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.
CASSI Launches at Wright Brothers National Memorial
The site of the first successful flight now boasts another first. The National Park Service and NCDOT announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind electric, self-driving public transit shuttle at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. This marks the first trial of a self-driving vehicle at a recreational public lands site in the country. The Connected Autonomous Shuttle Supporting Innovation, or CASSI, will remain at the location for a three-month trial program.
NCDOT and the National Park Service hope that testing the shuttle at a national park will help them learn more about how driverless vehicles can safely and effectively be used in the future.
Litter Sweep Ending, Clean Up Continues
As the
Spring Litter Sweep wraps up on April 24, NCDOT, contract crews and volunteers plan to keep cleaning up North Carolina.
Since the beginning of this year, more than
4 million pounds of litter has been cleaned up from state-maintained roadsides, which shows how much trash is illegally being thrown out of vehicles or falling out of unsecured loads on vehicles.
While the litter sweep happens twice a year, NCDOT encourages residents to sign up for
Sponsor-A-Highway, which allows businesses, organizations and individuals to sponsor litter removal along roadsides. There’s also the
Adopt-A-Highway program, with more than 120,000 participants, where volunteers pledge to clean a section of our highways at least four times a year.
Litter is unsightly, costs millions of dollars to clean up and can hurt the environment, tourism and the state’s quality of life. Everyone should do their part by:
NCDOT Officials Clean Up Across the State
Recently, several NCDOT officials joined forces with local leaders to clean up roadsides in separate areas of North Carolina.
Just this week, Transportation
Sec. Eric Boyette joined staff and local and state officials to pick up trash along College Road in Wilmington. On the other side of the state,
Board of Transportation Member Tony Lathrop and NCDOT’s Division 10 Maintenance and Roadside Environmental units cleaned up a section of Monroe Road in east Charlotte.