Raleigh city budget includes major capital plans

The new Raleigh city budget brings with it a number of taxpayer-sponsored capital improvement projects. Somewhere among the $754 million in expenditures, the city found the money to fund a number of large-scale, long-awaited capital improvement projects. Let’s take a look at a few of the bigger ones:

The city plans to complete construction on the $55.6 million Downtown Remote Operations Center – which will actually be located just north of the Beltline off of Raleigh Boulevard. Site work for the 174,660-square-foot facility began in October 2013 and is scheduled to wrap up in the spring of 2015.

Another major project, the $71 million Critical Public Safety Facility, is scheduled to break ground nearby at the corner of North Raleigh Boulevard and Brentwood Road. Current plans have the facility opening in March of 2016, which is expected to cost about $900,000 a year to operate.

Work will also begin on the first phase of downtown’s Union Station, planned for West Martin Street. The city is funding $6 million of the $66.25 million project. Phase one will relocate passenger rail service from the Cabarrus Street station to the Dillon Supply Company Warehouse.