Upgrading US 1 / Capital Boulevard in northern Wake County to a freeway, including the development of parallel access roads, remains our top freeway priority for the region.
While the prior toll conversation has ended, it did serve to provide focus on the importance of the roadway.
NCDOT has made a concerted effort to accelerate the corridor upgrade over the past few months. They have begun a number of activities including advance utility work, advance right-of-way acquisition, improved railroad coordination, and expediting reviews of final design.
The CAMPO vote last month to eliminate tolling from the plan will allow NCDOT to do more and faster right-of-way work for the freeway upgrade, and we spoke in favor of that at the CAMPO meeting.
Looking ahead, we do believe there will be more toll projects in our region and elsewhere.
Governor signed Senate Bill 391, a/k/a the NCDOT Omnibus bill, earlier this year; this removed the numerical cap on toll projects in North Carolina.
While tolling is rarely if ever the first choice, tolling provides dedicated revenue, accelerated delivery to get ahead of inflation, faster results for the public, and certainty that a vital project will be delivered, thus reduced risk. These benefits would certainly apply to a new road like 540.
However, if tolling an existing road were under consideration in the future, while the same benefits would apply, my sense is that there would need to be broad support and consensus that current or new alternative corridors are viable/reasonable – that was not the case for the plans discussed for US 1.
Here is a link to an excellent Triangle Business Journal article this week on the corridor, and on tolling in general. It includes some of the information in this week’s blog post to provide the RTA perspective.
Let’s get moving
Joe
