A national transportation research group said yesterday that North Carolina faces a $65 billion shortfall in the money it needs over the next 20 years to maintain and build roads.
A lot of that money will be needed for projects in Winston-Salem and other parts of the Triad, said Carolyn Bonifas of TRIP, an organization that is financed by businesses and groups with an interest in transportation.
TRIP officials say that the current federal transportation program will expire at the end of the year, but that federal money provides 22 percent of the money the state spends each year for road and bridge construction.
"North Carolina can't get where it wants to go" without more money for roads, Boniface said during a news conference yesterday at the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.
TRIP held news conferences here and in Charlotte and Raleigh to announce its release of a study on the future of the state's transportation system. The group said that more than a quarter of the state's major roads are deteriorated and that a third of the state's bridges need improvement.
TRIP said that so many North Carolina roads are in bad shape that drivers pay $1.6 billion a year in extra repair costs, wear and tear and higher fuel expenses. That works out to $328 for each driver in the area around Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
Critical projects in the Triad highlighted by TRIP included the eastern leg of the Northern Beltway, a 17-mile project that will cost an estimated $800 million, along with the future upgrade of U.S. 52 to interstate-highway standards, and improvements to Business 40.
TRIP's study said that for every $1 billion invested in roads and bridges, the state could support 27,800 new and existing jobs.
"Transportation is a critical component of job creation and economic development," said Gayle Anderson, the president of the chamber. "We are being choked to death by an inadequate transportation system."
The mayor of Winston-Salem, Allen Joines, said that the lack of progress on the beltway is costing the county economically, but added that there's "a human side as well" -- a reference to the lawsuit that has stalled beltway construction.
The lawsuit, which was filed by citizen groups opposed to the beltway, has kept the project on hold for more than 10 years. And that has kept people who have houses or other property in the path of the beltway in limbo; they can't sell or make improvements to their land.
TRIP's study had no solution to offer to move the Northern Beltway forward, but the group's study pointed to the importance of getting federal money for road projects.
TRIP said that even though federal economic-stimulus money gave the state about $838 million for roadwork, long-term federal transportation financing could be a vital part of getting the money the state needs.
Pat Ivey, the local division engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation, did not attend the news conference, but he said that TRIP's study confirms what state highway officials have long said.
"Our transportation needs far outpace our resources," Ivey said. "This is a nationwide problem."
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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