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A vibrant Charlotte, NC skyline showcases the Bank of America Corporate Center and Duke Energy Center, with active construction and multiple tower cranes. Bank of America Stadium is also visible.
Sports Partnerships

Charlotte, North Carolina: Hard work driven by heart

2 minute read
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October 11, 2026

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Summary

Across the Charlotte region, people show up for their neighbors. See how Trimble technology helps crews build a driving circuit over three streams, expand one of the world's busiest airports and locate nearly 300,000 water meters.

Flags snap above the rows of campers parked in the infield of Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. With RFK's shop just down the road, Brad Keselowski and the No. 6 Trimble Ford Mustang Dark Horse return home to a community that shows up for its own. Just days before race day, the speedway's grandstands held a very different weight as fans gathered for a public memorial honoring Kyle Busch, the two-time Cup champion who won more NASCAR races at this track than anyone. In this and many other ways, the Charlotte area is defined by its solidarity. A spirit that lives in the grading crews, utility workers and airport teams working to uplift communities across the region.

Shaping a circuit and supporting the region

Located just a 15-minute walk from Charlotte, Ten Tenths Motor Club tapped Baker’s Construction Services to build their new 1.7-mile driving circuit. Having reshaped the ground at Bristol Motor Speedway for 30 years, Baker's has ample experience showing up for their neighbors. Tackling a site crisscrossed by three streams, the crew stabilized soft ground, bridged the waterways and carved a continuous circuit while preserving the water flow below, relying on Trimble technology to check its grading foot by foot against the designer's plan. The circuit is just one more reason for visitors to visit a county where tourism supports more than 4,800 jobs.

Yellow Cat excavator and bulldozer perform earthmoving on a banked NASCAR track, featuring sponsor billboards for Kroger, GEICO, and Credit Karma.

Making room for record-breaking arrivals

As Charlotte continues to grow, many new faces come and go through Charlotte Douglas International Airport. It is one of the 10 busiest airports in the world, and its teams have spent the past decade making room for more: a larger lobby, expanded concourses, new roads and a fourth runway now under construction. With the help of Trimble technology to keep budgets, change requests and builders’ questions in one place, much of that work has happened without interrupting flights. The work moves forward, and the room is needed. In 2025, local passenger traffic set a record, driven by the region's population boom.

CLT 370-ft ATC tower. Construction site with earthwork, aggregate, yellow excavator near Charlotte skyline.

Growing with the flow

As populations grow, more housing is needed and every new home needs a water meter. Charlotte Water has nearly 300,000 meters serving about one million people. It’s a lot to track, and in 2021, the department had only confirmed the exact location of 30% of its meters and the effort to track them was costing about $400,000 a year. By leaning on Trimble technology, paired with AI from its longtime partner Esri, to pinpoint meter locations, crews know exactly where to go. Charlotte Water set out to show up for every one of its million neighbors, the ones who have been here for generations and the ones the region is still making room for.

Brass & blue water meter, active m³ dial, red flow indicator, linked to blue pipes & red valve. Essential for utility monitoring.

Carrying the tech forward

On Sunday evening, the last campers pull out of the infield and the flags come down. The grandstands that held a race that afternoon and a memorial just days before go quiet. What filled them stays. It is in the crew that answers a call from a state away, the airport that makes room before the planes full of visitors land and the utility crews who ensure help finds every front door. The people of the Charlotte region show up for one another at every turn.

Add Trimble to your toolkit

Explore the Trimble workflows powering these local initiatives:

Ground truth that matches the build plan

  • Baker's Construction Services shaped a hillside into a 1.7-mile circuit by checking its grading against the designer's plan. Trimble Earthworks puts that plan in the cab, showing operators of excavators, dozers and graders where to cut and fill so the ground matches the design.

One view of every project 

  • Charlotte Douglas International Airport kept a decade of expansion organized by putting its budgets, change requests and builders' questions in one place. Trimble Unity Construct gives owners that same single view of a building program, from planning and design through procurement, construction and handover.

Every street on the map 

  • Charlotte Water set out to find nearly 300,000 meters by driving its own streets. The Trimble MX7 mobile mapping system mounts on a vehicle and captures 360-degree photos tagged with precise locations, ready for mapping anything from meters to street signs.

Learn how Trimble integrated field-to-office technology gives teams the power to turn project projections into predictable outcomes.

EXPLORE TRIMBLE SOLUTIONS

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