Member Briefing: February 22, 2019
- February 22, 2019
- Posted by: Joe Milazzo II
- Category: Member briefing
RTA weekly member briefing – Feb. 22, 2019
Here is a brief weekly update from the RTA business coalition – the voice of the regional business community on transportation.
Lead RTA volunteers describe the value of RTA
RTA membership sales chair Robert Doreauk with AT&T and RTA marketing chair Julie Roper with PSNC Energy — both members of the RTA Leadership Team — penned a great blog this week about business leadership in transportation as part of our Thursday Thoughts at 3 blog series. The short blog includes some key points you can use to encourage a peer company to join you as an RTA member. You can also comment on and share the post on LinkedIn from Robert, and from Julie. I applaud Robert, Julie, and their fellow RTA Leadership Team members Creighton Blackwell with Coastal Credit Union, Chris Bell with SunTrust, and Linda Hall with the Research Triangle Foundation for their ongoing work on growing the RTA. If you know of a company that should join the RTA Leadership Team, let one of those lead volunteers know, or send a note to me or Natalie.
540 gets another approval, and more
Last week, the North Carolina Division of Water Resources issued a “Section 401” water quality permit to NCDOT for the construction of 540. This is a required, and very helpful approval, and we are pleased with the confidence of DWR in the project. RTA members came out in force to support 540 at a public hearing on the permit back in November, and we are pleased to see the granting of this permit by the State of North Carolina. In addition, the middle section of 540 had its contract bid opening this week. FYI – a lawsuit challenging the permit was filed this week, as described here and here; we will monitor.
Do you know what a bicycle boulevard is?
The City of Durham is advancing a bicycle boulevard plan of neighborhood bike routes that will leverage existing streets and create a lower-stress, connected network of travel ways for bicyclists. The Triangle Business Journal highlighted the plan in a very good recent article. We saw these first hand in Richmond, Virginia as part of our 2017 RTA Leadership Briefing and Tour. They are promising additions to our quality of life, our transportation network, and our talent retention and attraction pool.
Thank you for providing the essential business perspective and focus needed to get our region moving faster as a member of the RTA.
Let’s get moving,
Joe
Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director
