Heavy weight: Can the region’s infrastructure and transportation backbone support the area’s rapid rise?

Heavy weight:

Can the region’s infrastructure and transportation backbone support the area’s rapid rise?

As the nation leaves the pandemic behind, optimism for the future and pent-up energy have become the animating forces of the day. Both robust economic growth — all but assured after the bottom fell out in 2020 — and a Biden presidential administration that has turned domestic development into its signature issue are sure to have farreaching consequences for the Raleigh-Durham region.

Already an economic juggernaut before the pandemic, this part of North Carolina is on-track to continue its growth as it stands to benefit from one of the unforeseen effects of COVID-19: the rise of remote work and inmigration of people from all over the country (but especially the major cities of the Northeast and Midwest) to the vibrant, human-scale economies that dot the Southeast. Over the next 10-20 years, it is estimated that over 650,000 new residents will arrive in the Triangle region, where the weather is better, housing is cheaper, populations are less dense, highly-skilled labor abounds and where the tax policy is more welcoming.

The question surrounding Raleigh-Durham’s infrastructure now becomes whether it is up to the task of absorbing this growth in population and economic activity. It’s not a bad problem to have but it’s a problem, nonetheless. Landscape Even without the economic growth, North Carolina’s infrastructure is looking creaky indeed, a fact highlighted in the Biden administration’s state-by-state details of its $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. The plan paints a telling tale for North Carolina, and suggests the adverse impact poor conditions have on residents: with 1,460 bridges and 3,116 miles of highway in need of work, commute times have increased by nearly 11% in the last decade, with each driver spending an average of $500 annually because of poor road conditions; for state residents relying on public transportation, commute times are longer by nearly 60%, with nonwhite North Carolinians 3.4 times more likely to use public transportation; and drinking water infrastructure is expected to require $17 billion in extra funding over the next 20 years. There is also the matter of digital infrastructure, which must be improved to address 6% of North Carolinians who lack access to broadband, over half of the state that has only one broadband provider and the 14% of North Carolinians without an internet subscription. Finally, Raleigh-Durham International Airport is in need of a new runway.

Then there’s the weather to consider. In the last year ( )