Between now and 2040, North Carolina can look forward to a better road network, enhanced port competitiveness and upgraded infrastructure, among other transportation improvements, Gov. Pat McCrory said Wednesday morning at the Wilmington International Airport.
Speaking to a roomful of elected officials, public safety officers and business leaders on the first stop of a cross-state tour to outline his new 25-year transportation plan, McCrory and N.C. Department of Transportation secretary Tony Tata highlighted the plan’s priorities for the state as a whole as well as for the coastal region specifically.
Both men emphasized that North Carolina’s new transportation funding formula - approved by the legislature during the 2013 session - will fuel better decisions on project priorities, relying on data rather than politics.
“We want to build roads not based on where politicians live but on where jobs are needed, where there is congestion and where we can save lives,” McCrory said, reiterating the formula’s three criteria.
Priorities for the coastal region – which includes Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties as well as several coastal counties to the north – are to maintain sustainable beach nourishment to protect infrastructure, to improve highway connections, to replace aging bridges, to stabilize inlets and to transform North Carolina ports, McCrory said.
As an example of one highway project priority that will benefit southeastern North Carolina, McCrory cited the need to bring U.S. 74 up to interstate standards to improve traffic flow along the state’s southern east-west corridor and to make it more efficient for truck traffic to move between the Port of Wilmington and the Charlotte metro area.
The ports themselves get significant attention in the new plan. Goals that would benefit the Port of Wilmington are those that would deepen and widen shipping channels “to support movements of the newest generation of shipping vessels,” develop intermodal train service at the Port of Wilmington and develop intermodal facilities along the Interstate 95 corridor to support freight shipping.
Increased efficiencies within NCDOT and a legislature-approved proposed $1 billion-plus revenue bond could give the department money to proceed on priority projects, McCrory said. Asked if funding for coastal area projects he mentioned was available, the governor said it was.
“The longer we wait, the more expensive these projects get,” he said.
McCrory also mentioned improved lighting and a lengthened runway at ILM as an important part of improving the state’s transportation network.
Julie Wilsey, the airport’s deputy director, said after the news conference that improvements to ILM’s north-south runway, including the addition of LED lights, are almost complete. That runway was extended about 750 feet a couple of years ago, she said.
“We also have a very long-term plan to extend runway 624, our east-west runway, from 8,000 to 10,000 feet,” she added. “That would allow us to attract nonstop international flights as well as large international cargo shipments. If [McCrory] is interested, we’ll certainly look at that.”
In introducing the plan, Tata said that North Carolina is among the nation’s fastest-growing states, with a projected population of 12.5 million residents by 2040, 81 percent of whom will live in urban areas. The new 25-year plan should enable the state to complete about 360 transportation projects, double the number envisioned in the current state transportation plan, he said.
McCrory and Tata left Wilmington to make three additional stops in their transportation-related tour of the state Wednesday. Their next destination was Greenville, followed by stops in Winston-Salem and Asheville.
