By Ray Gronberg
gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648
DURHAM -- Some at his agency might disagree, but state Transportation Secretary Gene Conti made it clear Wednesday that he's not inclined to ask county governments to shoulder the burden of maintaining North Carolina's secondary roads.
"I don't think that would be at all workable, financially or institutionally or any other way," Conti told elected officials from Triangle counties. "That's not our goal."
Conti did say, however, that the state needs to "figure out some innovative ways to address" secondary-road maintenance in partnership with local governments.
The secretary's comments alluded to a squabble that erupted last year when three bills surfaced in the General Assembly that would have forced cities or counties to pick up the tab for the upkeep of thousands of miles worth of state roads.
The bills grew out of the feeling among officials at the N.C. Department of Transportation that the cash-strapped agency should concentrate its maintenance dollars on interstates and numbered U.S. and state routes.
But DOT is also responsible for the upkeep of a good number of other roads in cities and counties across the state, thanks to its Depression-era takeover of what to that point had been county road programs.
The most aggressive of the bills calling for a transfer came from Mecklenburg County state Sens. Bob Rucho and Dan Clodfelter. They figured on shifting responsibility for 64,000 of the state's roughly 79,000 miles of roads to counties.
Conti alluded to that bill Wednesday and told Triangle officials it's "not something we're advocating."
The secretary had signaled his position before, "but not quite that strongly," Durham City Councilman Mike Woodard said after the morning meeting.
"I thought [he] was fairly emphatic," Woodard added.
Conti's top lieutenant, DOT Chief Operating Officer Jim Trogdon, supported a variant of the maintenance transfer in the past. He also spoke during Wednesday's meeting, but didn't touch on the point.
Both state officials touted the agency's efforts to beef up cooperation with local officials and set up priority rankings for road projects that should take some of the politics out of DOT's decision-making.
Trogdon detailed the system DOT is considering for ranking so-called "urban loop" projects, a matter of local concern because it will affect funding decisions for Durham's East End Connector.
He said officials intend to grade projects on factors like their potential to relieve congestion, improve safety, boost travel time and ease freight movements.
But two factors appear particularly likely to influence consideration of the East End Connector, which is supposed to link the Durham Freeway and U.S. 70.
DOT figures to give extra weight to projects backed by funding other than state loop dollars. That's a help to the connector because Durham officials have signaled that they're willing to see some of the area's normal road money go to the project.
On the flip side, Trogdon said DOT also would give weight to projects that appear likely to trigger economic development. That could hurt the connector, which is unlikely to spark much real-estate speculation because its two interchanges will go in at points already served by major highways.
Trogdon also told local officials that last year's federal economic-stimulus bill had allowed DOT to "do better than probably just sustain" its construction and maintenance program in the face of other revenue shortfalls.
He said that from talking to contractors, DOT believes the bill's proceeds kept about 30,000 workers in the field for about 2 million hours of labor that otherwise would have gone undone for lack of money.
