Well, the Herald-Sun now confirms what Kevin scooped them on last week: Alternative 3 is now the official EEC route, and that the cost has jumped to almost $200 million.
In an unexpected fit of journalism, though, the Herald-Sun adds that the cost increase is almost entirely due to additional right-of-way costs. Now, to those of us who got in line behind Caleb Southern years ago to push for the Connector to be built, these cost increases are pretty maddening. This is, after all, two miles of road, and it's costing $200 million, which on its face seems downright ridiculous. The only bit I have to add to the story is that last year during the community meetings on the EEC, and got a couple of tips on why that might be.
Looking at parcel maps of the area, NC DOT already owns a big chunk of highway-shaped land that covers about half of the distance between NC 147 and US 70. But if you look at the plans for Alternative 3, which of all of the alternatives most closely matched the original 1957 plans, and compare it with those plots, you'll note that the Alt. 3 deviates significantly from that established route. Talking to someone close to the project at that community meeting, the reason he said was that DOT was trying to make the connection between I-85 and NC 147 an interstate-grade exchange, with an eye towards a future north-south interstate designation passing through. Now, I can only speculate here, but only a few possibilities make sense. One is to provide an alternative to Capital Boulevard for connecting southern Wake County with I-85 headed to Washington. Another would be a parallel link to I-95, stretching down to Fayetteville. Still another might be a reliever from I-85 coming from Virginia, connecting to a future interstate headed down the US-64 corridor towards Charlotte.
Now, setting aside having another interstate corridor passing through Durham, which isn't likely to happen for probably another 30 years at least. What this displays on the part of DOT is a refusal to accept anything less than the highest level of road throughput on any project they touch. On the one hand, this is somewhat laudable -- it does, in a way, represent an attempt to solve future problems any time you try to deal with a current one. The history of North Carolina's economic growth is effectively a history of transportation infrastructure drawing that growth, first in the form of railroads, then later the "good roads" initiative, to our current overabundance of interstates. At the same time, I have to wonder -- if we as a state had accepted a near-freeway quality road, with a maximum speed limit of 45 mph through the connector, that was never going to be up to freeway grade, could we have built this thing for $75 million? Given that it's an upgrade over, well, nothing (your current options include winding along Angier Ave., Briggs Ave., and East End Ave., which takes about 15 minutes to cover 2 miles, going through town, or going all the way down to T.W. Alexander Dr.), does it really make sense to spend $125 million more in a "just in case" scenario for the future?
We are now living in an era where transportation dollars are scarce and costs are rising (owing to the brilliance of free trade policies towards steel). Part of the solution, of course, is going to involve finding new revenues for transportation expenses. (Can we PLEASE raise the gas tax? A lot?) But at the same time, NC DOT needs to quit trying to build the Taj Majal of roads every time it cranks up the earth movers. If we have to suffer narrower lanes, lower speeds, and some congestion on the roads they do build, I'm okay with that if it might mean it takes them less than 20 years to get around to building other badly needed ones, or in the case of the EEC, over 50 years.
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