MUMPO leader offers ways to fund both I-485 and Independence Blvd construction

Lee Myers, who chairs the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO), recently wrote a letter to North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue with suggestions on how the state can fund both the completion of Interstate 485 and continue the upgrading of Independence Blvd.

Myers wrote to Governor Perdue suggesting various ways to fund both projects and get them done as quickly as possible. The sources would include - current funds allocated for the projects, money from the second wave of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, bond money, and moving funding from other projects within the state.

Lee asks the Governor to "think outside the box" in coming up with funding sources to complete both projects. This is the second letter that Myers has written to Governor Perdue and Secretary of Transportation Eugene Conti in regards to using stimulus funds for I-485.

In a letter dated, April 30, 2009, Myers wrote that though MUMPO voted to use stimulus funds on other projects in the region (including an NC 73 project in Huntersville), the organization was open to using stimulus funds for I-485 if the Governor and NCDOT showed that they had "...a viable funding plan for I-485...that requires the use of [stimulus] funds."

In that letter, Lee stated that this would be readdressed in July - given that the Governor and NCDOT would show that they could build I-485 without delaying another project.

Myers states in his current letter that moving money from other projects would not delay them but only impact the timing the funds are received.

Story:
Local leaders press governor on I-485 ---WCNC-TV w/video

Comments

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove

Gribblenation

Search This Blog