City staff gave a multi-part briefing on Nov. 10 detailing how Charlotte will prepare to deliver roughly $5.7 billion in road investments that the city expects to receive over 30 years under the recently passed mobility sales tax. The manager and staff framed the effort as a three‑part rollout: project delivery, small‑business readiness and workforce development.

City Manager Marcus Jones described the scope in broad terms: the package’s city portion (40%) will be used to prioritize roads projects, strategic investment areas, sidewalks, Vision Zero safety projects and workforce and small‑business support. “That’s $5,700,000,000 over 30 years that’s coming to this body,” he said.

Ed McKinney, who led the presentation on project delivery, described how a $55 million pilot from last year informed a new delivery model the city wants to scale. “We can do it faster, better, and cheaper,” he said, describing cross‑departmental teams that bring procurement, IT, stormwater, fire and other disciplines together earlier in a project’s life cycle to reduce delays and cost overruns. Staff also showcased a live project dashboard that shows project status, budgets and maps to improve accountability.

Planning and small‑business staff described workforce and vendor programs designed to help local firms compete for city contracts. Monica Allen summarized a gap analysis — to be released next month — that will quantify workforce and business readiness needs for the coming decades: “The goal for the gap analysis is to prepare the local businesses and workforce so the people and businesses can capitalize on the significant economic opportunity.” Staff said early pilots included a $175,000 solar street‑light project that trained local vendors and provided contract revenue to a micro‑business as a prove‑out of targeted capacity building.

Staff emphasized steps to speed payments, including exploring a quick‑pay program, and said they will combine existing workforce dollars with new mobility funding to support training and small‑business readiness solicitations planned for December. Several council members asked for more district‑level examples, clearer metrics, and assurance that the priority rubric will include high‑injury network locations.

Next steps: staff will deliver the full gap‑analysis recommendations next month and continue outreach; councilmembers asked staff to provide district examples and to ensure prioritization includes safety and anti‑displacement protections.