With the change of governorship in NC during the November election, it remains to be seen what the state’s position will be on the importance of this bridge project. Governor McCrory was very committed to the project, as was his team on the DOT. We have yet to hear what Cooper’s stance is. With his main guy at the DOT being formerly involved with the EPA, it’s not looking good.
Meanwhile, I came across the letter from the SELC to NCDOT and Federal Highway Authority dated December 21, 2016. You can read that letter here. (Warning, it’s very lengthy, but has a great history and timeline of events to how we got where we are.) In the letter, something caught my attention:
“The new expectation that traffic in the study area will be significantly lighter than previously anticipated and the Transportation Agencies’ failure to incorporate this fact into their analysis.”
Part of their argument against the building of the bridge was this new expectation of traffic. I kept reading until I came across this info:
“New traffic forecasts, however, have shown that every single one of these predictions is no longer true. Travel demand will no longer exceed road capacity on 29 miles of the road network by 2035, or even 2040.”
I wanted to know why the SELC is reporting a new study shows the traffic patterns would be lower than originally predicted. In my research I found that it turns out the DOT changed their traffic numbers and projections based on national trends and actual observed traffic counts.
So, basically what happened is DOT put out new numbers, and SELC pounced with another opportunity to squash the project. While their argument is the same as it has been from the beginning, with the DOT’s own reports now showing a different projection in numbers, will the decision to build the bridge be sustained? That coupled with new leadership has me feeling a lot of doubt that it will happen.
What are your thoughts?
Read the letter from SELC in December here. http://southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/December-2016-Comments-on-Mid-Currituck-Bridge-NEPA-Review.pdf
