Stuck in neutral

Your Sept. 19 story about growing traffic congestion highlights the urgency of completing our freeway system quickly before costs put it out of reach. While there's been some good news -- transportation planning groups approved accelerating the completion of the "Triangle Expressway" as a turnpike this spring -- there's been more bad news that's putting the brakes on relief.

To start construction, we need a recurring annual commitment of $18 million from the legislature to cover the gap in building costs that tolls will not cover. And with inflation increasing the overall turnpike project cost by $1 million every week, time is not on our side.

We applaud the "gap funding" bills that lawmakers approved by overwhelming margins last session. Unfortunately, the General Assembly adjourned before it worked out the differences between the House and Senate versions. This means that the Turnpike Authority cannot move forward to construction.

No one likes the idea of toll roads, but the reality is that traditional transportation taxes and fees are woefully insufficient. And we cannot accept a future of grinding congestion. Our legislature must act to provide gap funding for critical turnpike routes so that we can get on with solving our transportation problems.

If we don't invest in mobility infrastructure, we're leaving our children an inheritance of gridlock.

Rusine Mitchell-Sinclair

Chair, Regional Transportation Alliance (www.letsgetmoving.org)

Raleigh