Construction of the Greensboro Urban Loop’s three unbuilt sections could be delayed under a policy change that House lawmakers are likely to include in their budget.
Roughly $132.1 million of annual Highway Fund money set aside to build loop highways ringing the state’s urban areas would be shifted to the state Mobility Fund under the plan that House transportation budget writers have submitted.
The Mobility Fund was created last year to take on high-cost pressing priorities, such as rebuilding the Yadkin River Bridge on Interstate 85 between Greensboro and Charlotte.
“That puts a whole lot of uncertainty into the process,” said Mike Fox, a lawyer and DOT board member from Greensboro.
Construction on two sections of the loop — one between Bryan Boulevard and Battleground Avenue and another between U.S. 70 and U.S. 29 — are due to be completed by 2017. A third section, between Battleground and U.S. 29, is due to be completed in the next 20 years, although city officials are trying to speed up a part of that construction.
Those timelines could be delayed if funding for the loops is shifted to the Mobility Fund. That’s because the fund sets priorities for construction projects differently than the current Highway Fund does.
“There’s a concern the loop projects may not fare as well,” Fox said.
Although there have been no official calculations, Fox said DOT engineers have informally estimated that the Greensboro loop projects scheduled to be completed over the next 10 years would be delayed beyond 2020.
“We have seen in this state for many, many years that transportation funding has been based on politics,” said Rep. Ric Killian, a Charlotte-area Republican and the leader of the transportation budget committee. Shifting funding for the loops to the mobility fund would help take the politics out of road construction, he said.
Killian said other money may follow loop funding into the Mobility Fund. There, he said, projects would compete based on a calculation that involves their cost and how much travel time they would save.
“At this moment, I can’t tell you how this change is going to affect all those loops,” Killian said.
The state budget is split into six areas governed by separate subcommittees. Those subcommittees finished their work this week, and the shift in loop funding is included in the plan that Killian’s subcommittee has submitted.
No Greensboro-area legislators are on that transportation committee.
House members will vet their spending plan over the next two weeks and can make changes before sending it to the Senate.
“I have not seen it,” Rep. John Blust said of the transportation budget proposal. The Greensboro Republican said he would talk with Killian and others about the spending plan next week.
The Senate will write its own budget plan. Despite working closely with the House to craft some budget proposals, it’s unclear whether Senate budget writers will agree to shift funding for the loops.
The Urban Loop “is of vital importance to Greensboro,” said Sen. Don Vaughan, a Greensboro Democrat who is on his chamber’s transportation budget-writing committee.
Vaughan, Fox and other Greensboro-area officials met Wednesday with Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and the top leader in the Senate.
“I’d like to look carefully at what it is the House does once the House passes their budget,” Berger said Thursday. “Once we see that and see how it impacts the Greensboro loop and some of the other construction projects in the Triad, then we’ll see if there’s a need of us to do anything.”
Berger will have more than a passing interest in the final outcome. His Senate district includes all of Rockingham County as well as sections of Guilford County, both areas in which residents hope the loop will provide faster access to the rest of the Triad and the state.
“It’s a matter of access as far as folks in Rockingham, but it’s a traffic-congestion issue for people in northwest Guilford,” Berger said.
The House is expected officially to send its budget to the Senate for consideration in early May.
Saturday, April 23, 2011 (Updated 3:00 am)
By Mark Binker
Staff Writer
