Interstates may be in future
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 6, 2015 3:05 AM
Wayne County officials say they are hopeful for an early Christmas present -- signs proclaiming that the U.S. 70 and U.S. 117 highway corridors have been designated as future Interstates.
These designations could have a lasting impact on the Wayne County economy as well as providing Seymour Johnson Air Force Base more ease of movement from base to base in the East.
Congress this past week approved a five-year transportation bill that provides that designation dependent on the bill being signed into law by President Obama.
That signature is expected within days, said Wayne County Commissioner Joe Daughtery, chairman of the commission's Transportation Committee.
"It was a bipartisan bill," Daughtery said. "In there are the amendments to designate 117 from (Interstate) 795 termination (near Ash Street) down to I-40 (in Sampson County) as future Interstates along with U.S. 70 from its intersection at I-40 in Clayton all the way to Morehead City as a future Interstate."
The goal is to extend I-795 from Goldsboro south to Interstate 40 in Sampson County just west of Faison.
The upgrade would require a new roadway from Ash Street to south of Goldsboro with the remainder using the existing U.S. 117 South.
Daughtery said he learned of the highway bill's passage Thursday during a meeting of the U.S. 70 Corridor Commission.
"My question was how soon can the signs go up indicating that?" he said. "We were pleasantly surprised to hear that NCDOT, that is a decision of NCDOT, will erect those signs, and it may be an early Christmas present. We may see those sign go up before Christmas.
"I hope so, and if so, it will be a great day for Wayne County and eastern North Carolina."
The bill does not provide any funding for the two highways, but does provide a strong bargaining tool for future funding, he said.
"We had been making no headway at all in regards to extending 795," Daughtery said. "The emphasis was just to try to upgrade 70 to a freeway status. The push from three years of trying to get it designated as a future Interstate, Rep. (George) Holding's staff met with us and said, 'The way to go about this is to go through Congress and get it designated as a future Interstate, and once you have that designation then you go to NCDOT and say it has been designated as a high priority corridor, a future Interstate and you need to find the dollars to make it happen.'
"The money will come after the designation. The other thing it does, it is also picked up by MapQuest and these others, which gives a little bit more emphasis in regards to the traveling public that it is designated as a future Interstate. The third thing it does, it allows the industries that are looking to locate within so many miles of any Interstate to see that this has been designated as a future Interstate. So there are a lot of ripple benefits for us."
It also is good news for eastern North Carolina's military bases, he said.
"In fact, the military was heavily involved in this saying we need to link by Interstate or nearby Interstates between our Air Force and our Army," he said. "All of that needs to be linked together so if you are moving equipment, and troops, that you have freeway access rather than going on some roads that are going to be limited to 45 or 55 mph. They needed to have those corridors established. The military was a big help in getting this designation."
The economic potential is tremendous, he said.
"Probably you and I are not going to see the fruits of that labor, but imagine 20 or 25 years from now," he said. "You have situated in Wayne County two intersecting railroads. You have two intersecting highways. You are within an hour and a half to two ports. You can see where we are going. Wayne County and eastern North Carolina can possibly bring in that industry and jobs.
"I am not saying it is going to take 25 years to bring in jobs, but you have to start somewhere of having something to show, some viable reason to industry as to why to locate in Wayne County. We have the job force. We have the highways. We have the railroads. We have the military. We have the infrastructure to bring in those jobs."
With the state's new budget steps are being taken to make major improvements to U.S. 117 South mainly interchanges at O'Berry Road at Dudley and Country Club Road just north of Mount Olive.
Both projects had been approved, but the new budget has moved both of those projects up dramatically, he said.
"They are going to happen," he said. "You are going to see some flags go up on them very rapidly on this. I think right now the projects on that 117 corridor are where in the foreseeable future, I am talking about the next three to five years, where you are going to see those interchanges actually improved."