Strategic Transportation Investment (STI) / SPOT Prioritization

Strategic Transportation Investment (STI) Priorities for the Winston-Salem Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WSUAMPO)

The North Carolina Department of Transportation's transportation plan, called the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), identifies the construction funding and scheduling for transportation projects at the state level over a 10 year period. Although federal law requires the plan to be updated every four years, the State's transportation department proactively updates it every two years to ensure it accurately reflects the state's current financial situation.

The data-driven process to update the State Transportation Improvement Program, called strategic prioritization, begins when the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and local planning organizations gathered public feedback on projects and later submitted projects to be evaluated, or scored, for the plan.

The Winston-Salem Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (WSUAMPO) Role in Prioritization is two part:

• First - the MPO identifies projects to submit into the scoring competition. Currently, the WSUAMPO is permitted to submit twenty-three (23) new projects for each transportation mode into the Prioritization 7.0 cycle. 
• Second - the MPO assigns local input points which increase the final project score. 

P7.0 and 2026-2035 TIP

Prioritization is NCDOT’s decision making tool for developing the State Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which is a listing of projects to be delivered within an upcoming ten-year work program. The Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) legislation has created a high degree of collaboration between NCDOT and MPO’s in the development of their Transportation Improvement Program’s every two years through the Prioritization process. The current round is known as Prioritization 7.0 (or P7.0) and will develop the WSUAMPO’s 2026-2035 TIP.

Projects of all modes, including highway, bicycle/pedestrian, transit, and others are scored based on a combination of quantitative data and local input.  The quantitative evaluation consists of criteria such as congestion and safety, and analyzing project benefits compared to cost, as well as expected economic impacts.  Local input comes from the priorities of the local Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and NCDOT Division Offices through their adopted local input point methodologies.

Additional Information

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Hunter Staszak hunters@cityofws.org.