News

Let’s do brunch — and let’s have a timely discussion on multimodal freeways 

We are less than one month away from our RTA annual summer meeting, and I hope that you and/or a colleague, client, or partner are able to join us.

Members of the regional business community will join regional and statewide leaders in transportation and government at the 2024 RTA Transportation Brunch, where we will explore projects and initiatives to accelerate multimodal freeways in the Triangle that will help get us moving faster, together.

A reminder that this year’s brunch event will be held in concert with the I-40 Regional Partnership — a cooperative initiative of RTA and NCDOT with other area partners, founded 15 years ago to provide an ongoing focus on I-40 for travel and commerce.

Thank you to our event sponsors The Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina (premier sponsor), Martin Marietta, Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, and the Sunrock Group — as well as all of the members of the RTA Regional Leadership Team — for helping make this event possible.

Read this week’s blog for more information on the event. You can contact my colleague Jacob Rigg with any registration questions as well as opportunities to become a premier or event sponsor, as well as to confirm the tickets included with your membership. RTA members and partners can purchase additional tickets here.

Accelerating infrastructure is always the priority for a growing region and state

North Carolina continues to shine in the rankings of top states for business according to CNBC. Virginia won the top ranking this year, while North Carolina finished second. For the past five ranking cycles, either North Carolina and Virginia has won the top spot, and neither state has finished lower than the top 3 since the 2019 rankings  (ref:  2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019).

The CNBC report noted that “The 2024 CNBC rankings produced the tightest finish in Top States history. Just three points separate Virginia from this year’s runner-up, North Carolina. The Tar Heel State, which finished at the top of the rankings in 2022 and 2023, had hoped to pull off an unprecedented three-peat. Its performance in 2024 was strong, but North Carolina fell to No. 20 in Infrastructure, this year’s heaviest-weighted category. You can click on this link to gain an understanding of the methodology.

As with any ranking, your score success depends on what factors are included in the ranking (and what factors are not included). In addition, how each factor is weighed matters. The choice to weigh each factor equally, or to weigh some factors more than others, is always a judgement call.

With North Carolina and Virginia continuing to dominate the rankings, I am not concerned that North Carolina “only” finished second, particularly as the categories and factors changed a bit for this year, and the points separation was only about 1%. Still, the rankings can serve as a useful reminder to that accelerating infrastructure is always a priority for a growing state. Congratulations to Virginia for the win, and let’s push on the Old North State for a victory over the Old Dominion in 2025.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Let’s get moving,
Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA executive director