Lots of NC Toll Road News

I don't even know where to begin.

After the NC House passed their budget - which would allocate money from the former Highway to General fund transfer towards 'gap financing' of toll roads - the Senate worked on their version of the budget with their own influences and what not.

So let's review:

NC House passes their version of the budget.
The budget authorizes $25 million a year towards the completion of the Triangle Expressway.
This transfer will begin in the upcoming budget (FY 2008-09) and would last 39 years.
Next year (FY 2009-10), a $24 million 'gap financing' transfer would begin for the Monroe Bypass.

That passed two weeks ago. Now the Senate has of course their version of the budget, and along with that, the Senate has their own political power structure. This includes David Hoyle (D-Gaston County). Hoyle was very instrumental in getting the US 321 freeway from I-85 in Gastonia to I-40 in Hickory built in the 1990s. Hoyle is hoping to include adding the Garden Parkway, which is proposed to run from I-485 near Charlotte-Douglas Int'l Airport to I-85 west of Gastonia, to the upcoming budget.

Also, NC Senate Pro-Tem Marc Basnight has the Mid-Currituck Bridge on his list. The Mid-Currituck Bridge is seen as to provide access relief and hurricane evacuation support to and from the Outer Banks.

Well, Sen. Hoyle came close. In the recently released Senate version of the budget, the Garden Parkway would begin to see financing in 2010-2011. That gap funding transfer would be an annual $35 million.

The Senate did include beginning on 2009-2010 $15 million per year for the Mid-Currituck Bridge Project.

The Senate's budget includes the previously mentioned Triangle Expressway and Monroe Bypass funding that the House passed. In fact, there is no disagreement between the two legislative bodies.

So that's where we are now.

Here's a roundup of news stories and opinion on all the toll budgeting.

Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch argues that with $4/gallon gas not many people are going to be using the Triangle Expressway toll road.
The Monroe Bypass may cost as much as $757 million.
No Tolls on 540 lists the State Senators that voted 'In Favor' of the recent budget.

Comments

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park. As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park. Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870. The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona. In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers. The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines. The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917. Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog