Catawba Crossing toll project

A group led by Shirley Contracting Corp has been selected for further discussion in a first review of investor funded toll proposals in North Carolina (NC). NCDOT is under legislative order (NCSL-2000-145) to license a private tollroad proposal under a Pilot Private Toll Road program.

The Shirley Construction group, a major Virginia based roadbuilder has proposed developing a 6km (3.7mi) east-west tollroad connecting US-321 and NC-127 in the northern part of Hickory (western NC.) Main expense in the project is a new crossing of the Catawba River, a deep damned elongated lake, which needs a span of 550m (1800’.) The Catawba Crossing (X) as we’ll call the east-west toll project would connect with an Eastern Thoroughfare that is partially in construction to make a high capacity north-south road on the eastern side of Hickory from US-70 and I-40 up to NC-127. The two projects would form a new peripheral route or loop around the north and east of Hickory. Indeed the whole project is shown as Northeastern Loop (U-2307) on one map.

Traffic on the new facility is modeled at just over 20k veh/day, but there is major commercial development at both ends of the proposed tollroad, so the project will be based on higher volumes.

The proposal to NCDOT of 10 pages, dated 4/1/01 is submitted by Shirley Corp on behalf of a project team that also includes the Clark Construction Group, Earth Tech/Tyco Services and Vollmer Associates.

Garry Pelleschi, of Shirley says that the proposal was left deliberately vague and without a cost number because it is not sufficiently defined at this stage. Only when the project is further discussed with NCDOT, the city and local groups will it be possible to develop it to the stage when it can be costed.

Southern Wake Exwy, Raleigh

NCDOT also received a submission from Tidewater Construction Corp, a Skanska subsid to build a $400m tollroad in the southern part of the Raleigh NC area. Under the current legislation NCDOT can only proceed with licensing one private tollroad and the Shirley Corp’s Hickory proposal goes forward while the Tidewater proposal gets shelved for now.

Tidewater’s proposal was for a road various referred to as the Southern Wake Expressway or the southern portion of the I-540 Outer Loop of Raleigh. 37km (23mi) long the road would run from I-40 southeast o Raleigh west to US-1 then north to end at US-64. At its closest it is about 19km (12mi) from the center of Raleigh.

Tidewater proposed to build the southern leg I-40 East to US-64 West as a motorway standard tollroad of 4-lanes with a 14m (46’) median widenable to 6-lanes.

NCDOT Decides

NCDOT officials said they preferred the Hickory proposal over the Raleigh one because it has fewer obstacles. The Raleigh road faces major right of way objections and environmental issues.

Mike Stanley of the NCDOT program development office told us: “The steering committee saw the Raleigh project as very large and complex, especially the land acquisition.”

He said NCDOT only wants to use power of eminent domain to support private projects as a very last resort, so the Tidewater group aroused some concern with the suggestion that this might be used. By contrast the Shirley group seemed more willing to take full responsibility for assembling right of way.

Stanley said because of the right of way issues the Raleigh proposal looks more suited to a public-private collaborative venture than to a private project.

Both proposals said they met the NCDOT requirements which included: (1) an “identified need” – not difficult (2) “identified” in local plans – limits innovation (3) “most be a free alternative” – arguable what that is, but it reduces potential revenue (4) “must not be a funded STIP project” – they are often the best toll prospects (5) “obtain a resolution of the support from the county” – any prudent developer will try for that. Also, present NC law requires that the private toll proposals be true toll projects and self-financing from tolls, not hybrid toll-assisted projects with tax revenues being thrown into the pot.

There is a push in the NC legislature to create a North Carolina Tollroad Authority, somewhat along the lines of the Texas Turnpike Authority. NCTA would pursue collaborative tollroad projects with investor groups – so-called public-private ventures. NCTA projects might be a mix of toll and other funding like TTA projects.

In discussion of NCTA there has been frequent mention of completion of loops around major metro areas like Charlotte and Raleigh as a high priority for tolls.

Source: TOLL ROADS NEWSLETTER, Number 44 August 2001. This article is posted with permission of editor Peter Samuel who is contactable by telephone at 301-631-1148 by e-mail tollroads@aol.com.