State Transportation Improvement Program
The North Carolina State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a 10-year planning document containing all transportation projects in the state for the given date range. The STIP is updated every two years to account for changing transportation needs throughout the state. NCDOT works in conjunction with MPOs, RPOs, and their Divisions to develop this document. The current Draft 2024-2033 STIP can be found here.
Strategic Prioritization Office
The Strategic Prioritization Office (SPOT) is the NCDOT office where MPOs, RPOs, and Divisions submit potential STIP projects for scoring. Each Prioritization cycle, the SPOT office works in conjunction with the previously listed entities to develop a scoring method for submitted projects, then uses that scoring to determine which projects will make it into the STIP, when they will receive funding, and to what degree the project will be funded. The most recent round of Prioritization, P6.0, was cancelled do to a multitude of factors. The previous STIP was overprogrammed, initial cost estimates were far below what actual construction costs ended up being, and DOT revenue suffered greatly from COVID 19. Due to the cancellation of P6.0, the current DRAFT 2024-2033 STIP was developed by reprogramming the previous STIP to keep the document fiscally constrained. In order to make sure the Department is addressing current transportation needs, NCDOT is allowing MPOs, RPOs, and Divisions the opportunity to remove, or "swap," projects programmed in the DRAFT 2024-2033 STIP for projects that did not make it into the document. Projects added to the STIP must be approved by the PO, and all other effected MPOs, RPOs, and Divisions, and cannot exceed 10% of the total cost of the project(s) being removed. The window for POs to submit potential swaps is open and will continue until March 17th, 2023.
As a reminder, P6.0 was cancelled, however a list of projects submitted for scoring by the ECRPO can be found here.