By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
RALEIGH ó N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue promised to head to Washington, D.C., Wednesday with a new Interstate 85 Yadkin River bridge as part of her list of pressing needs that the federal government could help through an economic stimulus package.
Perdue met this morning at the State Capitol Building with roughly 20 Rowan, Davidson and Cabarrus representatives who had one thing on their minds, seeing the 54-year-old interstate bridge over the Yadkin replaced.
Perdue said she has traveled the bridge and read the newspaper clippings about its condition and realizes its importance as part of a major East Coast artery.
She said she had even mentioned the need for a new Yadkin River bridge to President-elect Barack Obama during a political event in Philadelphia.
Perdue assured the visitors of the bridge’s high priority as she planned to meet today with Obama’s transition team and members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation.
Perdue said she’ll remind the Obama team that North Carolina’s population growth will soon make it the seventh largest state and of the “drastic” transportation needs it faces. She said she will encourage the new administration not to penalize North Carolina for requiring balanced budgets and being good stewards of its money.
If stimulus money comes to the state for highway projects, Perdue said she wasn’t sure yet how it would be distributed ó by block grants or the standard highway equity formula. But she stressed the need for the money to go toward “shovel-ready projects,” so that people could be put back to work quickly.
Perdue said she was headed for Washington “at a really good time.” She acknowledged she also will press the federal government for help with Medicaid.
The county commissioners, legislators and business leaders who met with Perdue this morning said they were encouraged by her comments and impressed that Perdue had scheduled the meeting in only her second day on the job.
“Her second day in office ó pretty major,” said Carl Ford, chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. “And the day before she’s going to Washington.”
Ford said finding funding for the bridge replacement is crucial to economic development and even homeland security.
Davidson County Commissioner Max Walser said he was impressed with Perdue’s “knowledge of what’s going on.”
“Obviously, she has traveled it, and I’m confident she will do all she can,” Walser said.
N.C. Reps. Fred Steen, R-Rowan, and Lorene Coates, D-Rowan, said the stimulus package must be considered as one of the better hopes for funding the bridge, which Steen described as important for the whole state and, really, East Coast.
“I think everyone understands the importance of the bridge,” he said.
Coates said new transportation money will have to come from Washington and, if it does come, she emphasized that the state should not place it into the equity formula. The formula would not provide enough money for the Yadkin River bridge project, Coates said.
The state also must realize that the current bridge (northbound and southbound structures) will require $5 million in repairs within the next five years. She says AAA rates it the worst bridge in North Carolina.
A bridge replacement, as part of a 6.8-mile widening project, would cost at least $300 million, according to Department of Transportation estimates.
Rowan County Chamber of Commerce President Bob Wright said today’s meeting with Perdue represented one of the bigger steps in efforts to find funding for the bridge. The strong turnout for the Perdue meeting, which was called on short notice Friday, shows the support the project has, Wright said.
“Timing is everything,” Wright added of Perdue’s going to Washington with the Yadkin bridge project on her mind.