Gribblenation

This past weekend, I headed down to Gastonia to visit friends and partake in the annual fantasy football draft we have. I headed down on Saturday and then went on a drive into the NC mountains. The trip (from Gastonia, NC) - US 321, I-40, US 70, NC 114, I-40, US 221, US 70, NC 80, NC 226A, NC 197/TN Secondary 395, I-26, US 74, I-85. A few notes on the way down. Clearing and grading has begun on what will be the I-74/US 311 freeway interchange with I-85 near High Point. A long way from finished but nice to see things moving along there. My friend Steven went along for the NC 80 ride and our first stop was an abandoned truss bridge he located off of Hardin Road. The surprise was that a number of sections of the bridge have collapsed. It appears that this bridge has sat abandoned since the 1960s. This is definitely a site I would recommend exploring with at least one other person with you. There wasn't much of anything eventful on US 321 or US 70 or NC 114 (except for trying to f

OK, now the Triangle Expressway really is dead without a public-private partnership. Honest. We mean it this time. But a partnership became the prime money option for the Triangle Expressway after the legislature ended its session late Thursday night without providing seed money to allow the turnpike authority to float construction bonds for the project. In the waning hours of the session, the House passed a bill that would have provided $20 million from the general fund, but that measure was politically unpopular with the Senate, which didn't consider it before adjourning. That kills chances for state seed money until the legislature reconvenes for a "short session" in May. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why it's impossible to live-blog the General Assembly. Just to recap: we've gone from a passed Senate bill, to that bill being rejected by the House, to a few changes being made that ensured passage through the House, to that new bill being rejected by the Sen

DOT awarded a contract today to repave thirteen miles of I-40 south of downtown Raleigh. Pretty soon, there won't be a part of 40 in the Triangle that won't be under construction, what with the Durham repaving project and the Clayton Bypass work zone. The resurfacing project, to be done by S.T. Wooten Corp., will be from Wade Avenue (Exit 289) to milemarker 302, west of Jones Sausage Road (Exit 303). Work can begin after Sept. 4 with completion set for August 2008. Work will conducted at night and during some weekends. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/658078.html

UPDATE 10:05 pm : WRAL reports on the 10:00 news that the House has approved a $20 million funding bill for NC 540's western loop. No idea if it's only authorizing the 540 loop, or if it funds all NCTA projects, not to mention how the projects will be funded, but I'm sure we'll find out tomorrow. Below is the original post from about ten minutes before the new funding bill passed the House: Yesterday, the toll road financing bill hit a roadblock (ha, ha, what a pun) in the state House. A western Wake County turnpike project faces up to a two-year delay -- and at least an $80 million markup on its price tag -- after legislative leaders late Wednesday appeared to abandon a last-ditch attempt to find seed money for the proposed toll road. With the scheduled end of the legislative session looming today, a top House leader said it would be up to Wake County legislators to come up with $20 million in recurring seed money for the Triangle Expressway, an 18.9 mile toll road