Tight funds and steep inflation are forcing North Carolina to scale back its road-building plans again. And that will mean more traffic hassles on Triangle highways.

In a draft update of construction plans for the next seven years, the state Department of Transportation recommends further postponements of key projects already hit with delays last year. The plan will be released today.

Residents will be invited to comment at public hearings, but few changes are likely before the state Board of Transportation adopts its 2007-2013 plan in December.

The bad news

* Western Wake Expressway. Last year, DOT said it would start building the I-540 extension in 2012. This year, DOT says: never. Meanwhile, the state Turnpike Authority says that as a toll road, it can be finished by 2011.

* U.S. 401 widening from I-540 in North Raleigh to Louisburg. DOT says it could get to Rolesville in 2009 but no farther until after 2013.

* I-85 widening in Orange County. No construction money until after 2013.

* N.C. 42 widening in Johnston County. Partial construction in 2009, the rest after 2013.

The good news

One major Triangle project comes out better this year. For the first time, DOT is pledging construction money to Durham's long-sought $98.8 million East End Connector. The construction date is 2012.

By linking N.C. 147 and U.S. 70, the East End Connector will give Durham a fast freeway between I-85 in northern Durham County, and Research Triangle Park and the airport. It will pull traffic from several routes, including Roxboro and Duke streets in downtown Durham and Glenwood Avenue in the Brier Creek area in northwest Wake County.

"For people in Durham and Wake and surrounding counties who are trying to navigate from north to south, this provides a very strategic and less congested road," said Kenneth B. Spaulding of Durham, a member of the state transportation board.

Why the delays?

Steel, concrete, asphalt and other road-building costs have risen about 45 percent in the past three years. But North Carolina is not expecting an increase in the flow of highway dollars from Washington.

"We and other states have had to reduce our expectations from the federal government," said Mark Foster, DOT's financial officer. "To fit higher costs into the same revenues, you're going to have to adjust the timing" of construction projects, he said.

That means more slowdowns in improvements for congested roads that serve fast-growing parts of the Triangle. They include U.S. 401 and N.C. 98 in northern Wake, and Miami Boulevard and Davis Drive in the RTP area.

"It's pretty doggone disappointing," said Edison H. Johnson Jr., director of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees transportation planning for Wake and parts of surrounding counties.

"Here we are in an area that's got so many great rankings in quality of life, and in transportation, we're going south faster than most people realize. And when they do realize it, it's going to be just about too late to catch up."

More toll roads?

The new DOT plan would halt spending on land acquisition and construction for the $351.4 million Western Wake Expressway, a 12.4-mile extension of I-540 from Research Triangle Park to Holly Springs.

Wake mayors agreed last year to consider collecting tolls from drivers to get the road built quickly, after DOT postponed construction for four years. The Western Wake Expressway is considered a good bet to become North Carolina's first modern turnpike, but the mayors have not yet given their blessing.

They say the state should come through with tax dollars to finish the I-540 loop, which was started -- toll-free -- in northern Wake.

The new DOT plan dashes these hopes.

"It's consistent with what we've seen in Raleigh and Wake County," said Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker. "The North Carolina DOT is becoming a maintenance and repaving organization, and not a new construction entity. So new construction will need to be done either by the state Turnpike Authority or by the individual municipalities."

The DOT plan also delays repaving projects for heavily traveled sections of I-40 and I-440 in Raleigh.

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