Transformative Triangle infrastructure project gets $100M in funding to advance work
Triangle Business Journal, October 6, 2022
A $2.2 billion infrastructure project that will transform the southern half of the Triangle just got accelerated.
After votes from the North Carolina Turnpike Authority and North Carolina Board of Transportation in the last week, up to $100 million in funding is being devoted to advancing critical path work for phase two of the southern 540 loop that will be built in southern Wake County.
The funding allocation represents a roughly two-year acceleration of the Complete 540 project, said Joe Milazzo II, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance.
"The region is now on the glidepath to complete 540," Milazzo said.
Economic development officials and real estate developers, especially in Johnston County, have talked ad nauseam about the impact that completion of the southern 540 loop will have for counties outside Wake and Durham.
Chris Johnson, economic development director for Johnston County, has said before that even though this stretch of roadway will lie in southern Wake County, this is the most significant infrastructure project for Johnston County. That's because everything in the core of the Triangle – Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Research Triangle Park, N.C. State University – will be 15 minutes closer to Johnston County when the loop is completed, Johnson has said.
Regarding this latest round of funding, Johnson said the growth Johnston County has experienced over the past decade will "translate well into the future" when construction of the 540 loop is finished. Johnston County was already the fastest-growing county in North Carolina during the 2010s.
Milazzo said phase one of the southern loop – the section between 7 and 5 o'clock, if looking at it as a clock – is scheduled to be complete in spring 2024. He added that phase two is slated to be complete in the second half of 2028.
Phase one of construction on the southern 540 loop is occurring now, and work will soon begin on phase two.
According to NCDOT, construction on the Complete 540 project is slated to cost around $2.2 billion. The $100 million allocated this week will go toward "critical path work" which means things that take a while, such as moving utility towers, purchasing long lead time materials and right-of-way acquisition.
"It's going to enable the entire extended Triangle market to be as one," Milazzo said regarding completion of the 540 southern loop. "Whether you are in Clayton, Selma, Smithfield, Pine Level, Wilson County, Nash County – we will now have in place a resilient multimodal freeway network to allow jobs and employers to connect with each other."