RALEIGH - The N.C. Department of Transportation today announced the winners of its inaugural Mobi Awards to honor towns, cities and counties for completing game-changing projects that used different modes of transportation to make travel easier and more efficient.
Winners were chosen in five categories - Rural, Suburban, Urban, Tourism and Innovation. All projects were eligible to apply for the innovation category.
Judges from across the state chose the winners based on a project's success at leveraging public and private investment, spurring economic development, creating long-term jobs, improving health, benefiting the community, and contributing to the community or state in other significant ways.
NCDOT Secretary Jim Trogdon and Julie White, the NCDOT's Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation, presented the awards.
“Our transportation system must be designed to meet the complex needs of the rapidly growing population of North Carolina," Trogdon said. “The North Carolina Department of Transportation is committed to designing and delivering projects communities want, need and will use. NCDOT Mobi Awards celebrate communities that are at the forefront of delivering multimodal projects. We are proud to partner with these communities to deliver these projects."
The winners are as follows:
Rural
Winner: City of Sanford (Downtown Sanford Streetscape)
Honorable Mentions: Western Piedmont Council of Governments (Burke Flex Bus Services), Goldsboro-Wayne Transportation Authority (GWTA Transfer Center), and Northwest Piedmont Rural Planning Organization (Granite City Greenway Phase 3)
Urban
Winner: Charlotte Area Transit System (LYNX Blue Line Extension Light Rail Project)
Honorable Mentions: City of Charlotte (Charlotte Intermodal Facility), French Broad River MPO (Craven Street Transportation Improvements), and City of Raleigh (Raleigh Union Station)
Suburban
Tourism
Winner: City of Greenville/Greenville Urban Area MPO (GK Butterfield Transportation Center)
Honorable Mentions: Concord Kannapolis Area Transit (Concord Charlotte Express), Onslow County – Albert J. Ellis Airport (Albert J. Ellis Redevelopment Project), and Hyde County (Ocracoke Island Tram System)
Innovation
Winners: City of Raleigh (GoRaleigh Station Renovations) and Currituck County (Corolla Village Road Sidewalk Extension Project)
Honorable Mentions: City of Winston-Salem (Long Branch Trail) and Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (Howard Coble Intermodal Transportation Center).
To qualify, a project must have been completed within the last five years and had to include two or more modes of transportation involving aviation, bicycle/pedestrian, ferry, public transportation, rail, or roadway.
The ceremony, hosted by the NCDOT, Women Transportation Seminars, N.C. Go! and N.C. State University Institute for Transportation Research and Education, was held at N.C. State's Centennial Campus.
To view videos of the first-place winners, visit connect.ncdot.gov/mobi.