MY TAKE ON OFFICIALS SURPRISE:

“The Southern Law Center’s recent proposal to divert state funds away from the mid-Currituck bridge in favor of a Dare County solution to highway erosion problems took state highway and local officials by surprise Wednesday”

To claim to be surprised at the most common sense approach to a major on-going issue of access to Hatteras Island is laughable.  The state does NOT have the money to spend on political wish list bridges that will take limited state highway funds from many other truly deserving projects.  The NCDOT ranked the Mid-Currituck Bridge in relation to area needs and needs throughout the state extremely low in priority.  Ranking projects based on non-political criteria, the Mid-Currituck Bridge scored a 2.84 out of a possible 100.  So, lets look at the most obvious solution and put the $28 million a year for 40 years needed to fill the gap in funding for the MCB, because tolls will not pay for the constuction and maintenance of the 2 lane, $28 dollar toll each way on a summer weekend, and put those funds to much better use in solving access issues to Hatteras.  They are not asking for a shortcut for tourists for 13 weekends a year, they are asking for a secure route on and off of  Hattaras Island for residents and vacationers alike. To claim “surprise” is simply horse pucky!

A better option for Hatteras

Posted to: Guest Columns Opinion

 By Derb Carter
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 16, 2012

Everyone agrees we need a safe, reliable transportation option to Hatteras Island.

That need is particularly evident now. Storms have repeatedly overwashed N.C. 12, opened new inlets and disrupted transportation to the island. Hatteras is shifting and changing, as barrier islands inevitably do. Any reliable transportation route must accommodate continual movement and change.

Nine years ago, all state and federal agencies with authority over bridge construction agreed that a longer bridge, bypassing areas of Hatteras Island prone to washout, was the best choice to replace the aging Bonner Bridge. The N.C. Department of Transportation said that a new, longer bridge could be open to traffic by 2010.

But, in a 2003 letter to the department, Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Commission, objected to the plan. He advocated instead for a short replacement bridge tied to the same vulnerable stretch of N.C. 12. Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippet responded that replacing the Bonner Bridge in place was “no longer viable” because of the erosion that plagued N.C. 12 and cut off access.

Dare County officials prevailed. Former Gov. Mike Easley directed NCDOT to halt work on the longer bridge plan and develop a plan that Dare County would support.

With Dare County’s backing, the department proposed a plan already deemed not viable: Replace the Bonner Bridge in its current location and figure out later maintenance and access along the rapidly eroding section of N.C. 12 to Rodanthe. NCDOT noted that “the county is willing to take the risk that Bonner Bridge might deteriorate to the point that it would be closed to traffic before the new bridge is completed.”

We now know how well “figuring it out later” works.

Today, neither Dare County nor NCDOT has a permanent plan for N.C. 12 south of the bridge. Even small storms and high tides close the road and cut off access, a process that will repeat for the foreseeable future. Road access was cut for nearly two months last year, and six weeks and counting this year, with even a temporary solution weeks or months away.

With funds available, NCDOT, the Federal Highway Administration and Dare County officials should reconsider the longer-bridge alternative deemed the best option years ago. That proposal would replace the Bonner Bridge and provide reliable access for Hatteras Island by bypassing new inlets and eroding areas of N.C. 12. It would be an investment in Hatteras that gives its communities a stable, long-term solution.

Or NCDOT could consider high-speed vehicle and passenger ferries to connect the communities on the Outer Banks with the mainland, a unique option never seriously evaluated.

Funding is a matter of priorities. In March 2012, NCDOT lowered its estimate to construct the longer bridge to between $569 million and $625 million. Funds could come from four sources.

NCDOT has already slated $476 million for the project, $244 million for the proposed replacement bridge, plus $232 million for N.C. 12 reconstruction. The balance could come from abandoning the unnecessary Mid-Currituck Bridge project (slated for $28 million per year for 40 years) or abandoning or deferring the unpopular and unnecessary four-lane expansion of U.S. 64 through mainland Dare County (allocated cost: $370 million). Expansion of this segment of U.S. 64 is not justified by traffic projections. It’s destructive to wetlands, and East Lake residents oppose it.

From these sources alone, NCDOT would have adequate funds to invest in a longer bridge for Hatteras that would provide durable and dependable access.

NCDOT was right in 2003, as is all too clear today. A long-term solution must avoid the perpetual washouts that plague N.C. 12 to provide safe and reliable access for Hatteras.

Derb Carter is senior attorney and director of the North Carolina offices at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Bridge naming will honor Easley, Perdue fundraiser

By Bruce Siceloff – bsiceloff@newsobserver.com

By Bruce Siceloff The News and Observer

Tags: Lanny Wilson | Gene Conti | Mike Easley | NC DOT | campaign finance | Wilmington

State Transportation Secretary Gene Conti will travel to Wilmington on Friday to dedicate a highway bridge in honor of Lanny T. Wilson, a political fundraiser forced to resign from the state Board of Transportation in 2010 amid state and federal investigations that brought down former Gov. Mike Easley.

It’s the bridge over 23rd Street on the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, a major road on the north side of the city. Local officials who secured the honor for Wilson credit him with bringing state highway money to the Wilmington area.

“In particular, the parkway was finished during the time he was a board member, after we’d had trouble getting it funded,” said Laura Padgett, a Wilmington City Council member. She succeeded Wilson as chairperson of a regional planning board, a seat that Wilson also was forced to relinquish in 2010.

“We needed a very strong voice for southeastern North Carolina, and we had not had a very strong voice at the Board of Transportation until he got there,” Padgett said.

Wilson, a lawyer and developer, was a major fundraiser for Easley, who appointed him to the state board, and for Gov. Bev Perdue, both Democrats. Perdue reappointed Wilson to the board in 2009. She also appointed Conti and current board members who agreed this fall to put his name on the Wilmington bridge.

Decision disparaged

Senate Republican leader Phil Berger issued a statement rebuking Perdue.

“Now, with a nod to her predecessor and mentor Mike Easley, Perdue is allowing our roads and bridges to bear the namesake of top campaign donors, political cronies, and co-conspirators in the scandals that led to Easley’s felony conviction,” Berger said Thursday. “It’s a good thing she only has one more month to secure her ‘legacy.’”

Wilson could not be reached for comment.

Wilson financed a Carteret County real estate development, Cannonsgate, where Easley received a $137,000 discount on a lot. In an indictment of Easley aide Ruffin Poole – who later was sentenced to a year in federal prison for tax evasion – prosecutors said Wilson gave money and gifts to Poole to secure political access and advance his real estate interests.

The State Board of Elections ruled in 2009 that Easley’s campaign had accepted illegal contributions from Wilson. Wilson testified that he wrote and solicited large checks for the state Democratic Party that were intended for Easley’s benefit. He also testified that he had given money to his fiancée that she then gave Easley, after he had reached the legal limit on his own direct contributions.

Easley later was convicted of a felony related to improper reporting by his campaign of a flight.

But Wilson was not charged with a crime.

Feelings in Wilmington

“Mr. Wilson was never indicted formally, not accused and not convicted of anything,” Padgett said. “Our feeling is, we’re recognizing him for what he did for transportation in our area.”

Conti serves as chairman of the Board of Transportation Road Naming Committee, and he will be the keynote speaker at the Wilson bridge dedication ceremony Friday afternoon. In an email statement released Thursday by a spokeswoman, he said there were no objections when the committee followed its practice of accepting local requests to name highways and bridges.

Conti said the city of Wilmington had made the request “in honor of the work he did on that project and his many other civic endeavors in Wilmington and New Hanover County.”

Local elected officials on the Wilmington planning board were split on the vote to honor Wilson.

“I don’t think we should name it for him,” said Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth. “It should have went to somebody that didn’t have any baggage. He left the board under a cloud. I don’t think anybody who leaves under a cloud like that needs anything named for him.”

Lambeth had favored a proposal to name the bridge for movie producer Frank Capra Jr.

Siceloff: 919-829-4527 or blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown or twitter.com/Road_Worrier/

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/06/2529638/bridge-naming-will-honor-easley.html#storylink=cpy

GOP legislators attack plans for seven-mile, $650 million Outer Banks toll bridge

Published Fri, Oct 05, 2012 06:31 PM

Modified Fri, Oct 05, 2012 10:43 PM

By Bruce Siceloff – bsiceloff@newsobserver.com

By Bruce Siceloff The News and Observer

Tags: N.C. Turnpike Authority | NCDOT | Mid-Currituck Bridge | David Joyner | Sen. Bill Rabon | Sen. Neal Hunt | Outer Banks

RALEIGH — Republican legislators at a committee meeting Friday said the state could not afford to contribute to a planned $650 million toll bridge from mainland Currituck County to the northern Outer Banks.

 The co-chairs of a House-Senate transportation oversight committee wouldn’t say when or whether they’ll vote on the Mid-Currituck Bridge, which would be built in partnership with an international consortium of private developers. But members argued against committing the state to pay as much as $28 million a year for four decades to cover an expected gap between toll collections – mostly from tourists – and project costs.

 “The problem we have as a state is we don’t have the revenue we need to take care of the infrastructure we currently have, whether it’s Interstate 95 or other roads,” said Sen. Ralph Hise, an Avery County Republican. “It’s just amazing to me the creative ways we’ve come up with to finance and borrow additional money in different areas.”

 Transportation officials said the state’s partnership with private developers actually will push the taxpayer cost higher, not lower. And toll collections will cover only 30 to 40 percent of the project cost – compared to a 60 percent share expected from drivers who use the Triangle Expressway in Wake County.

 “From that perspective, it’s hard to justify,” Sen. Neal Hunt, a Wake County Republican, said after the meeting. “I know they have needs down there. But, dadgummit, we have lots of needs in the state.”

Acting on instructions from the legislature a few years ago, the state Department of Transportation is planning the Mid-Currituck Bridge as a public-private partnership with a Madrid-based consortium that builds bridges around the world. In exchange for taking profits from toll collections that would continue for 50 years, the private partner would carry much of the risk that the bridge – dependent on a healthy tourism economy – could turn out to be a financial flop.

 David Joyner, the DOT turnpike director, said that reduced risk is worth an extra $3 million a year that taxpayers would pay.

 “Is this a good deal?” Joyner asked committee members. “You’ve got to help us decide. We think it is.”

State and coastal agencies have been talking since 1975 about a bridge across the Currituck Sound, to ease weekend and summer traffic jams on U.S. 158 and N.C. 12. At seven miles, it would be North Carolina’s longest bridge.

 Supporters say it would cut 37 miles and as much as two hours from beach trips. Vacationers and others would pay variable tolls projected to reach as high as $25 per trip during peak hours, with discounts for frequent users.

 Elected officials and legislative candidates from both political parties in Dare and Currituck counties like the proposed bridge, and so do out-of-state residents who endure long traffic delays on their vacation trips to the Currituck Banks.

 “As far as I know, this is the most important project – and has been for 20 years – in northeastern North Carolina,” said Rep. Bill Owens Jr., a Perquimans County Democrat. “It’s important to our economy, and it’s something that’s been worked on by Democrats and Republicans. … It needs to go forward.”

But a sheaf of letters and emails delivered to the legislature revealed sharp divisions among coastal residents. And the Mid-Currituck Bridge earned low-priority ratings when DOT engineers compared it to other needs.

 Sen. Bill Rabon, a Brunswick County Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said he’ll wait to see how the bridge project looks next spring, after as many as 50 newly elected legislators take their seats.

 He expressed doubts about a 40-year commitment to pay a combined $123 million a year for the Mid-Currituck Bridge and two other pending toll projects – enough money, he said, to widen and overhaul I-95. The other two are the Garden Parkway in Gaston County and the Cape Fear Skyway in New Hanover and Brunswick counties.

 “The numbers just don’t add up on these turnpike projects,” Rabon said. “I wish they did. The one in my area is as bad as this one.”

 Siceloff: 919-829-4527 or blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown or twitter.com/Road_Worrier/

 Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/05/2392577/gop-legislators-attack-plans-for.html#storylink=cpy

Governor hopefuls differ on bridge

By Cindy Beamon

The Daily Advance

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Although recent questions about the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge have arisen in the state Senate, one local lawmaker says the future of the project may likely hinge on the new governor.

Gov. Bev Perdue has supported the project, but her influence will end after November’s election, when a new governor is elected.

State Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, says who replaces her could have a big bearing on the bridge. The governor appoints the state Board of Transportation, the body in charge of negotiating the state’s contract with a private partner in building and maintaining the $600 million span, Owens notes.

“If (the BOT members) want to kill it, they certainly can in their negotiations,” he said.

In recent statements, the two candidates for governor have differed on their stances on the bridge.

Republican Pat McCrory, former mayor of Charlotte, was non-committal in his support of the bridge, although a campaign spokesman said that does not mean he opposes the project.

McCrory wants to examine all road projects statewide before deciding which ones should move forward, said Ricky Diaz, press secretary for McCrory.

“If elected, Pat McCrory will develop a long-term

transportation infrastructure plan to once and for all to remove politics from transportation infrastructure funding,” said Diaz. “Pat believes projects should be funded based on worthiness, and will review plans for the Mid-Currituck Bridge to ensure that the long-term economic interests of the state and region are best-served.”

Democrat Walter Dalton, the state’s current lieutenant governor, supports the bridge, said campaign spokesman Schorr Johnson.

“He believes it will help with tourism which is one of North Carolina’s top industries,” Johnson said.

He noted that Dalton also supported project when he served in the state Senate.

Dalton also approves plans to fund the project with a combination of public and private funds.

“The unique public-private partnership is the only way a project of this size will be able to go forward,” Johnson said.

Johnson did add one qualifier. He said funding for the project will have to be re-examined every two years when the state budget is being considered.

The state’s changing political landscape over the past two years has turned out to be a mine field for the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge project.

Under the leadership of then Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, the General Assembly agreed to pay $28 million each year in “gap funds” for the next 30 years to support the project. Gap funds will pay the difference between what the bridge will collect in tolls and the actual cost of construction.

However, after Basnight left office and Republicans took control of the Senate, the project has been under fire on several fronts.

Most recently chairmen of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee have questioned the state’s plan for funding the bridge. State Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Beaufort, said recently in an interview that the state needs to re-examine the importance of all N.C. Turnpike Authority projects before the General Assembly funds them. The Turnpike Authority is the state agency the General Assembly, then under Democratic control, created to oversee and build several expensive toll road projects, including the Mid-Currituck Bridge.

Owens, who also will be leaving office when his current term ends in December, said the project has already passed close scrutiny over the past two decades. He claims the recent questions are aimed at either diverting funds to other road projects or eliminating toll projects altogether.

Despite the recent attacks, Owens said he believes funding for the Mid-Currituck Bridge will eventually come through. The General Assembly will find it difficult to undo the legislation that already promises state funds for the project, he said.

“It takes both the House and the Senate to take it out,” Owens said.

CURRITUCK — An environmental lawsuit filed against another N.C. Turnpike Authority project on Tuesday may be a precursor to what lies ahead for the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit Tuesday against the proposed Garden Parkway in Gaston County.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of conservation groups, charges the parkway project would “destroy numerous homes and communities, fragment wildlife habitat, pollute the Catawba River basin, and add to the area’s air pollution.”

A state official says the N.C. Turnpike Authority — the state agency responsible for building the Mid-Currituck Bridge — has already factored in a possible lawsuit in the time line for the $600 million project.

The Turnpike Authority will know for certain whether there will be a legal challenge to the bridge after the U.S. Department of Transportation issues its “record of decision,” basically giving the project its stamp of approval. That decision is expected sometime in September or October. Anyone wanting to challenge the project will then have 150 days to file a lawsuit.

Frank Holleman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the group will not decide about a possible suit against the Mid-Currituck Bridge until after the record of decision is issued this fall. The SELC has already filed objections during the environmental research phase of the project, he said.

The possibility of a lawsuit is one reason the state Department of Transportation did not object to the General Assembly’s delay in “gap funds” for the bridge this year, said Greer Beaty, DOT’s director of communications.

The General Assembly has approved $28 million in “gap funds” each year for the next 30 years to subsidize the cost of the bridge. For the past two years, the gap funds have been diverted elsewhere, partly because DOT officials said they weren’t needed yet.

“Not having those funds in the budget this year wasn’t going to impact the schedule of the project,” said Beaty.

Beaty said gap funding is not needed this year, partly because DOT is anticipating the SELC lawsuit.

The gap funds, which will be used to pay the difference between what tolls take in and the cost of construction, will not be needed until after the lawsuit is decided in court, she said.

The Turnpike Authority is not expecting the lawsuit will halt the project altogether.

“Historically lawsuits do not kill projects but they can delay a project,” Turnpike Authority Executive Director David Joyner recently wrote to state lawmakers.

The SELC has also filed an environmental lawsuit against the Bonner Bridge in Dare County and against another Turnpike project, in Monroe County.

The SELC hailed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District as a victory against the Monroe Bypass.

“The agency has not explained why taxpayers and their children are being saddled with generations of debt to pay for this destructive leviathan,” reads a SELC news release.

Beaty said the court’s questions about the Monroe Bypass is not a death knell to the project. The Turnpike Authority plans to get the project moving again once it has provided answers to the court, she said.

Legislators raise more questions about new bridge

Cape Fear Watchdog$

Lawmakers want information on Mid-Currituck Bridge project