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[sparker]

The I-87 projects did not receive any INFRA grant funding (again). North Carolina didn't get anything this year.

https://www.transportation.gov/buildamerica/financing/infra-grants/infrastructure-rebuilding-america

Not surprised about I-87, but I do wish that some federal dollars would be sent for the new alignment Neuse River crossing for I-795.

Seems like the freeway-related projects listed fall into a few categories:  rehabilitation (e.g. I-90/SD), local service augmentation (I-25/NM, new interchange and connector), and addressing urban problems (I-70/71/Columbus) largely stemming from '50's and '60's design.  Not much in the way of upgrading non-freeways into freeways (the US 17 portion of I-87) or simply raising working and ostensibly non-deteriorated facilities to Interstate standards (the US 64 portion).  Since this funding round precedes the omnibus infrastructure bill that, at this writing, may or may not be working it way through Congress -- but does reflect at some level administration priorities -- it indicates the basic direction the "top-down" POV will entail -- but the overall bill will be tempered by the aggregate congressional "wish list", particularly now that earmarks have been reinstated.  Still, it'll probably be a few years down the line until the I-87 corridor gets much in the way of focus; the administration's submissions will almost assuredly follow this INFRA pattern or even veer more toward urban projects over time, and the various congressional delegations will be competing for whatever funds are available, so it's more of the same process of standing in line unless NC folks can get earmarks through the process, which requires both motivation and follow-through.

[tolbs17]

I was thinking I-87 would still be important cause it's to draw traffic from US-58, NC-11, and I-95, onto US-17 and US-64. Which can definitely stop the need to widen I-95 north of US-64.

[froggie]

^ It's not going to pull that much traffic off 95.  Even the ardent I-87 supporters are admitting that I-87 is primarily to create economic development in northeastern NC, not to pull traffic from elsewhere.

[sprjus4]

^ Even if the majority of the Hampton Roads bound traffic was diverted away from I-95 onto I-87, assuming VDOT leaves US-58 unimproved, that’s still not a significant volume diverted away from I-95. The vast majority of traffic on I-95 in North Carolina is continuing beyond US-58 in Virginia.

[tolbs17]

^ It's not going to pull that much traffic off 95.  Even the ardent I-87 supporters are admitting that I-87 is primarily to create economic development in northeastern NC, not to pull traffic from elsewhere.

Will Elizabeth City's population go to 100,000?

[sprjus4]

^ Who knows. Maybe not that far, but as development moves south into Southern Chesapeake, it could eventually move further. Having US-17 as an interstate highway in the long term, combined with those factors, Elizabeth City and that part of Northeastern North Carolina could have a decent amount of population growth over the next 20-40 years.

Moyock is growing pretty good, that northern part of Currituck County. Lots of new developments being built that way.

[LM117]

I know it's not directly road-related, but a recent announcement today involving development near the I-87 corridor could move the upgrade of US-64 up a notch or two in the future.

http://www.wral.com/csx-to-build-massive-cargo-terminal-in-edgecombe-county/15861789/

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — After months of discussion and debate, CSX announced Tuesday that it will build its massive Carolina Connector cargo terminal in Edgecombe County.

The hub, which is expected to open in 2020, will be built between Battleboro and College roads south of U.S. Highway 301 in Rocky Mount. Officials anticipate 300 permanent jobs at the site, as well as 250 to 300 construction jobs.

Cargo transfer hubs improve efficiency in distributing goods from manufacturers to retailers and consumers, officials said, and they also reduce truck traffic on state highways. Studies by the state Department of Transportation show warehouses and other facilities usually cluster around such hubs, and officials have projected the Carolina Connector could eventually spawn up to 13,000 related jobs statewide.

DOT plans to provide $110 million in improvements to rail lines and terminal infrastructure, while CSX will invest $160 million in the project. The company also qualifies for up to $4.3 million in rebates of employee withholding taxes under a Job Development Investment Grant if it meets annual hiring and investment targets in the coming years, as well as $7.8 million in state tax credits.

Officials said the company was attracted to the Rocky Mount site because of its proximity to CSX’s main north-south rail line, Interstate 95 and the future Interstate 87 corridor from the Triangle to Norfolk, Va., and the planned Interstate 42 corridor from the Triangle to Morehead City.

According to WRAL's version of this story, NC beat out VA and SC for this facility.

It's a nice reminder that highways can/should be built for tomorrow's traffic as well as today's.

This CSX terminal facility has been talked about for several years, principally in the RR industry press (including the publicly available Trains magazine).  It was apparently cancelled about 5 years ago due to a downturn in traffic and the adoption of "scheduled railroading" by CSX among others, a practice which tends to foreshadow a consolidation of origin/destination points rather than the deployment of additional ones.  But it seems the political value of building and operating the facility outweighed internal doubts, so it's finally being done.  FWIH from several quarters is that "Panamax" is indeed increasing the inbound volume from several East Coast and Gulf ports; this likely also figured into CSX's decision to resume development of the Rocky Mount yard/marshalling location.

It's not being built as large as originally planned, though. The state managed to convince CSX not to pull out altogether, so CSX finally agreed to build a scaled-down version of the terminal. This agreement happened after the then-CSX CEO Hunter Harrison died. IIRC, it was his idea to kill the project.

Here's an image of the construction taken back in July:

To give an update, the terminal is expected to open in 2 months.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-to-bring-thousands-of-jobs-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-into-nc-through-rocky-mount-area/19783199/

...aaaannnd it's open.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-terminal-comes-online-as-state-grapples-with-supply-chain-issues/19956579/

[tolbs17]

I know it's not directly road-related, but a recent announcement today involving development near the I-87 corridor could move the upgrade of US-64 up a notch or two in the future.

http://www.wral.com/csx-to-build-massive-cargo-terminal-in-edgecombe-county/15861789/

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — After months of discussion and debate, CSX announced Tuesday that it will build its massive Carolina Connector cargo terminal in Edgecombe County.

The hub, which is expected to open in 2020, will be built between Battleboro and College roads south of U.S. Highway 301 in Rocky Mount. Officials anticipate 300 permanent jobs at the site, as well as 250 to 300 construction jobs.

Cargo transfer hubs improve efficiency in distributing goods from manufacturers to retailers and consumers, officials said, and they also reduce truck traffic on state highways. Studies by the state Department of Transportation show warehouses and other facilities usually cluster around such hubs, and officials have projected the Carolina Connector could eventually spawn up to 13,000 related jobs statewide.

DOT plans to provide $110 million in improvements to rail lines and terminal infrastructure, while CSX will invest $160 million in the project. The company also qualifies for up to $4.3 million in rebates of employee withholding taxes under a Job Development Investment Grant if it meets annual hiring and investment targets in the coming years, as well as $7.8 million in state tax credits.

Officials said the company was attracted to the Rocky Mount site because of its proximity to CSX’s main north-south rail line, Interstate 95 and the future Interstate 87 corridor from the Triangle to Norfolk, Va., and the planned Interstate 42 corridor from the Triangle to Morehead City.

According to WRAL's version of this story, NC beat out VA and SC for this facility.

It's a nice reminder that highways can/should be built for tomorrow's traffic as well as today's.

This CSX terminal facility has been talked about for several years, principally in the RR industry press (including the publicly available Trains magazine).  It was apparently cancelled about 5 years ago due to a downturn in traffic and the adoption of "scheduled railroading" by CSX among others, a practice which tends to foreshadow a consolidation of origin/destination points rather than the deployment of additional ones.  But it seems the political value of building and operating the facility outweighed internal doubts, so it's finally being done.  FWIH from several quarters is that "Panamax" is indeed increasing the inbound volume from several East Coast and Gulf ports; this likely also figured into CSX's decision to resume development of the Rocky Mount yard/marshalling location.

It's not being built as large as originally planned, though. The state managed to convince CSX not to pull out altogether, so CSX finally agreed to build a scaled-down version of the terminal. This agreement happened after the then-CSX CEO Hunter Harrison died. IIRC, it was his idea to kill the project.

Here's an image of the construction taken back in July:

To give an update, the terminal is expected to open in 5 months.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-to-bring-thousands-of-jobs-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-into-nc-through-rocky-mount-area/19783199/

...aaaannnd it's open.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-terminal-comes-online-as-state-grapples-with-supply-chain-issues/19956579/

FTFY

[kernals12]

Virginia could really seize on the woes at the Ports of LA/LB if it got started on this.

[froggie]

Not really, given that the ships in LA/LB would have several thousand miles to travel to get to Hampton Roads, even if they headed to the East Coast directly from Asia.

[kernals12]

Not really, given that the ships in LA/LB would have several thousand miles to travel to get to Hampton Roads, even if they headed to the East Coast directly from Asia.

But the ports at Hampton Roads are automated and everything's running smoothly

https://www.wtkr.com/news/some-hampton-roads-stores-feeling-the-pinch-of-supply-chain-issues

This is isn't the first time LA/LB has had labor issues and it won't be the last.

[Bobby5280]

There is a growing boom of activity along arctic shipping routes. Less and less polar ice year 'round opens the door for ships traveling from Asia to use the Arctic Ocean as an alternative to crossing the Pacific. They can travel near the East Asian coastline up to the Bering Strait and use the Northwest Passage to Newfoundland. It's almost a straight shot. Then they hang a right turn and head to the US East Coast.

[froggie]

^ I crunched the numbers for that.  Even going around Alaska and through the Northwest Passage, from Hong Kong it's 1700 miles farther just to get the Gulf of St Lawrence than it is to LA, let alone beyond to one of the East Coast ports.  And that's assuming Baffin Bay is ice free (it usually isn't, and is iceberg-prone from the floes coming off the west coast of Greenland).

Furthermore, you're only going to have a 2-3 month window during the Northern Hemisphere summer to use such a route.  It'll still completely ice up over the winter, and it takes time for that ice to melt.

[LM117]

I know it's not directly road-related, but a recent announcement today involving development near the I-87 corridor could move the upgrade of US-64 up a notch or two in the future.

http://www.wral.com/csx-to-build-massive-cargo-terminal-in-edgecombe-county/15861789/

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — After months of discussion and debate, CSX announced Tuesday that it will build its massive Carolina Connector cargo terminal in Edgecombe County.

The hub, which is expected to open in 2020, will be built between Battleboro and College roads south of U.S. Highway 301 in Rocky Mount. Officials anticipate 300 permanent jobs at the site, as well as 250 to 300 construction jobs.

Cargo transfer hubs improve efficiency in distributing goods from manufacturers to retailers and consumers, officials said, and they also reduce truck traffic on state highways. Studies by the state Department of Transportation show warehouses and other facilities usually cluster around such hubs, and officials have projected the Carolina Connector could eventually spawn up to 13,000 related jobs statewide.

DOT plans to provide $110 million in improvements to rail lines and terminal infrastructure, while CSX will invest $160 million in the project. The company also qualifies for up to $4.3 million in rebates of employee withholding taxes under a Job Development Investment Grant if it meets annual hiring and investment targets in the coming years, as well as $7.8 million in state tax credits.

Officials said the company was attracted to the Rocky Mount site because of its proximity to CSX’s main north-south rail line, Interstate 95 and the future Interstate 87 corridor from the Triangle to Norfolk, Va., and the planned Interstate 42 corridor from the Triangle to Morehead City.

According to WRAL's version of this story, NC beat out VA and SC for this facility.

It's a nice reminder that highways can/should be built for tomorrow's traffic as well as today's.

This CSX terminal facility has been talked about for several years, principally in the RR industry press (including the publicly available Trains magazine).  It was apparently cancelled about 5 years ago due to a downturn in traffic and the adoption of "scheduled railroading" by CSX among others, a practice which tends to foreshadow a consolidation of origin/destination points rather than the deployment of additional ones.  But it seems the political value of building and operating the facility outweighed internal doubts, so it's finally being done.  FWIH from several quarters is that "Panamax" is indeed increasing the inbound volume from several East Coast and Gulf ports; this likely also figured into CSX's decision to resume development of the Rocky Mount yard/marshalling location.

It's not being built as large as originally planned, though. The state managed to convince CSX not to pull out altogether, so CSX finally agreed to build a scaled-down version of the terminal. This agreement happened after the then-CSX CEO Hunter Harrison died. IIRC, it was his idea to kill the project.

Here's an image of the construction taken back in July:

To give an update, the terminal is expected to open in 2 months.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-to-bring-thousands-of-jobs-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-into-nc-through-rocky-mount-area/19783199/

...aaaannnd it's open.

https://www.wral.com/carolina-connector-terminal-comes-online-as-state-grapples-with-supply-chain-issues/19956579/

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held today.

https://www.ncdot.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/2021/2021-11-18-cooper-lauds-new-csx-carolina-connector-intermodal-facility.aspx

[tolbs17]

I see reduced conflict intersections coming up on US-17 in South Mills, but they are not part of the corridor. These are definitely temporary.

https://goo.gl/maps/saUmWzgjycY5jEiS8

[sprjus4]

I see reduced conflict intersections coming up on US-17 in South Mills, but they are not part of the corridor. These are definitely temporary.

https://goo.gl/maps/saUmWzgjycY5jEiS8

I saw these months ago, and truly have no clue what they are.

If you notice, there’s a new road that is built off there, with a “speed limit 45” sign that indicates there’s plan to extend it a decent length.

The RCUT would serve this new road, nothing existing.

Not sure why the county would permit a new access point to be constructed given there’s a desire to upgrade that stretch to interstate standards by the end of the decade.

[tolbs17]

I see reduced conflict intersections coming up on US-17 in South Mills, but they are not part of the corridor. These are definitely temporary.

https://goo.gl/maps/saUmWzgjycY5jEiS8

I saw these months ago, and truly have no clue what they are.

If you notice, there’s a new road that is built off there, with a “speed limit 45” sign that indicates there’s plan to extend it a decent length.

The RCUT would serve this new road, nothing existing.

Not sure why the county would permit a new access point to be constructed given there’s a desire to upgrade that stretch to interstate standards by the end of the decade.

With those being done, I wonder what the hell are they doing?! The same goes to Eastfield Crossing when looking at they put a huge development in the way of the I-95 relocation. Frontage roads would have to be constructed for access of whatever development they are building.

[sprjus4]

NCDOT has installed a new traffic signal along US-17 (northbound only) at the intersection of US-17 Business outside South Mills.

Not sure why, but it adds a second signal along an otherwise free-flowing 60 mph limited-access highway between Elizabeth City and Chesapeake.

I've never seen enough vehicles here to warrant a signal, and the intersection redesign done a few years ago only requires turning traffic to cross one set of lanes. Through traffic on US-17 is light enough to the point there are many opportunities for gaps in traffic as well, allowing vehicles to safely cross. At most, there should have been flashing beacons added to the intersection. The full traffic signal simply adds another interruption to through traffic on US-17 northbound.

[plain]

Must have been enough crashes there to warrant it.