How the NCDOT scoring process for projects works

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — While work on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge is expected to last just a few months, discussions about a future replacement bridge continue.

For many people, the big question is, will it involve a toll?

The NCDOT uses a prioritization process to score projects throughout the state, with the score calculated by several different factors.

Those factors include safety, congestion, and benefit cost.

Caitlin Melvin is the deputy division engineer for the NCDOT’s Division 3.

She said the benefit-cost is a major part of determining whether to fund any new project.

“So your benefit remains the same, the cost to the DOT goes down when you have some other source helping fund the project and that’s what boosts the score,” Melvin said. “And so what we’re tasked with doing is looking at all of these different options that we can do to get that cost to the DOT down to boost that score.”

Melvin said there are several ways to cover the cost of a replacement bridge and why Wednesday night’s WMPO vote was so important.

“So the different ways that we can do that would be through grants, it could potentially be through tolls. So that was why that vote last night was so important was to see if we could enter into prioritization for it to score and see how it scored with a toll component being added.

With that vote, Melvin said two different versions of a replacement bridge would be scored, one with a toll and one without a toll.

Those scores are expected to be released sometime this spring.

Melvin also said that if the toll option bridge scored high enough, additional support from the WMPO would be needed for the bridge to be constructed.