Bridge gap funds escape axe<\/p>\n
By Cindy Beamon<\/p>\n
The Daily Advance<\/p>\n
Saturday, April 16, 2011<\/p>\n
Gap funds for the proposed mid-county bridge appear to have escaped the axe in the House\u2019s proposed spending plan for the upcoming year.<\/p>\n
Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, said funding for the bridge in the House\u2019s draft budget is encouraging although it\u2019s still a long way from approval. The proposed budget will still need to wind its way through committee hearings in the House before final action, he said. The funding package could also be changed in the Senate, he warned.<\/p>\n
Last year, the General Assembly approved yearly installments of gap funds needed to fund the project. However, the changeover in leadership has raised concerns that funding could be cut for the seven-mile span linking Currituck\u2019s mainland to the Outer Banks.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget delays funding for the project this year, but earmarks funds for the upcoming budget.<\/p>\n
The first installment of $15 million in gap funds was scheduled to begin this year, but those funds have been diverted to another road project, said Owens. Instead, funds would start up next year under the proposed spending plan.<\/p>\n
Owens said he\u2019s not overly concerned about the possible delay because the state isn\u2019t ready to bid out the project anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the bridge was going for bid before July 1, it would be a problem on capturing that money, but that is not going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Stan White, D-Dare, said any delay in funding is unsettling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt causes great concern because the more you push something back, the more likely that something else could pop up,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n
A year\u2019s delay in funding should not have a huge impact, but it\u2019s hard to predict the effect, said Steve DeWitt, chief engineer with the N.C. Turnpike Authority. He said the state is now negotiating a contract with private developer ACS-Dragados, a Spanish bridge-building company, for building the $660 million span.<\/p>\n
Currituck County Commissioners met with Senate leaders this week on their second trip to Raleigh to lobby for the bridge and against suggested cuts to the Knotts Island Ferry.<\/p>\n
Commissioner John Rorer said the board emphasized the bridge\u2019s importance to economic development in Northeastern North Carolina and its importance as the state\u2019s first public-private partnership.<\/p>\n
Rorer said the state leaders appeared receptive to the message, but he\u2019s still wary about what could happen next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my concerns because of the nature of the political process,\u201d said Rorer.<\/p>\n
Chairman Vance Aydlett said he felt encouraged that the Knotts Island Ferry would not be eliminated but that some changes \u2014 like a toll charge or a cut in hours of operation \u2014 could result from state spending cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bridge gap funds escape axe By Cindy Beamon The Daily Advance Saturday, April 16, 2011 Gap funds for the proposed mid-county bridge appear to have escaped the axe in the House\u2019s proposed spending plan for the upcoming year. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, said funding for the bridge in the House\u2019s draft budget is encouraging although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomcb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}