Toll road project is put on hold

Seed money is a stumbling block

RALEIGH -- A western Wake County turnpike project faces up to a two-year delay -- and at least an $80 million markup on its price tag -- after legislative leaders late Wednesday appeared to abandon a last-ditch attempt to find seed money for the proposed toll road.

With the scheduled end of the legislative session looming today, a top House leader said it would be up to Wake County legislators to come up with $20 million in recurring seed money for the Triangle Expressway, an 18.9 mile toll road from Research Triangle Park to Holly Springs, extending the Interstate 540 Outer Loop into western and southern Wake.

"I'll grab the handle and help them pull up the bucket, but I'm leaving it up to them to come up with a solution," said Rep. Nelson Cole, the Reidsville Democrat and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on transportation.

Cole stepped away from the issue after Senate leaders gave a chilly reception to one suggested source for the seed money -- the state highway maintenance fund. Wake County legislators said they would continue to hunt for money to rescue the project, but with time ticking down on the session, success appeared unlikely.

That means up to a two-year delay, said David Joyner, executive director of the N.C. Turnpike Authority. Unless the legislature is called in for a special session on transportation issues, the next opportunity to pump state dollars into the Wake toll road would be the "short session" in May.

"It doesn't look like it's dead, but it's definitely postponed," Joyner said of the Wake toll road.

At the start of the week, prospects for the project looked rosy as the Senate quickly passed a bill that would have increased the vehicle registration fee by $8, providing $30 million to the turnpike authority. That would be enough to float construction bonds for the Triangle Expressway and one of four other toll road projects across the state.

But in three caucus sessions, including one Wednesday afternoon, House Democrats balked at the Senate bill, forcing legislative leaders to scramble for an alternative source of money to jump-start the Wake toll road, which is closest to the start of construction. House leaders hoped to pass a quick appropriations bill for the Wake project and shuttle it to the Senate to beat the session deadline but couldn't come up with a palatable source of money.

Sen. Clark Jenkins, a Tarboro Democrat who is chairman of the Senate appropriations committee on transportation, didn't like the idea of tapping highway maintenance coffers $20 million a year for the life of the construction bonds.

"Somewhere, that money's got to be replaced," Jenkins said. "That fund is already too low and the transportation needs across the state too great."

Jenkins said he would favor a special legislative session this fall to deal solely with state transportation issues -- a hot topic of discussion in the aftermath of the collapse of the turnpike revenue bill. But other legislative leaders said a special session would be tough to pull off.

Sen. David Hoyle, a Gastonia Democrat who sponsored the Senate turnpike bill, was dismayed that House Democrats rejected it. Hoyle said the bill he sponsored would have allowed construction to start on at least two toll road projects, including the Triangle Expressway.

"We've never built a toll road in North Carolina," he said. "This bill would have given us the opportunity to build two and see if it works."

With dim prospects for state seed money needed to float construction bonds, though, the turnpike authority will be forced to consider more expensive public-private partnerships that have been used in other states to build toll roads, Joyner said. The authority has the statutory power to cut a long-term concession deal with private investors who would build and run the road.