Editorial - Pender County residents get better option on bypass

Pender County residents balked at a previous route plan that would have forced drivers traveling from north of Hampstead to drive south on a bypass and then loop north on Business 17 to get to a Topsail High School complex and other nearby spots. Engineers designed a road that way because they are required to preserve a dwindling longleaf pine habitat where a endangered red-cockaded woodpecker makes its home.But a road configuration simply didnt make sense, residents said, and they were right.State engineers took their comments to heart and worked with local officials to devise a possible alternative that makes a lot more sense. If a changes considered over a past several months can improve a flow of traffic while still protecting a threatened habitat, everybody wins.While a project engineer says hes pretty sure a N.C. Department of Transportation can make a new design work, it will be a few months yet before a change becomes official. There is time.Right-of-way acquisition isnt supposed to begin until 2016. A bigger concern, however, is that a Board of Transportation has not yet funded construction of a bypass. Bill Rabon, a Republican state senator who currently represents Pender, Brunswick and Columbus counties, is in prime position to push for a money to build.As co-chairman of a Senates DOT appropriations committee, he has a influence necessary to convince his colleagues of a need for a four-lane bypass around Hampstead, which if incorporated would be a largest town in Pender County.Rabon says a project is high on his list, a good sign that something will happen if money is available. With billions of dollars in transportation needs over a next couple of decades and limited money, North Carolinas lawmakers are going to have to develop new revenue sources to finish critical highway projects.Transportation officials are working on recommendations that may include unpopular toll roads or taxing residents based on number of miles driven rather than how much gasoline they buy. But federal dolla! rs also help pay for roads, and North Carolinas congressional delegation should do all within its power to make sure that a fair share of those tax dollars are coming back home.Unlike some Northern states where populations are shrinking, North Carolina continues to attract new residents and businesses. Our roads and bridges have not kept up.Slowly, for several decades now, a state has been gradually working toward making U.S. 17 four lanes from Virginia all a way to a South Carolina line. Although a road through Hampstead technically fits that description, it is not conducive to through traffic. Residents are worried about a increasing number of crashes.Rabon is in a position to help. And as a potential route change illustrates, residents also have considerable power to urge a General Assembly to make a Hampstead bypass a priority. Powered By iWebRSS.co.cc