Before Toyota and VinFast can get started, NC must improve access to its megasites
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VinFast in NC
Vietnamese automaker VinFast announced in March 2022 that it would open an electric vehicle assembly plant in North Carolina. The battery manufacturing plant will be built in Chatham County and is expected to eventually create 7,500 jobs. It’s the largest economic development announcement in the state’s history. Here is coverage from The News & Observer about the plans.
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Toyota and Vietnamese automaker VinFast were lured to North Carolina with tax breaks and access to “megasites” of vacant land in rural parts of Chatham and Randolph counties.
Now the N.C. Department of Transportation is poised to spend hundreds of millions more to make those remote sites more accessible to the world.
The General Assembly gave NCDOT $135 million to build roads in and around the Randolph site near the town of Liberty, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Greensboro. The Golden Leaf Foundation is providing another $40 million to NCDOT for public roads at the site.
Toyota will build a $1.29 billion factory that will employ 1,750 people making make hybrid and electric vehicle batteries, starting in 2025. To provide access, NCDOT is building two new interchanges off U.S. 421 at the north and south entrances of the 1,800-acre site.
Meanwhile, VinFast says it will spend more than $4 billion and hire 7,500 workers to make electric SUVs at the 2,150-acre Moncure megasite in Chatham. The VinFast incentive package includes about $250 million for transportation improvements in and around the site, according to the state Commerce Department.
That money still must be approved by the General Assembly, but there’s little chance that won’t happen. Republican leaders of both chambers, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, joined Gov. Roy Cooper at last week’s announcement of the VinFast deal.
An NCDOT spokesman declined to talk about what’s planned at the Moncure site, pending the legislature’s approval. Mike Fox, chairman of the state Board of Transportation, said last week that it will include significant upgrades to two interchanges off U.S. 1 and other roads in the area.
Dan LaMontagne, the county manager in Chatham, said roads in and around Moncure are sized just right for a small rural community.
“With 7,500 jobs and all that comes with that, clearly there needs to be upgrades,” LaMontagne said.
Railroad upgrades coming; port expects more business
Railroad connections at both sites will also be improved. The N.C Railroad, a state-owned private company, spent $35 million to acquire land for the Greensboro-Randolph site, which is bordered by a Norfolk Southern rail line that feeds into the N.C Railroad’s main line.
The Moncure site is bordered by a CSX rail line, and there’s a Norfolk Southern line nearby. The N.C. Railroad says it will provide $1 million to help build a new ramp for loading cars onto trains, which it says will increase freight rail activity in the state by at least 5,000 rail cars a year.
A brochure for the Moncure site stressed that rail service offered “a direct route to the Port of Charleston” in South Carolina.
But Brian Clark, executive director of the N.C. State Ports Authority, said he expects the bulk of imports and exports from the VinFast plant to pass through state ports in Wilmington and Morehead City.
The state has spent hundreds of millions to improve the Port of Wilmington, and Clark said it is well equipped to handle containers or bulk shipments of parts for assembly at the Moncure plant. He expects most of that material would move by truck.
“The proximity of the site to the Port of Wilmington certainly puts us in a great position to support it. It’s a close truck move,” he said. “So despite the comment about direct connection to Charleston, I think we’re in a very good position from a logistics standpoint.”
If VinFast decides to export SUVs made in Moncure, both ports at Wilmington and Morehead City can accommodate car-carrying ships, Clark said. But the ports authority doesn’t do large numbers of auto imports or exports now and would likely need to build a facility for storing and staging them, he said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Before Toyota and VinFast can get started, NC must improve access to its megasites."
