The Southern Highland Reader

REGIONAL–The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s 14th District, based in Sylva, will receive roughly $16 million dollars in infrastructure spending money from the federal stimulus package President Obama signed into law Tuesday.

14th District engineer Joel Setzer told the Asheville Citizen-Times’ Dale Neal that 16 million won’t buy much.

Writes Neal:

Those projects include a major upgrade of N.C. 225 from Zirconia to Interstate 26 in Henderson County, and replacing bridges at Mud Creek in Henderson County, Hemphill Creek in Haywood County and State Road 1393 in Cherokee County.

“These are projects that probably would have had to wait until the economy improved,” Setzer said. But the stimulus funds are still a down payment on needed maintenance on area highways and bridges. “While the state is getting $735 million for roads and bridges, DOT had identified $5 billion of projects,” he said. “This is a help, but we could certainly use a lot more for highway projects and infrastructure.”

Tags: Asheville Citizen Times, north carolina department of transportation, stimulus package, Sylva

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