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One of the major causes for the failure of the GTP so far is lack of interstate or freeway access. NCDOT should have had plans for upgrading US 70 to freeway between I-95 and Kinston before the GTP thing even got off the ground. Like someone said above, many major companies will not even consider locating in a city that doesn't have interstate access. The 40-50 miles of stop and go traffic on US 70 between the GTP and I-95 turns many companies off.
I personally could never see why US 70 wasn't upgraded to freeway before US 64. Past Rocky Mount there is pretty much no town of significant size on 64 while US 70 continued through Goldsboro, Kinston, New Bern, and then down to the port at Morehead City. Guess getting that freeway from Raleigh to the Outer Banks was more important.
Wonder what ENC would look like if I-40 was extended to Morehead City, as originally planned, instead of Wilmington.
Well hopefully we will find out if they can continue doing Highway 70. There are some reasonably sized cities along that route...Goldsboro, Kinston, New Bern and Morehead C...and of course an Interstate would have uses for the Military as well as the Port and the GTP. There are a lot of reasons to do it...and its been too long really to get momentum...its been almost 25 years since I-40 has been done to Wilmington.
I would suggest that had that been done 25 years ago population would not have declined as much as it has in Kinston, Goldsboro and Havelock would have more military expansion and Morehead City/Atlantic Beach would have been a huge redevelopment project. And New Bern's historic district would have had huge investments in it.
I just don't understand the point of this. Eastern NC will not prosper from this interstate...if that is what you want to call it. It is a HORRIBLE idea. It will sink so many small towns. How could anyone think this will be an advantage to New Bern??? It will just take traffic around New Bern...and all the local businesses. The GTP was put in a bad place...period. Havelock??? Are you kidding me??? That place will DIE...I know because I lived there. all that through traffic will be gone. Pawn shops will sink...along with other locally owned stores. But the really small towns will really be the ones that die!! Well...they will be there...but you will not ever want to step foot there. For example...I have a farm in Saratoga NC (wilson co)...right off 264. Saratoga used to have a couple banks...grocery store...restaurants...etc...264 business runs right through town. Then they built the 264 bypass...Killed Saratoga...it is a DUMP now. All those places are gone...There is nothing. I have lived and worked all over eastern NC...if they make a 70 bypass...it will be HUGE mistake. There are areas around Raleigh and Charlotte that need this money way more. The roads here NEED improvement first! I don't know what the answer is for eastern NC...I for one like the way it is. But building useless four lane highways is not the way. Maybe they should concentrate on the downtowns and not where the next walgreens will go.
I just don't understand the point of this. Eastern NC will not prosper from this interstate...if that is what you want to call it. It is a HORRIBLE idea. It will sink so many small towns. How could anyone think this will be an advantage to New Bern??? It will just take traffic around New Bern...and all the local businesses. The GTP was put in a bad place...period. Havelock??? Are you kidding me??? That place will DIE...I know because I lived there. all that through traffic will be gone. Pawn shops will sink...along with other locally owned stores. But the really small towns will really be the ones that die!! Well...they will be there...but you will not ever want to step foot there. For example...I have a farm in Saratoga NC (wilson co)...right off 264. Saratoga used to have a couple banks...grocery store...restaurants...etc...264 business runs right through town. Then they built the 264 bypass...Killed Saratoga...it is a DUMP now. All those places are gone...There is nothing. I have lived and worked all over eastern NC...if they make a 70 bypass...it will be HUGE mistake. There are areas around Raleigh and Charlotte that need this money way more. The roads here NEED improvement first! I don't know what the answer is for eastern NC...I for one like the way it is. But building useless four lane highways is not the way. Maybe they should concentrate on the downtowns and not where the next walgreens will go.
You are focusing more on the "bypass" angle and less on the development it can bring.....what are they bypassing? Pawn Shops in Havelock? Run down gas stations and motels in Kinston?
The idea is to "open it up" to the world, which is exactly what happened when I-40 was built to Wilmington. Not just Wilmington has prospered, but also Brunswick Co, Pender Co, Duplin Co and even a few small areas of Sampson Co where there was nothing and now there are some businesses at exits...
You can't have expansion of the local economy without access. I stand by my earlier post of what the difference would be...instead of retraction in many places, you would have some expansion (with still a little retraction of the areas bypassed). These towns have to give folks a reason to stop, that's up to them, its not a roads fault a town is dying, it happens with or without a road if they continue infighting and not work together toward progress.
Not even the state thinks GTP is worthwhile. If they had it to do all over again, I bet they'd listen to the consultants that said the economic model wasn't viable.
Not even the state thinks GTP is worthwhile. If they had it to do all over again, I bet they'd listen to the consultants that said the economic model wasn't viable.
I agree that the model was not a sound one....they put the cart before the horse....what they needed to do was convert Highway 70 to Interstate type road (like from Dover to New Bern) and connect Kinston to the port in Morehead City and to I-95, then look at the model. They were so focused on the "air" idea and that companies would locate next to the airport that they didn't consider the shipping of supplies in and out of those companies ON THE ROADS. There was such an inadequate road system to Kinston it made it a failed concept. Certainly rail access also had something to do with it.
What's ironic is that the point of the GTP was a reaction to the loss of manufacturing jobs in ENC, which was due/has been due to the lack of an adequate road structure in ENC.
You can see that with or without the GTP, the State should have put its efforts in addressing the roads that lead to commerce and jobs FIRST. As well that map also shows the "out of touch" mentality of the DOT in that they were considering putting a bypass for Kinston in without considering the economical impact in Kinston...because their only concern was a bypass...there is nothing south of Kinston, all of the manufacturing is north of Kinston including a huge former P&G plant between Kinston and Grifton. This shows you how out of touch the DOT is in their road planning.
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