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About Us
The Gaston-Cleveland-Lincoln Metropolitan Planning Organization (GCLMPO) is a multi-jurisdictional entity made up of 34 local governments tasked with planning and monitoring transportation systems to the three-county region. Transportation planning requirements are administered by the MPO in conjunction with the Statewide Planning Branch and the Public Transportation Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) with the approval of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT).
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CATAWBA CROSSINGS FEASIBILITY STUDY
If you did not have an opportunity to participate in the comment period and would like to add your email to the project email list to receive future updates, please contact the Project Team by clicking below.
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OUR MISSION
The mission of the Gaston-Cleveland-Lincoln Metropolitan Planning Organization (GCLMPO) is to plan for a system of transportation modes that are consistent with the development and growth desired for the jurisdictions that comprise the MPO. The system of roadway, transit, freight, aviation, bicycle, and pedestrian travel modes will deliver safe and efficient movement of people and goods. The GCLMPO will strive to implement mobility options that positively coexist with the natural and built environments and strengthen the economic prosperity of the region while promoting community health and wellness.
INTERACTIVE MAP
Access the interactive map to review traffic counts, planned projects, or demographic data about the area.
TITLE VI
Title VI and related statutes prohibit discrimination in Federally assisted programs and policies on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
MPO Board Meeting
The MPO Board will meet IN-PERSON on Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 6:30 PM in the Gastonia Police Department Community Room.
Annual Funding Authorizations
GCLMPO FY 2023
Are a list of transportation projects for which funds were obligated in the preceding program year. Use the links below to access this information.
Deadline: Rolling Basis
Click this link to read the Notice of Funding Opportunity document. Review the FAQ’s document.
The BIL created the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, which makes $10 million available over five years to provide states, local governments, and tribal governments with grants to support project development leading to future applications to DOT credit or grant programs. The grants can support legal, technical, and financial advisors to help advance infrastructure projects. The first notice of funding opportunity includes two fiscal years and makes $3.4 million available to eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Eligible project sponsors may receive grant funds to select advisors to assist with pre- development-phase activities, including:
• feasibility studies
• project planning
• revenue forecasting and funding and financing options analyses
• preliminary engineering and design work
• environmental review
• economic assessments and cost-benefit analyses
• public benefits studies
• statutory and regulatory framework analyses
• value-for-money (VFM) studies
• evaluations of costs to sustain the project
• evaluation opportunities for private financing and project bundling
For more information, please email [email protected].
Deadline: 01/14/2024
The focus of the Road to Zero Community Traffic Safety Grant Program is focused on supporting innovative and promising approaches for implementing evidence-based countermeasures, supporting a Safe System approach, and performing necessary research to address traffic fatalities, disparities in mobility safety and access, and overall improve traffic safety. Learn more about the Road to Zero Grant Program and the work of previous grantees.
- Proposals should demonstrate the promising nature of the countermeasure by describing the innovative implementation approach, citing the evidence of effectiveness or identifying how effectiveness will be evaluated, and/or discussing how the project fills a gap or addresses existing disparities in traffic safety.
- Proposed projects should have measurable objectives and generalizable results. That is, projects should demonstrate innovative approaches that could be replicated in other locations or scaled up to a broader level.
- Proposals from past Road to Zero grantees are acceptable. They may be for new projects or for additional innovations on the previous project (i.e. phase #2) but not a continuation of any current or previous project.
Deadline: 01/17/2024
Up to $40 million for Fiscal Years 2024, in Federal funding for eligible entities to deploy, operate, document, and showcase integrated, advanced roadway deployments featuring applications enabled by interoperable wireless connectivity (among vehicles, mobile devices, and smart infrastructure) that substantially and quantitatively improve system safety, enhance traveler mobility, improve efficiency of goods movement, mitigate environmental impacts, and address disparities in transportation equity.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced that it is accepting applications under the $40 million Saving Lives with Connectivity: Accelerating V2X Deployment grant opportunity to advance connected and interoperable vehicle technologies. The initiative is focused on road safety, mobility, and efficiency through technology that enables vehicles and wireless devices to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure and provide warnings. V2X can contribute to the Safe System Approach adopted by the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, a comprehensive approach launched in January 2022 to address the crisis of roadway deaths.
The grant opportunity announced will promote the deployment of V2X technologies with the goal of advancing the full lifesaving potential of V2X communication, while ensuring connected technologies communicate securely and without harmful interference across a variety of devices and platforms. Safe and effective interoperable V2X connectivity can include multiple wireless technologies, including mobile, in-vehicle and roadside devices that can communicate and operate with each other, such as warnings and alerts related to intersections, red lights, curve speeds and roadway departures.
Deadline: 02/02/2024
The FHWA hereby requests applications to result in awards to eligible entities to deploy, install, and operate advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, mobility, efficiency, system performance, intermodal connectivity, and infrastructure return on investment. These model deployments are expected to provide benefits in the form of:
- reduced traffic-related fatalities and injuries;
- reduced traffic congestion and improved travel time reliability;
- reduced transportation-related emissions;
- optimized multimodal system performance;
- improved access to transportation alternatives, including for underserved populations;
- improved integration of payment systems;
- public access to real-time integrated traffic, transit, and multimodal transportation information to make informed travel decisions;
- cost savings to transportation agencies, businesses, and the traveling public; or
- other benefits to transportation users and the general public.
Deadline: February 28th, 2024
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE Discretionary Grant program, provides a unique opportunity for the DOT to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve national objectives. Previously known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants, Congress has dedicated nearly $14.3 billion for fifteen rounds of National Infrastructure Investments to fund projects that have a significant local or regional impact.
In each competition, DOT receives hundreds of applications to build and repair critical pieces of our freight and passenger transportation networks. The RAISE program enables DOT to examine these projects on their merits to help ensure that taxpayers are getting the highest value for every dollar invested.
The eligibility requirements of RAISE allow project sponsors at the State and local levels to obtain funding for multi-modal, multi-jurisdictional projects that are more difficult to support through traditional DOT programs. RAISE can provide funding directly to any public entity, including municipalities, counties, port authorities, tribal governments, MPOs, or others in contrast to traditional Federal programs which provide funding to very specific groups of applicants (mostly State DOTs and transit agencies). This flexibility allows RAISE and our traditional partners at the State and local levels to work directly with a host of entities that own, operate, and maintain much of our transportation infrastructure, but otherwise cannot turn to the Federal government for support.
Deadline: 08/01/2024
The Bridge Investment Program is a competitive, discretionary program that focuses on existing bridges to reduce the overall number of bridges in poor condition, or in fair condition at risk of falling into poor condition. It also expands applicant eligibilities to create opportunity for all levels of government to be direct recipients of program funds. Alongside states and federal lands management agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and local and tribal governments can also apply directly to FHWA, making it easier to advance projects at the local level that meet community needs.
Anticipated NOFO Release: Fall 2023
This program provides funding for highway-rail or pathway-rail grade crossing improvement projects that focus on improving the safety and mobility of people and goods. See the FY 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity for more information.
Eligible Projects:
- Grade separation or closure, including through the use of a bridge, embankment, tunnel, or combination thereof;
- Track relocation;
- Improvement or installation of protective devices, signals, signs, or other;
- Measures to improve safety related to a separation, closure, or track relocation project;
- Other means to improve the safety if related to the mobility of people and goods at highway-rail grade crossings (including technological solutions);
- The planning, environmental review, and design of an eligible project type.
Eligible Recipients:
- States, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other United States territories and possessions;
- Political subdivision of a state;
- Federally recognized Indian Tribe;
- A unit of local government or a group of local governments;
- A public port authority;
- A metropolitan planning organization;
- A group of the entities described above.
Anticipated NOFO Release: Fall 2023
This program funds projects that improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of intercity passenger and freight rail. See the FY 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for more information.
Eligible Projects: Projects eligible for funding under this grant program include, but are not limited to:
- Deployment of railroad safety technology;
- Capital projects, as defined in section 49 U.S.C. § 24401(2) for intercity passenger rail service, except that a project under this NOFO is not required to be in a state rail plan;
- Capital projects that:
- address congestion challenges affecting rail service,
- reduce congestion and facilitate ridership growth along heavily traveled rail corridors, and/or
- improve short-line or regional railroad infrastructure;
- Highway-rail grade crossing improvement projects;
- Rail line relocation and improvement projects;
- Regional rail and corridor service development plans and environmental analyses;
- Any project necessary to enhance multimodal connections or facilitate service integration between rail service and other modes;
- The development and implementation of a safety program or institute;
- The development and implementation of measures to prevent trespassing;
- Any research that the Secretary considers necessary to advance any particular aspect of rail related capital, operations, or safety improvements;
- Workforce development and training activities, coordinated to the extent practicable with the existing local training programs supported by the Department of Transportation, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education;
- Research, development, and testing to advance and facilitate innovative rail projects;
- Preparation of emergency plans for communities where hazardous materials are transported by rail;
- Rehabilitating, remanufacturing, procuring or overhauling locomotives for emissions reduction; and
- Deployment of Magnetic Levitation Transportation Projects.



This report summarizes all bicycle and pedestrian crashes in Gaston-Cleveland-Lincoln MPO in a 10-year period. The crashes analyzed occurred between January 1st, 2012 and
December 31st, 2021.
In that 10-year period, there were 1,063 total crashes. 776 were pedestrian crashes and 287 were bicycle crashes.
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The North Carolina Clean Transportation Plan (NCCTP) was created with local, regional and state agencies; transportation providers; non-profit organizations; social justice and equity focused groups; environmentally focused groups; academic partners; clean cities coalitions; advocacy groups; utility providers; and private companies.
The plan outlines the key recommendations and strategies that North Carolina can leverage to prepare for a clean transportation future and provide equitable outcomes for everyone.
The Great Trails State Coalition announces the launch of the 2023 North Carolina Year of the Trail campaign. NC Year of the Trail will celebrate and draw attention to North Carolina’s vast network of trails, greenways, and blueways. These trails showcase our state’s diverse landscapes – from grand mountain vistas to quiet rivers, vibrant urban greenways, coastal forests, and the rolling hills of the Piedmont.
North Carolina Year of the Trail is the largest statewide celebration of trails and outdoor recreation in state history and will firmly establish North Carolina as “The Great Trails State.”
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