NCDOT Secretary Indicates Tolls Needed to Complete other Beltways

These are excerpts from an article in today's Winston-Salem Journal, link to entire article in blog title above:

"The N.C. Department of Transportation wants to work with local elected officials and business leaders to find ways to get construction started on the Northern Beltway, but the state still won’t have any money to pay for project until 2020.

That’s the message that Transportation Secretary Gene Conti delivered to about 70 people last night at a meeting about transportation issues in Forsyth County. The Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce sponsored the meeting of elected officials and business people. It was held in the law firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice on West Fourth Street....

Officials in Raleigh, Wilmington and Fayetteville will use tolls to pay for sections of their urban loops, Conti said. However, the DOT is still using state money to pay for the remainder of these projects’ costs.

Don Flow, the owner of Flow Automotives Cos., asked Conti if the state could charge tolls for drivers to use the Interstate-40 bypass in Forsyth County and use that money to help pay to build Interstate 74, which would include the beltway’s eastern leg.

State transportation officials would need permission from federal highway officials to enact such a plan, Conti said.

“We are interested in that if you are interested in us looking at that," Conti said, “I don’t know if we can sell that or not, but we can try.”

Comment: This is the first I've heard of using tolls for the Fayetteville loop. The Wilmington Loop is to tie into the Turnpike Authority's proposed Cape Fear Skyway which would be an extension of I-140 and paid for by tolls.

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