Bob Shiles
Staff writer
LUMBERTON — State Department of Transportation representatives will be in Lumberton on Tuesday for an informal hearing during which residents can learn about long-range plans for road improvements to Interstate 95.
The need for tolls along the 182 miles of I-95 that runs from South Carolina to Virginia will be one of the issues discussed at the hearing to be held from 4 to 7 p.m. in the BB&T room of the Workforce Development Center on the campus of Robeson Community College.
Tolling is the recommended means for helping to pay for $4.4 billion in improvements included in a state-commissioned study released last month, Kristine O’Connor, a planning engineer and project manager with DOT, told The Robesonian. The state is on the hook for 10 percent of that funding, $440 million, with the balance coming from the federal government.
“Tolls are the only way to fund the necessary improvements in a feasible amount of time,” O’Connor said. “If we as a state want to continue growing economically we have make sure that I-95 is a viable option.”
According to the $6.1 million I-95 Corridor Planning and Finance Study, bridges will have to be raised, other bridges will have to be rebuilt, interchanges enhanced, and the entire length of the highway widened. The work will be done in two phases, with the state paying for the first phase with bonds and the second phase will revenue from tolls.
Plans call for construction on Phase I — a 61-mile stretch of the interstate from mile marker 20 in Robeson County to mile marker 81 at the U.S. 40/I-95 interchange in Johnston County — to begin in 2016 and end sometime in 2019. The work would include widening 50 miles from marker 31 to marker 81 to eight lanes, with the remaining sections being widened to six lanes.
Phase II would begin after the first phase is complete, with electronic tolling beginning along the entire stretch of North Carolina’s part of the interstate beginning at the completion of Phase I.
Currently, the state doesn’t have the authority to toll existing highways. The state has applied to the federal government to participate in a pilot program that would permit tolling. O’Connor said that the state should find out shortly if it can participate in the pilot program.
“We encourage people to show up at the hearings,” O’Connor said. “We care what people think … . This project can’t be successful without public input.”
DOT representatives will also be attending Monday’s meeting of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners to update county officials on the proposed I-95 improvements.
O’ Connor said that those who cannot make it to Tuesday’s hearing at RCC have until March 13 to submit written comments to DOT concerning the project.
Information about the proposed road improvements, as well as seven proposed hearings to be held along the I-95 corridor, can be found on the project’s website at Driving95.com.
Reach staff writer Bob Shiles @ 910-272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.
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