North Carolina

[WashuOtaku]

The Governor released his proposed $3 Billion in Bonds package today.  $1.5 Billion would go towards Transportation and $1.5 Billion would go towards Infrastructure.  Not a sure thing yet, as it will need to be approved by the Legislators before voters get a chance to approve or deny the bonds in November.

Article:  McCrory proposes $3 billion in bonds for fall vote
List of Bond Projects:  Transporation Bond Projects/Infrastructure Bond Projects

Some of the big items include:  I-74 Winston-Salem Beltway, I-295 Fayetteville Outer Loop, US 74 Shelby Bypass and the I-40/I-77 Interchange in Statesville.

[froggie]

North Carolina Congressional Delegation today introduced companion bills that would "high priority corridors"  and "future interstates" for two routes in the state:

Unless they come with dollar signs, it's effectively useless legislation.  And unless the bill includes connections to other important military facilities in other states, it has no chance.

[The Nature Boy]

The North Carolina legislature likes building useless interstates or jumping the gun on building interstates when other states show no interest. It's not the home of I-73 and east coast home of I-74 for nothing, you know.

[wdcrft63]

The recently announced STIP doesn't have anything in the I-795/US 117 corridor, and I can't see anything happening there in the foreseeable future. The upgrading of US 70 is a long-term project that's definitely moving forward, but full freeway at interstate standards is still a long way off.

[DeaconG]

What happened to the I-95 widening/tolling? Doesn't look there's much going on there...

[The Nature Boy]

Local political opposition made that a non-starter.

[DeaconG]

Local political opposition made that a non-starter.

No, I didn't think the folks in Eastern NC were going to take kindly to it, "we'll build free limited access corridors or expand the existing ones all over the state but fuck I-95, let the tourists pay for it and who cares what the eastern half of the state thinks?"

Enough to get it killed...

[The Nature Boy]

Tolling I-95 is a terrible idea. It runs through the poorest part of the state with no real metro area being served by it.

It's be like routing the Pennsylvania Turnpike onto I-80 honestly. If NC is going to toll a road to raise money, I-85 is the obvious answer.

[Mileage Mike]

Tolling I-95 is a terrible idea. It runs through the poorest part of the state with no real metro area being served by it.

It's be like routing the Pennsylvania Turnpike onto I-80 honestly. If NC is going to toll a road to raise money, I-85 is the obvious answer.

I think tolling it is an excellent idea.  It's used much more by out of state travelers between the northeast and Florida more than local NC residents.  It's actually a very busy highway and I have no qualms about letting those travelers pay to upgrade the road that they use the most.  Tolling 85 makes no sense as it's already a modern and high quality roadway through most of the state.  The whole idea is to make money off the people who use 95 the most to pay for its upgrades. 

So now that the tolling idea has been struck down I guess those northeast-Florida drivers can expect 95 to remain the substandard 1960s era interstate that it currently is for a very long time.  95 just isn't priority enough for the residents of NC to spend the estimated $4B on upgrading with our tax dollars.  It's easily the least important interstate in the state.

[froggie]

I agree with Cemajr.  Tolling may suck for the locals, but given the volume of out-of-state travelers who use it, it makes sense from the state's perspective to toll it to pay for upgrades.

[Thing 342]

Easy solution: make the road free for those with NC plates.

[Henry]

North Carolina Congressional Delegation today introduced companion bills that would "high priority corridors"  and "future interstates" for two routes in the state:

• US 117/I-795 - Between I-40 and US 70
• US 70 - Between Garner and the state port at Morehead City

Details in the press release:  NCDOT Offers Thanks and Support for Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act

Like there needs to be another Interstate serving Raleigh! I'll bet that they're finally starting to realize how they blew the chance to send I-40 east along the US 70 corridor instead of south along US 117. Why this wasn't thought up at the same time as the I-40 extension (which would work better with an odd 2di designation) is beyond me.

[The Nature Boy]

Tolling I-95 is a terrible idea. It runs through the poorest part of the state with no real metro area being served by it.

It's be like routing the Pennsylvania Turnpike onto I-80 honestly. If NC is going to toll a road to raise money, I-85 is the obvious answer.

I think tolling it is an excellent idea.  It's used much more by out of state travelers between the northeast and Florida more than local NC residents.  It's actually a very busy highway and I have no qualms about letting those travelers pay to upgrade the road that they use the most.  Tolling 85 makes no sense as it's already a modern and high quality roadway through most of the state.  The whole idea is to make money off the people who use 95 the most to pay for its upgrades. 

So now that the tolling idea has been struck down I guess those northeast-Florida drivers can expect 95 to remain the substandard 1960s era interstate that it currently is for a very long time.  95 just isn't priority enough for the residents of NC to spend the estimated $4B on upgrading with our tax dollars.  It's easily the least important interstate in the state.

I think we've been through this already though (and I think I made the same points). Eastern North Carolina is the poorest part of the state with very high poverty and it is very rural. Tolls are already a form of regressive taxation, putting them in Eastern NC would be terrible for the locals. Free tolls for those with an address within x miles of I-95 would probably be the best solution.

[Mileage Mike]

Tolling I-95 is a terrible idea. It runs through the poorest part of the state with no real metro area being served by it.

It's be like routing the Pennsylvania Turnpike onto I-80 honestly. If NC is going to toll a road to raise money, I-85 is the obvious answer.

I think tolling it is an excellent idea.  It's used much more by out of state travelers between the northeast and Florida more than local NC residents.  It's actually a very busy highway and I have no qualms about letting those travelers pay to upgrade the road that they use the most.  Tolling 85 makes no sense as it's already a modern and high quality roadway through most of the state.  The whole idea is to make money off the people who use 95 the most to pay for its upgrades. 

So now that the tolling idea has been struck down I guess those northeast-Florida drivers can expect 95 to remain the substandard 1960s era interstate that it currently is for a very long time.  95 just isn't priority enough for the residents of NC to spend the estimated $4B on upgrading with our tax dollars.  It's easily the least important interstate in the state.

I think we've been through this already though (and I think I made the same points). Eastern North Carolina is the poorest part of the state with very high poverty and it is very rural. Tolls are already a form of regressive taxation, putting them in Eastern NC would be terrible for the locals. Free tolls for those with an address within x miles of I-95 would probably be the best solution.

I do agree that they should've offered some type of exemption or greatly reduced rate for NC residents.  That probably would've gotten the tolls approved.  Being that out of state drivers are by far the biggest users of that highway, I'm not sure why the NCDOT didn't make such a proposal.  Even without money from NC residents they would have still been able to collect a significant amount of toll revenue as I doubt most long distance travelers would've been bothered to use 85/77 as an alternative to 95 in NC.

[froggie]

Easy solution: make the road free for those with NC plates.

Very difficult if not impossible to actually implement/enforce this.  Something along the lines of what Nature Boy or Cemajr suggested, with EZPass discounts for local residents, is more realistic.

[wdcrft63]

North Carolina Congressional Delegation today introduced companion bills that would "high priority corridors"  and "future interstates" for two routes in the state:

• US 117/I-795 - Between I-40 and US 70
• US 70 - Between Garner and the state port at Morehead City

Details in the press release:  NCDOT Offers Thanks and Support for Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act

Like there needs to be another Interstate serving Raleigh! I'll bet that they're finally starting to realize how they blew the chance to send I-40 east along the US 70 corridor instead of south along US 117. Why this wasn't thought up at the same time as the I-40 extension (which would work better with an odd 2di designation) is beyond me.

It's not too late to do this, I guess: relocate I-40 to the US 70 corridor and renumber the freeway to Wilmington. But I don't think that's likely.

[hurricanehink]

North Carolina Congressional Delegation today introduced companion bills that would "high priority corridors"  and "future interstates" for two routes in the state:

• US 117/I-795 - Between I-40 and US 70
• US 70 - Between Garner and the state port at Morehead City

Details in the press release:  NCDOT Offers Thanks and Support for Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act

Like there needs to be another Interstate serving Raleigh! I'll bet that they're finally starting to realize how they blew the chance to send I-40 east along the US 70 corridor instead of south along US 117. Why this wasn't thought up at the same time as the I-40 extension (which would work better with an odd 2di designation) is beyond me.

It's not too late to do this, I guess: relocate I-40 to the US 70 corridor and renumber the freeway to Wilmington. But I don't think that's likely.

Not with I-140 already there.

[wdcrft63]

Yeah. More likely NCDOT would go for a 2di number like I-42 or I-46 for the US 70 route.

[Henry]

Yeah. More likely NCDOT would go for a 2di number like I-42 or I-46 for the US 70 route.

That would be a good compromise. In a perfect world, I-40 would go to Morehead City and the Raleigh-Wilmington route would be I-97, as I once suggested from old atlas markings, but it'll never happen that way.

[Grzrd]

North Carolina Congressional Delegation today introduced companion bills that would "high priority corridors"  and "future interstates" for two routes in the state:

• US 117/I-795 - Between I-40 and US 70
• US 70 - Between Garner and the state port at Morehead City

Details in the press release:  NCDOT Offers Thanks and Support for Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act

The text of the Senate bill has been posted on Congress.gov and it does not provide specific interstate numerical designations for the two corridors, although it does provide that they would be High Priority Corridor Nos. 81 and 82 on the list of FHWA High Priority Corridors:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act of 2015" .
SEC. 2. HIGH PRIORITY CORRIDORS ON NATIONAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM.
(a) In General.–Section 1105(c) of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (105 Stat. 2032; 119 Stat. 1213) is amended by adding at the end the following:
"(81) United States Route 117/Interstate Route 795 from United States Route 70 in Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina, to Interstate Route 40 west of Faison, Sampson County, North Carolina.
"(82) United States Route 70 from its intersection with Interstate Route 40 in Garner, Wake County, North Carolina, to the Port at Morehead City, Carteret County, North Carolina." .
(b) Inclusion Of Certain Route Segments On Interstate System.–Section 1105(e)(5)(A) of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (109 Stat. 597; 119 Stat. 1213) is amended in the first sentence by striking "and subsection (c)(57)"  and inserting "subsection (c)(57), subsection (c)(81), and subsection (c)(82)" .

[Henry]

Looks like if I-77 is tolled as planned, it will not be widened again for another half-century:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article20226147.html

[The Nature Boy]

Tolling I-77 is a curious decision. What is the traffic count on it? It seems to only serve to connect Cleveland to Charlotte with maybe some Charleston bound traffic in between.

[froggie]

There's a fair bit of traffic that uses 77 to 81 to connect to inland areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.  There's also a lot of warehousing and manufacturing along I-81 in Virginia and some of that traffic utilizes 77 to head to/from points south.  But the bulk of traffic on 77 in the area in question is metro Charlotte traffic.

The overall Express Lane project runs from I-277/NC 16 up to NC 150...the segment specified in the article is the northernmost 8 miles.  This segment sees daily volumes of 60-90K, getting higher as you head south.  Those are volumes that are pretty high for a 4-lane freeway, even an urban one.

[The Nature Boy]

If helps alleviate traffic congestion in Charlotte then I'm for it. I-85 and 77 can resemble parking lots if you go out at the wrong time.

I do wonder how much the light rail will alleviate congestion once more lines get built. Charlotte needs reliable public transit.

[Henry]

The tolls are now officially coming to a 25-mile stretch of I-77:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article20265252.html