Fund provides mobility for N.C. transportation projects

Transportation projects in North Carolina have $173 million over the next four years that doesn't have to be allocated based on the state equity fund formula, the Sun Journal reports.

"That has been somewhat
controversial … but this is not a political slush fund," said Gene Conti, N.C.
Transportation Secretary. Conti made his remarks during a presentation to his
board that was meeting at the Global TransPark.

"It is a fund that is
flexible and can be used in an open and transparent way … so we can continue to
move people and goods effectively," Conti said. "You asked for this new funding
source and the Mobility Fund was officially recommended by Gov. Bev Perdue and on
July 1 she signed into law a budget that includes it.

"The first use of the
Mobility Fund will be to finish the Yadkin River Bridge project," he said. "We
had the funds to replace the bridges but didn’t have the money to widen lanes
north of it. Now we’ll be able to complete it in a timely way over the next
three years. We believe we have the money to move forward."

Conti said the first-year
money would come from highway trust fund money that had not been used in the
last couple of years.

"We will find ways to
make it more robust," Conti said. "Discussions will happen next year and we’ll
be actively engaged in them. We’ve got a lot going on in our rail division
including right out here connecting the GTP to the main railway."

Conti advised the
transportation board that the North Carolina-Virginia Rail Compact would be
used for the first time July 12. The association, put together several years
ago to aid in building a railway from Charlotte north to the northeast rail
corridor, meets for the first time. The compact was "authorized by Congress and
by the state legislatures of both states," Conti said, but "never had occasion
to meet because we never had the money to do anything jointly with Virginia."

"We have $20 million in
Federal Railroad Administration funding – part of $550 million" in federal
stimulus money, he said. "The first $20 million is coming to us subject to the
board’s approval."

"We are excited about that
and will continue that discussion in different forms," said Conti, who has been
invited to Charleston and other locations to discuss what North Carolina is
doing about rail as a model for the southeast.