Coordination Among Regulatory Agencies

Position: NCCBI supports legislation requiring state and federal agencies to better coordinate their decision making processes regarding highway construction and economic development. NCCBI also supports a defined time frame in which all agencies must issue or not issue their approvals for road projects.

Explanation: There are five stages for building a road: planning, environmental, design, right of way, and construction. Under current law, a state or federal agency may issue, at any point in a road project, a decision regarding historic and environmental considerations. Therefore, these agencies may agree at the planning stage and then change the decision in mid-project. When these decisions come down at any point in the process and stop or force a major change in a road project, huge costs are incurred by the state of North Carolina. A low estimate of the cost for this in Eastern North Carolina alone is about $50 million per year which must come from the North Carolina Department of Transportation budget.

Lengthy delays in road projects often result from this lack of coordination. Some projects are delayed by several months or years, causing the costs of the projects to skyrocket due to inflation, loss of available land, additional regulatory burdens, and other factors.

NCCBI believes that the additional costs and lengthy delays could be avoided by requiring these agencies to coordinate their decisions in a specific time frame. This change would save many dollars for the taxpayers of North Carolina and would enhance economic development in our state.

Transportation Planning & Funding

Highway Maintenance Funding

North Carolina State Ports

Rail Infrastructure

Motor Vehicle Safety Inspections