn, second.
All in favor?
All right.
Who's there when we tell people
that it's going to be 29.
I think we're going to do that.
It's going to be 29.
It's going to be 39.
Thank you very much.