RALEIGH – The following are highlights from this week at the N.C. Department of Transportation. The stories below are also featured in
NCDOT Now, the department's weekly newscast.
Raleigh to Richmond Corridor Grant
The Federal Railroad Administration announced last week more than $368 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grants. Of this, nearly $58 million will go to the development of the Raleigh to Richmond corridor.
The grant will support surveys and preliminary engineering for the corridor.
This grant, the largest awarded in this funding cycle, will improve transportation access for underserved and rural communities while shortening travel times between the two cities.
"We want to make sure that we can get people from one place to the next," said Governor Roy Cooper. "To their jobs, to their schools, to their healthcare. And we know as we move into this clean energy economy, as we fight climate change every single day, that passenger rail is going to be key in getting us from one place to the next."
Port of Wilmington #4 in America
North Carolina’s Port of Wilmington is now the fourth most productive port nationwide, according to the Container Port Performance Index. This report also ranks NC Ports as the 49th most productive port in the world.
The ratings are based on the time vessels spent in port to complete their workloads in 2021.
Over the past five years, NC Ports has invested more than $256 million in infrastructure improvement projects in the ports of Wilmington and Morehead and the Charlotte Inland Port.
For more information on North Carolina's ports, visit
ncports.com.
For more information about NCDOT Now, contact the NCDOT Communications Office at (919) 707-2660. Additional news stories from throughout the week can be found on
NCDOT.gov.