NC Highway Maintenance Is Behind and Won’t Catch up Any Time Soon
$3.4 billion. That’s how much bad roads and congestion in North Carolina costs its drivers in higher vehicle ownership costs, according to a report commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Fixing those roads — as well as repairing and replacing bridges, building new highways and any other large projects the NCDOT has on its schedule — takes money, and lots of it. Steve Abbott, a spokesperson for the NCDOT, said that to bring every bridge in the state to “good” condition would cost $3.8 billion, roughly 71 percent of the department’s $5.3 billion budget for the year.