Highway construction spending for six Eastern North Carolina counties will be cut by $12 million in coming years to pay for the state Department of Transportation's 18-mile paving mistake on Interstate 795 between Goldsboro and Wilson, state officials say.
Work started this month on a project to dig up and replace 1.5 inches of crumbling asphalt on I-795's outer lanes, and to top all four lanes with 3 inches of new pavement.
The last time the DOT took the blame for a costly paving blunder, on I-40 in Durham County, legislators deducted the $22.4 million repair bill from the department's statewide budget.
The legislature stopped the DOT leaders from paying the tab with road-building money earmarked for Durham and four neighboring counties.
This time there has been no effort to keep the DOT from counting the I-795 fix as an added cost on the original 2004 construction project.
So the $12 million tab will be repaid from future federal and state highway allocations for DOT's Division 4: Wilson, Wayne, Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash and Johnston counties.
"I do not think this is unfair to the division," said Jim Trogdon, DOT's chief operating officer. "Obviously, having to go back and do repairs is something we definitely wanted to avoid."
Both cases involved new pavement that went bad because of design mistakes and other lapses at DOT headquarters in Raleigh under Lyndo Tippett, who served until this year as transportation secretary under former Gov. Mike Easley.
In the I-40 case, Tippett's highway administrator resigned and other managers were disciplined. Legislators demanded reforms, and they agreed that Durham and other Division 5 counties should not bear the repair cost.
The I-795 mistakes have been seen as less egregious. Political leaders have not sought to punish the DOT leaders appointed by Gov. Bev Perdue.
"We've got a new administration over there," said state Sen. Clark Jenkins of Edgecombe County, one of the legislature's leaders on transportation issues. "Hopefully, things will improve. I feel like they will."
Jenkins used to who represent Division 4 on the state Board of Transportation
Trogdon, now the No. 2 administrator under Transportation Secretary Gene Conti, is seen as having been on the right side of the I-795 issue six years ago when he was in charge of Division 4.
DOT officials in Raleigh rejected warnings from Trogdon's staff, based in Wilson, that I-795 would not be strong enough with only 5 inches of asphalt pavement.
Trogdon's office lobbied in vain for an additional 3 inches, which would have added $2 million to the $196 million project cost.
Now the DOT will spend $2 million to fix the damaged asphalt.
"The other $10 million is for the 3 inches in additional pavement that should have been on the project originally," Trogdon said.
Ricky E. Greene Jr., who now heads DOT's Division 4 office in Wilson, said the added asphalt will be a big improvement for I-795.
"We're looking forward to getting the road beefed up," Greene said. "It should be good for 12 to 15 years from now."
