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The $300 million Yadkin River Bridge and I-85 widening project received ARRA funds for the first $136 million phase. Gene Conti, NCDOT secretary, reported in a July 2010 newsletter that the mobility fund will eventually reach $58 million.
“After that is spent, they will have some money for additional projects,” Jenkins says. “The rail division is, hopefully, moving ahead, and we should see some bridge and roadway projects from the rail section sometime next year.”
Jenkins says low bids at recent lettings will help NCDOT advance some additional projects.
“We’re hoping that will offset some of the stimulus money as it begins to terminate,” Jenkins says.
North Carolina is using design-build-finance contracts to move projects up. Blythe Construction of Charlotte, N.C., received the $140-million design-build-finance contract to build a 5-mi extension of Charlotte’s Interstate 485 outer loop.
Foster says there are plans for two more design-build-finance projects: the $700-million, 19.7-mi Monroe Connector/Bypass project, expected to move forward by the end of 2010; and the $910-million Garden Parkway, set to start in 2011.
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority also is working on its first public-private partnership to build the $659.2-million, 7-mi Mid-Currituck Bridge connecting Currituck County mainland to its outer banks. The state is still determining whether the concessionaire ACS Dragodos of Spain will operate the bridge or if the state will.
South Carolina
South Carolina received $463 million in ARRA funding for road and bridge projects.
“The stimulus money in South Carolina was good, but when you divide it by 46 counties, it’s very little money,” says Hendrix, with Carolinas AGC.
Ron Patton, chief engineer for the South Carolina Dept. of Transportation, expects his agency will continue spending at about the same level as before the stimulus—a $700-million program. Roughly $100 million is set for reconstruction; $125 million for bridge work; and $140 million for resurfacing.
“We still don’t have state funding that amounts to a whole lot,” Hendrix says. “They are all small jobs. All of this is maintaining and resurfacing.”
Federal dollars fund most of the interstate work. About a half-dozen counties have raised funds through sales tax initiatives to build roads.
Patton anticipates two design-build interstate widening projects will start by 2011, including a $75.5-million, 6.5-mi project on Interstate 385 in Greenville. Lane Construction Corp. of Cheshire, Conn., received the $65.4-million design-build contract for I-395, which was partially funded with ARRA dollars. Widening of Interstate 20 and I-26 in the Columbia area is in the works for the coming year.
“We’re like any state,” Hendrix says. “[During the past] 50-plus years, infrastructure has been used by more cars, more traffic and more trucks on the road. And the states haven’t kept up.”
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