Financial hits to the North Carolina Department of Transportation resulted in the delay of at least a dozen road improvement projects in Catawba County. | Adobe Stock
Financial hits to the North Carolina Department of Transportation resulted in the delay of at least a dozen road improvement projects in Catawba County. | Adobe Stock
Facing funding problems and Mother Nature, the state Department of Transportation is delaying its projects for nearly a decade.
The decision will significantly impact Catawba County, where more than a dozen projects are now sidelined.
“I wish I had a presentation that delivers better news than I had tonight,” Western Piedmont Council of Governments Executive Director Anthony Starr told county commissioners, the Hickory Daily Record reported in October.
The stopping of these road improvements come in the wake of various financial difficulties for the Department of Transportation during the past few years, the Hickory Daily Record reported. Storm damage from the last two years has accumulated $400 million in repairs, and court costs for Map Act litigation could total around $1 billion. For the fiscal year of 2019, the NCDOT went over its budget by $742 million.
For the time being, “it’s unclear how this will come out in the end,” Starr said, the Hickory Daily Record reported.
Alerts Sign-up