INC NEWS - East End Connector LEFT OUT of plan (N&O article)

[Mike - Hotmail]

All,

Caleb's correct.

This issue also came up at a Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee meeting last week.

It seems that now that the floods gates have been opened for Trust fund money to be used for projects 'not strictly' considered (at least originally) loop projects, that the East End connector is behind the eight ball and being put further down the quene because it's Environmental Impact Study needs to be updated.

The way this was explained is because other cities have had projects much further along in the process than the East End connector (on the books for more than 20years) and have a 'so-called head' start on it.

Another issue that is being looked at very seriously is the equity formula.

For instance,  if you look at the amount of money (per capita) that's being spent across NC and seen how much of it is being spent unequitably,  you'd have to agree that 'politics as usual' is influencing road construction elsewhere too.

These are two seperate pots of money and Durham is getting screwed by both allocations (IMHO).

mike shiflett

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Caleb Southern 
  To: inc-list at DurhamINC.org 
  Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 2:31 PM
  Subject: INC NEWS - East End Connector LEFT OUT of plan (N&O article)


  Road plan imperils Triangle projects
  East End Connector, signal system left out

  By BRUCE SICELOFF, Staff Writer
  News & Observer

  As state transportation officials update their spending plan, the Triangle's
  top priorities appear likely to be delayed for years or turned down
  altogether.

  A computer-synchronized overhaul for Raleigh's traffic signal system, No. 1
  on Wake County's wish list, gets no money in the latest draft of the
  Transportation Improvement Program for 2006 through 2012. The draft is now
  circulating among members of the state Board of Transportation.

  Durham County's top request is the long-sought East End Connector, to
  relieve residential neighborhoods of dangerous cut-through traffic between
  three busy commuter routes. Groundbreaking was set for 2010 in the state
  plan adopted two years ago, but the draft update would put off construction
  indefinitely -- until sometime after 2012.

  Some revisions are possible before the transportation board formally
  releases its draft plan April 6. The board plans to seek comment in public
  meetings across the state and then approve its final six-year plan for $6.6
  billion in transportation improvements in July. 

  Triangle leaders have been bracing for bad news since January, when the
  state transportation department said it would withhold more than $300
  million that Wake, Durham and five other counties in the DOT's Division 5
  were expecting. The region spent more than its share in the past decade
  under the state's "equity formula" for distributing transportation funds.
  State law requires the DOT to reduce Division 5's allotment accordingly and
  shift that money to other areas.

  Despite the warnings, Wake and Durham officials expressed dismay about the
  prospective cuts and delays.

  "That's a shock," Ellen Reckhow, chairwoman of the Durham County
  commissioners, said Friday when told the state might postpone the $90.3
  million East End Connector. "I think there's going to be great consternation
  in Durham as to why that's happening."

  Joe Bryan, the Wake commissioners' chairman, said the state's allocation
  formula does not fairly address the Triangle's urban traffic problems. "We
  need to figure out how to get the transportation money where the congestion
  is," Bryan said.

  Other Triangle projects would suffer if the transportation update were
  approved in its current form:

  * A 12.4-mile extension of the Interstate 540 Outer Loop from Research
  Triangle Park to Holly Springs for $294.6 million. Construction would move
  from 2008 to 2012.

  * Widening I-40 from Wade Avenue to U.S. 1 in Cary, the only part of the
  interstate in Wake County with only four lanes. DOT officials had indicated
  last year that money was available to add this $45.3 million project to the
  schedule, but the draft 2006-2012 plan does not include it. Also awaiting
  state funding is the widening of the parallel stretch of the I-440 Beltline
  from Wade Avenue to U.S. 1 for $77.3 million.

  * Widening I-85 for 7.5 miles from Hillsborough to Durham for $52 million.
  Construction would be postponed from 2010 to 2012.

  * Widening Alston Avenue between N.C. 147 and Holloway Street in Durham and
  replacing railroad bridges, $19.9 million. The work would be put off from
  2010 until sometime after 2012.

  * Extending Booker Dairy Road in Johnston County for 3.7 miles from U.S. 70
  Business west of Smithfield to U.S. 301, $31.6 million. Work would be
  postponed from November 2005 to 2009.

  * Widening U.S. 401 for 18.5 miles from Raleigh to Louisburg, including a
  Rolesville bypass, $89.6 million. Construction would be delayed three years,
  to 2011.

  * Widening Davis Drive for five miles near Research Triangle Park, from N.C.
  54 to Morrisville-Carpenter Road. Construction would be postponed to March
  2006.

  A proposed $28 million high-tech upgrade for Raleigh's 500 traffic signals
  would speed cross-town trips and cut air pollution by reducing the time
  drivers spend idling at red lights. Local leaders said it would provide
  great environmental and transportation benefits for a moderate price. Last
  year they announced plans to pay for it with the help of federal clean-air
  funds and $7 million from the city of Raleigh.

  But DOT officials have not guaranteed the state's share -- $4.2 million --
  so the signal system overhaul is "an unfunded project" in the current
  version of the six-year spending plan.

  "Essentially the whole project is in limbo because they either can't or
  won't put their part of it on the table," said Edison H. Johnson, director
  of Wake County's transportation planning agency.

  The six-year plan lists two other new Wake County projects but doesn't
  promise full state funding. The 1.7-mile extension of Timber Drive in
  Garner, from N.C. 50 to White Oak Road, would cost $11.2 million and begin
  construction in 2009. The $18 million realignment of Falls of the Neuse Road
  through Wakefield in northern Wake County, including a new Neuse River
  bridge, would start in 2011.

  Wake, Durham suffer

  Wake and Durham counties stand to lose the most from this year's "equity
  formula" reallocations, but leaders from other parts of the state have
  shared their complaints that state funding is not keeping up with urban
  traffic problems and the expense of interstate highway improvements.

  The six-year update to the DOT plan will reflect both the equity formula
  cuts for Division 5 and the effects of a statewide slowdown in
  transportation spending.

  Transportation officials have made most of their changes to the 2006-2012
  plan in private. The DOT provided a copy of the March 9 draft of the
  six-year plan in response to a public records request from The News &
  Observer. DOT spokeswoman Ashley T. Memory said the document was
  "preliminary and still subject to change."

  Holly Springs Mayor Richard G. Sears said he will lobby DOT officials to
  change the proposed four-year delay for the I-540 extension.

  "This road is essential," Sears said, "not only to people in Apex and Holly
  Springs and Fuquay-Varina, but also the people in Harnett and Johnston
  counties and anybody else going that way."

  Nancy M. Kelly, mayor of Rolesville, said she hoped DOT officials would
  stick with their schedule to widen the two-lane U.S. 401.

  Rolesville has two stoplights, and its population only recently reached
  1,000. Kelly said three big development projects in the works will triple
  the town census in three or four years. Three years is too long to wait for
  a new bypass, she said.

  "We have quite an amount of traffic," Kelly said. "If you don't need to come
  to Rolesville between 4 and 6 p.m., it's probably a good thing to wait."

  Staff writer Bruce Siceloff can be reached at 829-4527 or
  bruce.siceloff at newsobserver.com. 







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