CHAPEL HILL - The N.C. Board of Transportation approved $87,717 in state funding for the Town of Chapel Hill, operating as Chapel Hill Transit, to conduct a feasibility study for the expansion of the Eubanks Road Park and Ride lot.

The Urban/Regional Bus and Facility Program provides the required state match to direct recipients of federally funded grants through the Federal Transit Administration for projects such as new buses and vehicles, as well as maintenance, operations or transfer facilities.

Chapel Hill Transit received a Federal Transit Administration Urbanized Area Formula Program Capital grant to conduct a feasibility study and, if found feasible, undertake preliminary engineering and design for the potential expansion of the park and ride lot on Eubanks Road between Millhouse Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (N.C. 86). The state funding approved last month will be used as the required 10 percent match. These funds match $87,718 in local funds and $701,747 in federal funding, totaling $877,182.

Park and ride lots enable transit riders who do not live within walking distance of their stop to park their car in a designated area where they can then board their desired bus route. The Eubanks Road lot, which was built in 1995 and is owned by the Town of Chapel Hill, has 400 parking spaces on approximately seven acres of land. A recent study shows that the lot is about 89 percent occupied.

Due to anticipated growth and development – a mixed-use project called The Edge with an as yet unnamed national anchor store has been proposed for the Eubanks Road area – as well as the planned development of rapid transit in the corridor, Chapel Hill Transit is studying increasing the capacity at the lot by either purchasing nearby property to accommodate additional spaces, or constructing a parking deck on the current lot.

Since Gov. Bev Perdue took office, the NCDOT Public Transportation Division has awarded more than $436 million in grant funds to local public transportation systems, according to a town news release.

For more information on grant programs through the Public Transportation Division of NCDOT, as well as transit systems that serve the public throughout the state, visit ncdot.gov/nctransit.