Toll would help get I-140
bypass built immediately
By Ben Brown
Staff Writer
Without the planned Wilmin-gton Bypass project the Cape Fear Skyway can’t happen, transportation officials say. But without filling a colossal funding gap for the bypass, neither will come together any time soon.
Unless it’s tolled at 12 to 15 cents per mile, perhaps.
Officials with the N.C. Turnpike Authority (NCTA) are canvassing local governments to determine whether that’s an idea they like. The project is expensive, and the $250-million funding gap must be covered somehow, they said at Monday’s Brunswick County Board of Commissioners’ meeting.
“This is just an idea,” said NCTA board of directors member David Redwine, a former state legislator. “This is not anything we’re trying to impose on anybody. It’s just something the folks of Brunswick County can discuss to see if we want to pursue this as another transportation option for our community.”
The Wilmington Bypass would be a four-lane divided freeway about eight miles long connecting U.S. 17 south of N.C. 87 in Brunswick County to Interstate 40 in New Hanover County. Redwine said it would essentially bypass Leland, Belville, Navassa and Winnabow. Despite the project’s name, all of the infrastructure would be in Brunswick County.
“The existence of the bypass is critical,” said NCTA chief engineer Steve Dewitt. “Without it, the Cape Fear Skyway simply cannot function.”
The Cape Fear Skyway would be a 9.5-mile bridge over the Cape Fear River from U.S. 421 at Independence Boulevard in Wilmington to the bypass at U.S. 17 near Stoney Creek and Snee
Farms in Brunswick County. If a construction contract is awarded by late 2009, it could be open to traffic in 2014, NCTA data indicates.
“The cost is quite large,” said Dewitt, speaking for both projects.
The N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) has only funded the bypass’ right-of-way costs for its section south of N.C. 74-76, and funding for right-of-way and construction for its northern section, although those construction funds are not available until fiscal year 2012. The DOT’s coverage of both sections is $234.4 million, not adjusted for inflation.
At a total project cost of $550 million, engineers are staring at a large funding gap. To cover it, the DOT’s 21st Century Planning Committee asked the NCTA to examine the possibility of tolling the road.
At 12 to 15 cents per mile, in future dollars, both sections of the Wilmington Bypass could be built immediately, versus waiting until 2012 for the northern section’s construction, and even longer for the southern section.
But first, the NCTA has a lot of evaluating to do, and will continue shopping the idea around.
If the toll option sticks, motorists could expect better things than the standard stop-and-pay toll booth fare.
According to Beau Memory, communications manager with the NCTA, electronic tolling would allow drivers to commute first and pay later. The system, he said, works with a transponder, like a magnetic sticker on a car to be scanned in transit, or persons could register their license plate, which would be photographed each time the car enters and leaves the toll road. The picture would file into a system of registered plates, the owner would be identified, and that person would receive a bill.
Redwine reiterated the need for local support before in-depth planning comes to pass. Also required is approval by the NCTA board of directors to take on a thorough traffic and revenue study, and possibility legislative permission.
“No guarantees,” NCTA officials said Monday. Currently, the plan is only at a “sub-sketch level.” Further analysis could take another six months and cost $500,000.
County commissioner Bill Sue said to stay in synch with cost projections, engineers would have to stay on schedule. In a state with notoriously slow road projects and funding shortages, that’s something he said he’d have to see to believe.
“We keep getting backed up by the state (with road projects),” said Sue, who along with commissioner May Moore suggested another approach to funding: bonds. “I would encourage each of you in the audience to contact your representatives in Raleigh to get a long-term bond issue passed,” he said.
That’s a possibility, said Redwine, “but,” he said, “the bottom line is it is a local decision, a decision of elected officials.… No one’s thrilled about paying tolls, but this will put us in the right place.”
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