Report of NC DOT incompetence hidden from public

An alarming new report provides more evidence that NC's DOT organization is poorly suited to meet transportation needs of the state and reveals the organization is withholding a major consultant review of the DOT paid for by taxpayer dollars. The DOT continues to reflect the incompetence of director Lindo Tippett, appointed by Governor Easley, and the inability of DOT staff in managing thousands of state employees responsible for maintaining NC's road infrastructure and planning what is needed to handle the unprecedented growth in state traffic.

It is clear that the time has come to demand that the DOT director step down and a replacement be appointed that has the knowledge and ability to manage the organization and facilitate planning and funding of what is needed to build and maintain an adequate transportation infrastructure that will allow the state to be competitive.

Results from a comprehensive survey of some 13,000 thousand DOT workers and interviews with at least two dozen key legislators, state officials, business executives and local transportation officials, along with information from follow up discussions, strongly suggests a lack of understanding within the organization about the mission of the DOT and tells of poor use of funds and inadequate project plans and schedules. Mark L. Foster, the department's chief financial officer, confirmed that "DOT employees complained that they lack a shared understanding of their mission." He briefly described other criticisms: "Road projects cost too much time and money. It's hard to figure out who is responsible for any DOT project."

Read the report and learn more about the lack of a "unified vision", deception and confusion in the state's DOT organization...

News and Observer
September 29, 2007
Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer

Consultants review of DOT under wraps
McKinsey & Co. was asked to prepare a sweeping evaluation of the transportation agency, but DOT and the company are keeping a tight rein on the information

State Department of Transportation officials are paying a consultant $2.5 million to help make the agency more responsive, accountable and transparent.

They are keeping much of the work secret.

Attorneys for DOT and McKinsey & Co., an international management consultant hired in April to evaluate DOT, blacked out several pages of contract details and stamped other pages "CONFIDENTIAL" before DOT released them to The News & Observer.

Other contract documents indicate that McKinsey initially was asked for a candid, sweeping assessment of DOT's "strategic direction and organizational structure." It was expected to file reports in May and June.

DOT has declined to release a word of its consultant's findings. The April 11 contract includes an unusual pledge that DOT will seek McKinsey's permission before making public references to McKinsey or releasing any "reports, analyses or other such materials" it receives from McKinsey.

DOT officials now say they did not request or receive any written reports from McKinsey, whose contract ends in mid-October. Read more...

I-40 repair completion ends DOT 21.7M blunder

Repair of NC DOT's $21.7 million blunder has ended. The contractor has finished removal and replacement of faulty concrete that was supposed to last for 30 years. A final surface layer will be applied that is intended to make the new surface last for 10 years.


The bottom line - NC DOT failed to make sure proper instructions were given to the original contractor rebuilding a section of I-40 in durham county. Now $21.7 million that could have been used to build new roads or repair damaged ones is gone forever to fix a mistake by the DOT.

This is enough money to eliminate the funding gap that would have allowed construction to begin on the western part of I-540 that is now on indefinite hold. Commuters in the southern and western parts of the area must continue enduring daily backups and extended commutes on crowded roads and town streets with no relief in sight.

Unfortunately the same management of the state's DOT organization is still intact and continuing with the same management style that led to the I-40 funding waste. Accountability is not a word known within the NC DOT and poor management of funds and inability to find ways to secure new funding for needed roads and repairs will be part of life in NC until the current Governor's administration comes to an end.

News & Observer
August 21, 2007
Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer

Big part of I-40 repairs complete

Lane Construction Corp. ripped out the last of the bad concrete on Interstate 40 in Durham County Monday night -- and finished removing the N.C. Department of Transportation's 10.4-mile mistake.

The on and off ramps on westbound I-40 at N.C. 54 (Exit 273, Chapel Hill) were closed overnight while Lane replaced faulty concrete with fresh asphalt.

That, DOT engineer Eben Miller said Monday evening, completes a major phase of Lane's $21.7-million contract to repair concrete that failed because of DOT's blunder in a widening project in 2003.

The DOT gave the wrong instructions to a different contractor, who incorrectly applied a 3-inch concrete layer to a stretch of I-40. The problem affected two lanes in each direction from N.C. 147 Durham Freeway in Research Triangle Park to U.S. 15-501 and the Orange County line.

The new concrete was supposed to bond with the original concrete beneath it. It was supposed to be good for 30 years.

Instead, the top layer began to expand, buckle, crack and crumble.

So DOT hired Lane to remove the bad concrete and replace it with asphalt. The third inner lane was not affected, and it is still solid concrete.

Later this week, Lane will do some cleanup work.

Next week, probably Monday, Miller said, Lane starts putting down a 5/8-inch layer of special asphalt that will cap all three lanes in each direction (including the inside, all-concrete lane). The material is designed to make the ride smoother and safer and to make the new asphalt last about 10 years. Original article...

Trooper's bias gets all ticketed cases dropped

DWI Cases of a North Carolina State Trooper tainted by his tendency to quiz women about personal lives when he stopped them for investigation gets his cases dropped. The officer

In an August, 2007, case involving a female driver, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens rebuked the officer for “unacceptable" behavior while carrying out his police duties. Stephens threw out charges against a woman whom Harrison had charged with driving while impaired.

That case opened the way for others the officer handled to be thrown out due to his behavior towards female drivers.

News & Observer
August 20, 2007
Staff Reports

Trooper's DWI cases tossed

Wake prosecutors dropped driving while impaired charges today against drivers who were ticketed by a state trooper who was rebuked for targeting female drivers.

Scott M. Harrison was often the lone trooper patrolling Wake County overnight. He was accused of stopping women and then asking them about their personal lives.

An N.C. Highway Patrol spokesman said today that prosecutors had announced that the cases Harrison brought would not stand.

“We met with them this morning and they told us that’s what they meant to do,” said Everett Clendenin, Highway Patrol spokesman. “We support their decision and think it was the right thing to do.”

Harrison, 31, remains on administrative duty while the patrol investigates the claims of bias and an accusation that Harrison roughed up a man while processing an impaired driving suspect at the Wake County Jail.

Clendenin said the Highway Patrol expects to conclude its internal investigation soon.

On Aug. 8, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens scolded Harrison for behavior the judge deemed “unacceptable.” Stephens threw out charges against Christina Pasive, a woman whom Harrison had charged with driving while impaired on November 10, 2005.

In an order dismissing the charge, Stephens said Harrison stopped Pasive and another woman because both were young females driving alone.

A court clerk testified that in 2006, 49 percent of the 106 people Harrison arrested for DWI were women.

Statewide, women are arrested for drunken driving at much lower rates. For example, in the 2006 fiscal year, 18 percent of all impaired driving arrests were of women, according to data from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Judge Stephens also heard testimony from Trooper Cedric Herring, who testified that Harrison had threatened to do physical harm to two lawyers representing some of the women Harrison had charged with impaired driving.

Harrison was upset that the attorneys had complained to the media about his alleged practice of targeting women for traffic stops, according to Herring's testimony.

“Such conduct of threatening to harm lawyers is not in keeping with the excellent reputation and the high standards of the North Carolina Highway Patrol,” Stephens wrote. Original article...

Staff writer David Bracken can be reached at (919) 829-4548 or david.bracken@newsobserver.com

North Carolina bridges worst in the southeast

According to an August 2, 2007, AAA of the Carolinas statement "North Carolina's highway bridges are in the worst shape of any state in the Southeast, and two Charlotte-area counties -- Burke and Cabarrus -- are at the bottom of the list."

This follows on the heels of the terrible bridge collapse in Minnesota involving a 40 year old "unique design" bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The report does not say any bridges are in emminent danger of collapse but many are in need of significant repair now. As many as 30 percent of the state's bridges have problems that should be resolved in the near time frame.

The Charlotte Observer
August 2, 2007
Steve Lyttle, The Charlotte Observer

AAA: N.C. bridges need work

AAA of the Carolinas says North Carolina's highway bridges are in the worst shape of any state in the Southeast, and two Charlotte-area counties -- Burke and Cabarrus -- are at the bottom of the list.

Bridge safety figures to become a higher priority item across the country, in the wake of the collapse of a freeway bridge Wednesday evening in Minneapolis. At last report, at least four people were killed in the disaster, and another 20 are missing.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the bridge that collapsed was declared "structurally deficient" in 2005.

None of the Carolinas bridges listed by the AAA are in danger of collapsing, the agency said in its February 2007 report. But the AAA said a large percentage of the states' bridges are in need of repair.

In the Carolinas, more than a quarter of bridges were rated as "substandard" by the AAA in its survey this year. That figure was 30.6 percent in North Carolina and lower in South Carolina. Read more...

Road rage closes California road

Road rage can be more than just cursing and yelling at other travelers. A case in Wrightwood, California, takes road rage to a whole new level.

A shop owner at left worries about her business being affected by closing of Highway 138 in Wrightwood, California. (AP photo).

This amazing story tells about drivers shooting at workers, throwing food at them, driving into them - all in retaliation for the state limiting access to a busy road that needed major repairs...

New York Times
July 21, 3007
Associated Press article
Road closed after drivers behave badly

WRIGHTWOOD, Calif., July 21 (AP) — California highways have been shut down by wildfires, mudslides, earthquakes and police chases. And now road rage.

Drivers inconvenienced by a road-widening project subjected construction workers to so much abuse — death threats, BB gun shootings, a flying burrito — that the state shut down California Highway 138 altogether.

Now drivers must take a detour that costs them at least a half-hour, and businesses along the road are suffering.

“A few inconsiderate people have ruined it for the rest of us,” complained Julie Dutra, who owns a scrapbook and stationery store in this town in the Angeles National Forest about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Highway 138 connects two areas that have swollen with urban refugees in the past decade. Without it, roughly 20,000 drivers a day have to take a winding, two-lane road or other indirect routes that predate the population boom.

In the five years before construction started last summer, there were nearly 3,000 traffic accidents and 68 deaths, according to the California Highway Patrol. The highway had become so dangerous it was known as Blood Alley. The $44 million widening project was intended to alleviate the danger.

The first sign that things were going to turn ugly was after the California Department of Transportation allowed drivers to use the highway only during rush hour last summer, with traffic flowing in one direction at a time and creeping along behind escort vehicles. Read more...

NC traffic among worst in nation

More bad news about trends in NC during Governor Easley's administration. A new study places traffic in North Carolina among the worst in the nation.

On top of frequent news about problems and delays in major road projects and insufficient funds to build new roads and repair existing ones, NC can't seem to keep up with growth in traffic anywhere in the state. This may be just a sign of the times but it is likely the DOT organization simply doesn't have the knowledge and leadership to properly plan for growth or find ways to produce funding for what is needed. It is most likely a top down issue and is consistent throughout the state. News articles frequently place blame for problems and construction delays on lower level staffers and never suggest that leadership is at fault.

Poor roads, sloppy maintenance and heavy traffic are visible all around the state. The quality of roads in neighboring states generally seems to be better than in NC and it seems that this trend continues to worsen.

The following AP article from the Winston-Salem Journal compares the best and worst state locations and indicates traffic in NC continues to worsen.

June 28, 2007
Associated Press

Study ranks NC traffic among worst in nation

WASHINGTON - Motorists in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina have been stuck in some of the worst traffic in the United States, according to a study released today.

North Dakota and South Carolina roads rated highest in the study's overall rankings, while New Jersey roads ranked the lowest. The study ranked Montana highways as the deadliest in the nation.

The study, based on data from 1984 through 2005, found that while road conditions have improved in recent years, traffic congestion and highway fatalities have increased slightly.

The state-by-state evaluation of highways was conducted by UNC Charlotte and financed by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles.

With the federal highway fund running short of money for major highway projects, state governments are faced with having to pick up a greater share of the cost of building and maintaining highways.

Dr. David T. Hartgen, the highway study's lead author, says the results show that states need to prioritize, directing their transportation money to projects specifically designed to reduce congestion.

"Gridlock isn't going away," Hartgen said.

The study ranked highway systems in each state according to their cost-effectiveness, which was determined with several factors including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs. Evaluations were done on highways and all state-owned roads.

The five states with the most cost-effective roads, according to the study, are North Dakota, South Carolina, Kansas, New Mexico and Montana. The bottom five states are New Jersey, Alaska, New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

The study found that traffic fatalities rose by less than 1 percent between 2004 and 2005. Montana had the deadliest roads, with 2.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Massachusetts roads were the safest, with 0.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles.

Congestion rose by a similar amount. According the study, almost 52 percent of the nation's urban interstate highways were regularly congested in 2005, the last year included in the evaluation.

In a statement, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said that congestion has nearly tripled in metropolitan areas during the past 25 years despite increases in spending over that period. Resolving the issue has been a priority for the department, which last year announced a plan to combat gridlock through long-terms investments in key corridors.

"It's so important to get our transportation policies headed in the right direction - away from the federal government and back to the states and localities where innovation in America has always originated," she said.

Congress will have to find new sources of revenue if it wants to tackle the problems, said Matt Jeanneret, spokesman for American Road and Transportation Builders Association. His group estimates that Americans spend 47 hours a year stuck in traffic.

"This illustrates the capacity crisis that is facing this country, which is only going to get worse if trends stay the same," Jeanneret said. "We are bursting at the seams with motor vehicles and we're not adding capacity to that."

Janet Kavinoky, who works on transportation issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says the nation's traffic woes are at crisis levels. "There's more bad news coming," she said. "You hate holiday traffic? Pretty soon it's going to be business as usual."

Don't walk, don't even run

Don't even think about walking across Raleigh's Capital Boulevard. Even if you follow all the rules and do everything right there's a greater chance of being killed on the road than on most others around the region.

The boulevard is as wide as half a football field and has no crosswalks or pedestrian signals. Read the full report...

News and Observer
March 14, 2007
Sam LaGrone, Staff Writer

Crossing Capital on foot poses risk
Since 2002, road has claimed eight

RALEIGH - Sandra Hicks does everything right. She looks both ways. She crosses on green. But even then, Hicks, 42, says she has almost been hit at least five times this year while crossing at North Raleigh's Capital Boulevard and Calvary Drive.

Easy to see why.

Capital at Calvary is half a football field of asphalt from curb to curb with no crosswalks or pedestrian signals.

"It's not safe for the pedestrian," Hicks said. "And these drivers have a hard time screeching on the brakes." Read more...

NC trails half the country in high-tech jobs

Even with a base of high-tech companies in the state and a lot of effort to attract new companies to the region North Carolina continues to fall behind and ranks 26th in its effort to move toward being a knowledge-based economy according to a new report. With all the effort to provide costly incentives to new companies the trend is declining rather than improving.

A February 28, 2007, news release describes on the state's lagging trend...

News and Observer
February 28, 2007
Johnathan B. Cox - Staff Writer

Knowledge and Innovation

The Triangle has high-tech jobs, big companies and successful entrepreneurs. But it is unusual in the state. Many areas in North Carolina have been defined by manufacturing and are struggling to move forward as traditional industries and employers continue to disappear. A new report, the State New Economy Index, shows that North Carolina is behind in its evolution.

Despite the state's efforts in recent years to build an economy based on technology and innovation, North Carolina's progress still trails half the country's, according to a report released Tuesday.

Of the 50 states, North Carolina ranked 26th for its evolution from a manufacturing economy to one based on knowledge-based jobs and entrepreneurship, according to the 2007 State New Economy Index.

North Carolina fell below its revised 2002 ranking of 24th place. The state was 26th the last time the report was published five years ago; the revised statistic considers differences in methodology to aid comparisons. Read more...

NC 55 Widening in Wake County

According to Bruce Siceloff's note in the December 19 News and Observer the long awaited widening of NC 55 is about to be completed.

Mr. Siceloff had this to say in his December 19th article about NC 55 widening: "No fooling. By the end of this week, the state Department of Transportation expects to have all four lanes of N.C. 55 open for traffic from U.S. 64 in Apex north to Interstate 40."

Unfortunately neither the State DOT or the Town of Apex has a solution to address the fact that the part of NC55 through the southern part of Apex is now and will remain the sole major bottleneck providing commuters with a daily dose of traffic frustrations. There is no plan to replace the old train underpass in Apex or widen the part of NC55 that goes right through town so most of the commuters will still turn off NC55 and take short cuts through neighborhood streets as they have been doing for many years.

This is yet another demonstration of the shortsightedness of the State and the Town in getting ahead of traffic and being able to handle the rapid growth that wont slow down in our lifetimes.

The Town of Apex has recently released an announcement that a plan has been set in motion to add a new section of the "Apex Peakway" that is intended to provide a route to connect both ends of the NC55 Apex blockade but this will be at least two or three years (if not more) in the making. Even then commuters will have to make additional turns and navigate onto town streets to go around the bottleneck.

If you are one of the many that has to deal with this never ending problem get in touch with your state House or Senate representatives or the head of NC DOT and let them know what you think!