A Voice for Transportation Issues

Today (Saturday, Sept. 29), I planned to travel into Wilmington for a mid-day event.  These plans, which did not come to fruition, reminded me why it is important that Brunswick County have a strong voice on transportation issues.

When I got into my car, I knew that the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge was closed for repairs.  While I knew this would make the short drive a bit longer and more tedious,  I did not expect traffic to be backed up all the way to the point where Highway 17 merges with US 74/76 in Leland (not on a Saturday in late September, anyway).

After sitting in traffic for a while, I made the decision to skip the event in Wilmington since there was no way I would get there before it ended, and I took the Leland exit and came back to my office.  Before doing so, while at a standstill I took the picture at right.

A couple of thoughts occurred to me during this experience:

• If the I-140 bypass were complete, I would have had an alternate route across the Brunswick and Cape Fear Rivers.
• If the legislature had not diverted somewhere on the order of $170 million per year from the N.C. Highway Trust Fund over the past couple of decades, I-140 and other transportation priorities might be complete (as an aside, I believe Brunswick County’s current legislators are fighting to end this practice altogether).

When I logged onto Facebook after escaping this traffic jam, I saw numerous people complaining about the traffic backup. Some of them had quite a bit to say about it!

While county government does not have a direct say in building roads and bridges — those are handled primarily at the state level — Brunswick County’s growth over the past decade has made it increasingly important that our county have a strong voice for transportation issues.  If elected in November, I will work hard to ensure that the citizens of Brunswick County have a strong, effective voice who will speak up on behalf of the transportation challenges facing our county.