Monday, December 17, 2007
New I-14 propsed to open Black Belt
A new east-west interstate linking Augusta, Ga., and Natchez, Miss., may one day wind through Lee County.
April 17, 2007
A new east-west interstate linking Augusta, Ga., and Natchez, Miss., may one day wind through Lee County.
The proposed highway would link military bases along the route, including those in Macon, Ga., Columbus, Ga., and Montgomery, said Mayo “Biff” Hadden, director of business development for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
Hadden recently discussed the project and Lee County’s continued growth at a meeting at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce.
The interstate project is “about a three-year old initiative now,” Hadden said. “It’s gone through a little bit of maturity as it’s been put together. But it’s really a critical function for what we’re striving to see, because it does so much to open up parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.”
Although preliminary studies are not yet under way, observers expect the Lee County leg of the new interstate to follow either Interstate 85 into Auburn-Opelika and U.S. Highway 280 into Phenix City or I-85 to Tuskegee and U.S. Highway 80 into Phenix City.
The interstate, tentatively designated I-14, would be so named to reference the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Federal legislation introducing the concept of a new east-west interstate in 2004 encouraged its development in the Black Belt, stating that “disparity in transportation infrastructure investment has been a key contributing factor to the persistent poverty and social ills of this region.” The development of a new highway through the region, its sponsors hoped, would increase economic development opportunities for communities in the Black Belt.
In August 2005, the federal government appropriated $1.32 million for a corridor study of the proposed I-14 route as part of a larger transportation bill. Officials at the Federal Highway Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, say that the FHWA is in the process of bidding out the initial corridor study that will estimate construction costs and delineate the steps needed to build the interstate.
Tony Harris, special assistant to Alabama Department of Transportation Director Joe McInnes, said ALDOT officials in Montgomery aren’t familiar with plans for the proposed I-14. But they are aware of infrastructure concerns in the Black Belt, he said, due to their work on the proposed extension of I-85 west out of Montgomery into eastern Mississippi.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has been concerned with the underdeveloped nature of Alabama’s Black Belt region for several years, Harris said, adding that $116 million in state and federal funding has been approved to study the environmental impact and tentative routes of the I-85 extension.
Hadden estimates that it could be as many as 10 to 15 years before I-14 is operable - and that’s not including the development of any unexpected delays in planning or funding. Completion time and project costs could be minimized, Hadden said, by maximizing existing infrastructure and “piggybacking” the new sections of highway onto existing ones where possible.
Because rough sketches of the proposed I-14 in west Alabama would run that highway to within about 60 miles of the expected route of the I-85 extension, that leg of I-14 would be a sensible area to consider “piggybacking” the new road, Hadden said.
But supporters of the I-85 project are wary about whether such “piggybacking” would be beneficial to their plans.
On one hand, engineers cautiously agreed that layering a new project onto an existing one could help expedite the project’s funding and speed along the completion date for that leg of the broader project. But it could also hamper progress on the existing project, they said, because of the detailed environmental studies that are required for road projects.
I-85 extension project manager Paul Griggs said he understands why I-14 proponents would consider it a good idea to combine that leg of the highway onto plans for the I-85 extension. But he said it would be difficult to add additional mileage to the current I-85 extension study corridor, now at 140 miles long.
“I grant you that it’s hard to justify building another (interstate) where an interstate already exists,” Griggs said. “The more you add to (the study corridor), the more alternatives you can develop, the more it would have to be studied. It complicates things to make (the study) longer and longer. You would have to add everything to it to bring it up to speed, and it would take a long time to catch that far up to it.
“These projects take a long time. You wouldn’t want to hinder this project by adding to it as you get further along.”
Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, is a longtime proponent of the I-85 extension project, and aides say the $11 million he directed to the I-85 extension study in 2005 was the largest single one-time contribution for any highway project in the Black Belt. Press secretary Corey Ealons said Davis’ “primary desire” is to extend I-85 through the Black Belt and into Mississippi for economic development and industrial recruitment purposes.
“(Davis) is fine with (combining that leg of I-14 with the I-85 extension), as long as it doesn’t hinder the ultimate development of I-85 and the time table associated with getting that completed,” Ealons said.
Although I-14 is not even through its initial study phase, legislation pending in this year’s Congress would add project miles and cost to it on both ends, moving its termini to Wilmington, N.C., in the east and Austin, Texas, in the west.
Harris, the ALDOT official, said that no matter the route, funding will remain the “major issue” when dealing with road projects.
“We’ve got a five-year plan that we’re already so stretched for funding (for) that we are having to move projects around simply because of what costs are doing,” he said. “Even with combined state and federal revenue, we’re doing good to meet our needs with that.
“With new projects like these of a very grand scale, it’s hard to imagine where the funding will come from for those.”
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