From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE — The North Carolina Department of Transportation has eliminated eight major road projects in Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties from its draft 10-year road and highway budget plan, with final approval looming later this year, according to Tristan Winkler, director of the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Winkler announced the cutback during a Feb. 22 MPO presentation, noting, “It’s very disappointing. As a growing part of the state, having our infrastructure accommodate the growth we’re experiencing, it’s very important.”

The NCDOT’s draft State Transportation Improvement Plan “was released in January,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported on March 3. “It shows how and when projects are expected to be funded across the state over the next decade.”

The newspaper added, “Winkler said the draft proposes to defund more than $782 million in projects for Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties, which includes the long-awaited widening for Sweeten Creek Road in South Asheville, improvements to a stretch of Sand Hill and Sardis roads and widening of Swannanoa River Road, from Biltmore to South Tunnel.”

In a Feb. 27 interview, Winkler told the ACT, “It’s a lot of projects that have been planned for a long time that our communities and community members have helped to prioritize in the past. And so losing that funded status, it’s a disappointment.”

Further, the newspaper noted, “Winkler considers a project in the draft STIP defunded, or decommitted, if it loses funding entirely, or if it changes to ‘preliminary engineering only,’ meaning no money is allocated for construction or later phases, and it must compete again in NCDOT’s strategic prioritization process to remain funded in a future STIP. The plan is updated about every two years.”

 Meanwhile, Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) noted that NCDOT spokesman David Uchiyama stated, “Cost estimates for all these projects continue to rise exponentially — with the budget not increasing at the same rate.”

News 13 added, “The issue is NCDOT’s budget set by the legislature, as the escalating costs have meant many projects have doubled or tripled in price.”

The ACT story quoted Uchiyama as saying that, “to ensure the STIP remains fiscally constrained as required by state and federal law, the schedules of many projects were shifted, with some becoming funded for preliminary engineering only.” The newspaper emphasized that Uchiyama noted that the cutbacks are not related to Tropical Storm Helene recovery.

For Buncombe, the cutbacks include the following:

• The long-discussed Sweeten Creek Road lane expansion.

• The lane additions on the future I-26 from Broadway — near the UNC Asheville campus — to Weaverville.

• The widening of Sand Hill at Sardis Road. 

• The improvements on Swannanoa River Road, between Biltmore Avenue and South Tunnel.

In Henderson County, the NCDOT has removed funding plans for improvements at Four Seasons Boulevard at I-26 in Hendersonville.

In Haywood County, the three projects off the list are the following:

• Improvements to South Main Street in Waynesville.

• Improvements at U.S. 276 and Crymes Cove Road in Waynesville.

• The Russ Avenue project that is the second section north of U.S. 23/74, which refers to the ongoing widening and improvement project on Russ Avenue in Waynesville —  specifically the section of the road that lies directly north of address U.S. 23/74, marking the second segment in the overall project area moving north from that point.

Following are some of the postings that News 13 received on its “Comment Bubble” that appeared after its story:

• ATruthTeller — “It’s outrageous that the widening of Sweeten Creek is delayed AGAIN. It has far more congestion than any of the other roadways mentioned here. Traffic has been terrible for years on that road.”

• Xhilr8n — “Yes, disappointing. I’m almost 70 and hoped to live to see it done.  Now it’s unlikely I’ll ever see it start. 

“The double-whammy is that the cash strapped City (Asheville) can never consider this crucial roadway change in their permissiveness for further development. 

“Still a nice place to live, but I sure feel for people trying to get to work or their kids to school.  Or their Doctor appointment.”

• TheOracle — “The surrounding area will continue to boom, just the city (Asheville) itself will be punished for this.”

• WindyRidgeLGBTQandKamala2024 — “Get a job.”

• WBF09 — “There should be a moratorium on any new apartments, hotels, housing communities until the infrastructure can be updated to handle all the traffic that we currently have which it cannot. Even once the current I-26 project is finished, you will not see much of a relief and all of our traffic congestion that we have today — guaranteed!”

• terraformis — “All this will not only result in increased congestion, but also increased wrecks, which will mean increased injuries and deaths.  Good job, thanks Trump.”

• WBF09 — “It’s the Republicans who control the purse strings in this state, so that’s just as bad. And there’s a huge surplus — why don’t they put some of that money into the DOT?”

• dipsnit — “When you cant fix pot holes how will you do the roads?”

• JoeAVL —  “NCDOT is bloated beyond belief. Each governor, for many decades, has loaded DOT with supporters, rain makers, friends, and donors. Cut the fast and their will be more than enough cash to fund highway projects.”

• terraformis — “LOL.  tell us you know nothing about state construction projects without telling us you know nothing about state construction projects.” 

• terraformis — “All this will not only result in increased congestion, but also increased wrecks which will mean increased injuries and deaths.  Good job, thanks Trump.” 

• Native68 — “It is the State, not Trump.” 

•SuperSot — “Trump?  Lmfao!”  

• StableGenius — “Agreed!”

• dipsnit — “When you cant fix pot holes how will you do the roads?”

Crescent41 – “They work like snails, now they can eat um......”

• IamLule — “Is it correct to assume that this is statewide and not just here?”