A number of significant N.C. Department of Transportation road projects in the region, including the Mid-Currituck County Bridge in Currituck and Hughes Boulevard roundabouts in Elizabeth City, will not start as scheduled because of state budgetary shortfalls.
Pasquotank County Manager Sparty Hammett announced in his weekly report to commissioners Friday that the Hertford-based Albemarle Rural Planning Organization notified the county this week of the delays. The ARPO is a division of the Albemarle Commission.
The projects are included in NCDOT’s State Transportation Improvement Program for 2024-33 for the Division 1 funding category, which includes Pasquotank and surrounding counties.
The delays are necessary for NCDOT to meet federal and state fiscal constraints in the agency’s draft 2026-35 STIP funding availability. According to a copy of the draft, which was updated May 14, Division 1 is $19 million in the red, while Region A, which includes Divisions 1 & 4, is $228 million in the red.
Angela Welsh, a transportation planner for ARPO, said Friday that for funding categories with negative balances it means committed projects will be delayed, no new projects will receive funding and all non-committed projects will become unfunded. Some committed projects could receive de-committed status, she said.
“We will not know which, if any, of our committed projects will be de-committed until the Draft 2026-2035 STIP is released early next year,” Welsh said.
Two significant projects that NCDOT had planned in Elizabeth City include one to install traffic roundabouts at several intersections along Hughes Boulevard between Church and North Road streets. The other project involves installing a roundabout at the intersection of Oak Stump Road and Hughes Boulevard.
According to Welsh, the causes of the budget shortfalls date back to the pandemic.
“The funding issues are due to the loss of millions of dollars in gas tax (revenues) during COVID, NCDOT budgeting issues a couple of years ago and construction costs have risen almost 50% across the nation since COVID,” she said. “For instance, the Oak Stump Road (project) was initially estimated to cost a little over $2 million in 2019 for design, right-of-way (acquisition) and construction. It is now estimated to cost a little over $12 million.”
The Hughes Boulevard roundabouts project was originally estimated at $20 million, but that cost has risen to a little more than $40 million, she said.
In February, NCDOT hosted an information session for residents to learn more about the planned $42 million roundabout project on Hughes Boulevard. The project aims to replace four signalized intersections between Church to N. Road streets with roundabouts.
Elizabeth City City Council voted unanimously the same month to send a letter to NCDOT outlining council’s concerns that the project, which will include widening Hughes Boulevard, will encroach on the property of residents and business owners.
NCDOT’s Division 1 represents northeastern North Carolina and includes the following counties: Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, Martin, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington.
Other committed projects in Division 1 that should expect delays include work on the mid-Currituck bridge from Coinjock to Corolla and a bridge replacement over Joyce Creek on Old Swamp Road in Camden County, according to the 2024-33 STIP.
The state of North Carolina began the process of obtaining environmental permits needed for the Mid-Currituck Bridge from four state and federal agencies last fall. Those agencies include the N.C. Division of Water Resources and the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, both within the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
But a timeline for right-of-way access and construction of the project won’t be known until the needed permits are approved for the toll bridge that will connect the Currituck mainland to Corolla on the Outer Banks, a North Carolina Turnpike official said.
The N.C. Department of Transportation estimated the cost of building the bridge to be $500 million in March. A financing plan for the bridge, including the cost of tolls to use the bridge, will be updated after the permits are obtained. The state has not said how much tolls to cross the bridge will be.
The bridge project had been delayed since 2019 after groups opposed to the bridge filed a lawsuit to stop its construction. But those groups elected not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a federal court of appeals’ decision in February 2023 clearing the way for the bridge to be built.
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