RTA 2027 Business Plan Approved
Today, Friday, July 10, the RTA Steering Committee reviewed and approved our RTA 2026-27 business plan. You can view an overview on our priorities page (letsgetmoving.org/priorities) or download the entire plan directly via letsgetmoving.org/BizPlan.
While the plan is not completely different from our 2025-26 business plan — transportation projects don’t move that quickly — there are some notable changes in both what the plan conveys and how we present the information.
Overview
First of all, the plan begins with a focus theme for the year, that builds upon our organizational mission of “delivering business leadership to get our region moving faster.”
For 2027, our focus theme is: “Pushing for accelerated, scalable results and timely delivery.” The rest of the plan both reflects and builds upon that central theme.
In addition, the plan now includes a brief summary of our sense of the current advocacy landscape. We include five bullets, where we emphasize the challenges of growth, urgency, and inflation, the proven track record that focused business leadership continues to provide, and our focus on scalable results and gaining consensus for same.
The bullets summarizing the current landscape are:
-
- The growth of the market continues to increase, including outwardly, providing economic opportunity but also advocacy urgency to create reliable, cross-regional connectivity
- Cost inflation and time delays are rendering several projects effectively unbuildable or unviable, and all projects are taking too long to complete, except for toll roads
- Applying business focus on a few vital needs and solution pathways (e.g., the RDU exchange station, US 1 Capital freeway toll options) continues to bear fruit with our transportation and elected partners
- Our region must embrace faster, concurrent studies, streamlined engagement, and a managed risk implementation approach
- The regional business community will advocate for accelerated, tactical and scalable results, and consensus for same
Advocacy priorities
RTA is an advocacy organization on behalf of the regional business community. For 2027, we present our advocacy priorities slightly differently. We begin with our top project priorities, which are generally actionable, although not always immediately knowable, and then delve into policy and funding areas:
2027 top project priorities:
-
- US 1 freeway – We will continue to push for acceleration of all or part of this vital Capital Blvd. upgrade
- US 70 – We will seek consensus on a junior freeway alternative between Durham and Raleigh
- I-40 – We will advance rapid relief solutions and pursue regional “through chute” lanes for I-40
- Regional BRT – We will push for accelerated delivery of BRT corridors and I-40/RDU exchange station
- RDU Airport – We will promote airport infrastructure and funding, and elevate P3 solution opportunities
- Intercity Rail – We will support Raleigh-Wake Forest phase 1 linkage to Richmond, and new RTP station
2027 top policy and funding priorities:
-
- Federal policy – We will support reauthorization, including policies that streamline approvals
- State policy – We will push transparency/accountability legislation to highlight, reduce project delays
- State funding – We will advance gas tax reindexing, consideration of expanded state revenue options
- Regional policy – We will ensure that business voices are represented on vital transportation boards
- Local funding – We will push for county local option roads legislation to complement transit taxes
- Project funding – We will elevate toll solutions for expanded or new freeways, including I-40, I-540
Naturally there is some overlap in the various areas, and some focuses don’t fall neatly into one category.And, of course, some projects are either still uncertain or too specific and numerous to list in a one page summary document for a business leadership group.
For example, there are a host of projects at RDU — some underway, some envisioned — along with associated revenue needs. For simplicity we do not list them individually, instead we include “We will promote airport infrastructure and funding” as the associated priority.
The plan also lists a few ongoing focus areas that remain important to our organization’s advocacy efforts:
-
- Congestion relief – We will pursue intersection delay funding by leveraging dynamic left turn pilots
- Transit experience – We will elevate the importance of safe, attractive transit for future BRT success
- Multimodal streets – We will seek scalable delivery of I-40 bikeway and complete street approaches
The 2026-27 plan keeps all advocacy priorities together on the front page of the plan for ease of reading. While the organization will on occasion focus on other priorities as opportunities or situations arise, the vast majority of our current and expected advocacy efforts are listed on this page.
Organizational priorities
For 2026-27 we limit our “internal” organizational priorities to just three bullets, and each of them are centered on a priority aspect of our RTA Regional Leadership Team: growth, engagement, and price stability:
-
- We will continue our successful growth of the membership of the RTA Regional Leadership Team
- RTA will increase executive director and chair(s) outreach to current Leadership Team members
- RTA will maintain stable RTA Leadership Team pricing ($5k, $7.5k, $10k) for 25th consecutive year
While all RTA members are important, and we expect to see new RTA memberships at all membership levels, the reality is that our Regional Leadership Team is where we consistently see our maximum engagement, commensurate with increased investment. The RTA Silver level, with a $5,000 minimum annual investment, remains our most popular investment level, for both current and new members. This also lays the groundwork for further engagement and investment; for example, our RTA Gold membership tiers typically grow via upgrades from RTA Silver or other membership levels.
Organizational overview and highlights
The information on the reverse side of the new 2026-27 business plan is largely unchanged from the 2025-26 version. The only difference is that we bring all of it together on a single page: RTA overview, purpose, advocacy approach, and chair leadership. We believe this presentation of information is more intuitive and will better serve as a convenient, quick reference for both our current and future RTA members and partners.
Let’s get moving
While there are a host of important mobility priorities in the region, RTA cannot and does not focus on everything. This plan provides a simple, digestible framework of what we will primarily focus on as a regional business leadership group for the balance of 2026 and into 2027.
We look forward to continued advocacy success, for the continued success of our market and region. Thank you to the members and partners of the RTA who will make that happen.
Let’s get moving,
Joe
Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA executive director
