NC's $100 billion transportation infrastructure challenge

About this episode

The episode discusses North Carolina's transportation infrastructure challenges and funding issues with NCDOT Secretary Daniel Johnson.

With a growing population and skyrocketing construction costs, the N.C. Department of Transportation needs more help to build and improve roads and infrastructure across the state. If you’re driving around a high-growth area of the state, there’s a decent chance you might be stuck in traffic – and those daily bottlenecks are only getting worse. The Department of Transportation knows exactly where it needs to widen roads and build new ones to ease that congestion. But with inadequate revenue from the gas tax, construction on those improvements could be years away. DOT has a list of $144 billion in transportation infrastructure projects submitted by local leaders, but it only has $5 billion to spend WUNC News sat down with NCDOT Secretary Daniel Johnson at the agency’s Raleigh headquarters to get a better picture of the state’s transportation funding challenges, from controversial toll roads to the shifting sands around N.C. 12 on the Outer Banks.

People in this episode

Host: WUNC News

Guest: Daniel Johnson

Topics covered

• transportation infrastructure
• traffic congestion
• construction costs
• state funding
• NCDOT challenges

Keywords

• transportation
• infrastructure
• North Carolina
• NCDOT
• traffic
• construction costs
• funding

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: N.C. Department of Transportation

Places: North Carolina, Outer Banks

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