RECENT POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS TO PAVE ALL UNPAVED SECONDARY ROADS IN NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina has the largest state-maintained highway system in the nation, consisting of 76,727 mi. Of this total, 59,310 mi (77%) is on the rural state secondary system. As of January 1989, 16,358 mi (28%) of the rural state secondary system remained unpaved. Between 1981 and 1988, the department was only able to pave 2,293 mi of unpaved rural state secondary roads, an average of 287 mi per year. At this rate, it would have taken 55 years to pave all the remaining unpaved rural secondary roads in the state. Faced with the inadequacy of the existing revenue source--a motor fuel tax of 1 3/4 cents/gal generating about $68 million annually--for all types of secondary road paving, the 1989 North Carolina General Assembly created the North Carolina Highway Trust Fund, which is designed to provide $9.2 billion of additional funding for new primary and secondary highway and bridge construction throughout the state over a 13 1/2-year period. The policy decisions and legislative actions behind North Carolina's secondary road paving program and the manner in which candidate projects are ordered by priority are explored. The discussion should be of interest to all state and county highway agencies responsible for low-volume road paving and maintenance.

Media Info

  • Features: Figures;
  • Pagination: p. 69-73
  • Monograph Title: Fifth International Conference on Low-Volume Roads May 19-23 1991, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; volumes 1 and 2
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00611746
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 030905715
  • Files: TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: Aug 31 1991 12:00AM