(Carolina Journal) – Thirty years and $61 million later, the Mid-Currituck Bridge project creating a second crossing over the Currituck Sound with the goal of alleviating congestion during the peak summer tourism season and improve the flow of evacuation traffic in the event of a hurricane has gone nowhere.
First-term Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek joined the Currituck County Board of Commissioners on Monday for a specially called meeting to provide an update on the Mid-Currituck Bridge.
An audit released in conjunction with the meeting showed the Department of Transportation spending on planning, environmental studies, legal work, engineering, and land acquisition despite having no construction contract, approved baseline budget, or finalized construction schedule in place.
Construction is not expected to begin before June 2028.
The report found the bridge’s projected cost has more than doubled since federal approval was granted in 2019. At that time, the project carried an estimated price tag of roughly $491 million. Today, the Transportation Department estimates the project will cost approximately $1.118 billion, with total delivery costs approaching $1.2 billion.
“The people of Currituck County following this project have been dragged along for 30 years,” said Boliek. “What the team at the Office of State Auditor found is that despite spending money, no dirt has been moved. Taxpayers are more than $60 million in the hole on a 30-year project that certainly remains far from completion.”
Boliek contrasted the Mid-Currituck Bridge with a Surf City bridge project completed in 2016 at a total cost of $57.7 million.
“Fifty-seven point seven million expended on that bridge – maybe that’s a lot of money,” Boliek told the commissioners. “But guess what? I can touch that bridge. I can walk on that bridge. I can ride my bike on that bridge, and I can drive a car over that bridge. My experience traveling across the state of North Carolina is that taxpayers don’t ask a lot of questions necessarily about whether the cost of concrete was correct, the cost of steel was correct, or whether the time something took was the right amount of time, if they’re getting something in return for their tax dollars. In that instance, they got a bridge. Here, more than $61 million in taxpayer money has been spent on the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge, and not a single piece of dirt has been turned.”
The post New audit details $61 million in spending on unbuilt Mid-Currituck Bridge appeared first on Carolina Journal. The Carolina Journal is published by the John Locke Foundation.
Originally published on carolinajournal.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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