A North Carolina energy project today received the lion's share of federal stimulus funds designated for improving the nation's aging hydroelectric power plants.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded up to $13 million to Alcoa to replace four 90-year-old turbines at the Tapoco Cheoah plant near the Little Tennessee River in Graham and Swain counties.

The grant will provide an additional 22 megawatts of capacity to the Alcoa facility, boosting power output by 23 percent.

North Carolina's electric utilities came out the biggest winners in President Obama's $3.4 billion nationwide investment in Smart Grid technologies. The federal stimulus package announced today will go to 49 states as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

This state's two biggest power companies -- Progress Energy and Duke Energy -- both qualified for maximum awards to upgrade their electricity delivery and power management systems. But much of the money awarded today will be spent by the utilities in other states where they operate.

A Smart Grid is a computerized electricity network with real-time data that operates more efficiently than a standard electro-mechanical grid. The U.S. Department of Energy said that Smart Grid upgrades could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030.

View Wade & Glenwood repaving in a larger map

NCDOT will start work Monday on a project, funded with federal stimulus dollars, to repave Wade Avenue inside the Raleigh Beltline.

All lanes will stay open during the weekday rush hour, 6-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m.

But some lanes will be closed and traffic will be slowed at other times of the day and night, DOT says. Wade carries about 30,000 cars and trucks each day.

NCDOT also awarded a $1.2 million contract this summer to repave Glenwood Avenue inside the Beltline, but that job now is scheduled to start in March.

Wednesday was profitable for scientists in the Triangle.

A load of federal stimulus money - $145 million - arrived in area science labs to spur research and jumpstart the economy. Duke and UNC Chapel Hill were among the prime beneficiaries.

Sarah Avery and David Bracken report on it here.

Duke scientists won 181 grants worth $70 million, and UNC-CH researchers won 186 grants worth more than $65 million. 

RTI International, a Research Triangle Park think tank, received 10 grants as well.

Here's a rundown of some Duke's success stories. Similarly, here's some UNC-CH info, and click here for the national picture.

One of the biggest pieces of the pie landed at UNC-CH, one of 12 winners of a Cancer Genome Atlas Grant, to examine mechanisms of how cancer grows and spreads.

The five-year award will total between $13 million and $20 million and will result in the hiring of at least six people for lab and computer work.

"It's really the next phase of the Human Genome Project," said Dr. Charles Perou, a UNC-CH professor leading the cancer atlas project.

Wednesday's yield was among the first positive results since the federal stimulus plan was announced. Since the emphasis on science research became known, area universities kicked into high gear, employing every tool in the arsenal to prepare grants quickly and submit strong, concise and accurate proposals to the federal government.

Ray LaHood, the US transportation secretary, announced  approval today of more federal stimulus funds for transit improvements in the Triangle:

$4 million for Raleigh to help start building a bus operations and maintenance center for Capital Area Transit, and

$900,000 for Triangle Transit to buy a van and three 40-foot buses.

Raleigh and Triangle Transit were among the recipients of additional stimulus grants announced in July. 

The scary old I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River near Salisbury is woefully overdue for a $350 million replacement. Agreed. But who wants to pay for it?

North Carolina wants President Obama to pay for it.

I-85 is the main road between Richmond and Atlanta. Only a fraction of the 70,000 cars and trucks that ratle across the narrow bridge every day are local. But under the General Assembly's "equity" formula for distributing highway dollars, the Yadkin bridge is just another local project. ... [MORE]

View I-540 repaving in a larger map

Nighttime repaving work starts Wednesday night on a 3.8-mile section of the 540 Outer Loop in western Wake County, from I-40 to U.S. 70.

C.C. Mangum Co. of Raleigh has the $2.2 million contract, funded with stimulus money from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to resurface the roadway and ramps and to rebuild the freeway shoulders.

The work will take place at night only between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., with at least one lane of traffic open at all times. The repaving is to be finished by May 2010.

If this project goes like a recent repaving job nearby on I-40, traffic backups will be possible even late at night with freeway traffic squeezed into a single lane.

Call 511 or check online at www.ncdot.gov/travel/ for construction traffic updates. 

The Triangle J Council of Governments today won a $13 million Clean Cities grant in federal stimulus funds to help buy a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles and build a network of fueling and charging stations in North and South Carolina.

The grant, announced by the U.S. Department of Energy, will fund about one-third of the Carolinas Blue Skies and Green Jobs Initiative for electric, hybrid-electric, compressed natural gas (CNG), propane, E85 ethanol and biodiesel vehicles. Many of the new stations will be located in the Triangle.

The Energy Department said the new vehicles will displace an estimated 724,000 gallons of petroleum annually. The program will build 45 E85 and biodiesel fueling stations, eight propane stations and 132 electric vehicle recharging stations. It will buy 55 CNG vehicles, 363 propane vehicles, 89 hybrid-electric vehicles and 56 neighborhood electric vehicles.

"We are ecstatic to get this award," said Sean Flaherty of Triangle J COG, a regional planning agency.

The state Department of Transportation is filing applications tonight for the first batch of federal high-speed rail grants it hopes to receive under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In preliminary filings in July, North Carolina said it eventually would apply for about $4 billion in rail grants to help build faster and more frequent rail service between Charlotte and Washington, D.C. Today the state asked for a small share of that total in six separate applications for a combined $75.9 million.

The grants include money to upgrade the Cary, Burlington and High Point rail stations, to rehabilitate locomotives and passenger cars, to build a rail passing siding in the Haw River area, to finish engineering work for a proposed line between Raleigh and Richmond, and to conduct environmental studies for proposed rail service extensions in western and southeastern North Carolina.

Pat Simmons, the state rail division director, said the six projects would create or preserve a combined 1,482 jobs in North Carolina, and 25 jobs at locomotive and railcar rehabilitation shops in New York and Delaware. Details of the grant applications will be posted tonight or tomorrow at http://bytrain.org/arra.html, he said.

The Federal Railroad Administration is accepting applications today only for projects that are ready to start. Other projects that can be ready to go by the end of 2009 will be included in a much larger batch of grant applications to be filed by Oct. 2, Simmons said.

Progress Energy said this morning it is applying for $200 million in federal stimulus funds to help pay for the company's development of Smart Grid technology in the Carolinas and in Florida.

The U.S. Department of Energy is planning to award $4.5 billion in Smart Grid grants as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. A Smart Grid is an electric transmission and distribution system that provides real-time data to the power company and customers on the customer's energy use and on the cost of power generation at any given instant.

"It will allow our customers ultimately to have more direct control of their energy use and their bill through pricing signals and pre-pay options," said CEO Bill Johnson. "The end result will be improved system efficiencies, energy conservation and a cleaner environment."