The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) contributed to this article.
Mobility in America is dependent on highway corridors. These stretches of road link towns, and they have a unique relationship with geography. When engineers design infrastructure, they must consider how these long stretches of road will interact with the landscape.
How important are corridors to mobility in this country? At the risk of sounding like a high school student who looked up the dictionary definition of ‘corridor,’ Google analytics gives a compelling answer to this question: Use of the word skyrocketed in the mid-20th century as the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was implemented.
Want more proof? Look at how states spend funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Throughout the country, states are rehabilitating highway corridors. It keeps people safe and strengthens mobility.
Though these corridor projects are happening across the nation, they are especially important in southern states like North Carolina and Mississippi. Some roads in the south have needed upgrades for decades, and the IIJA has given states the funds to achieve long sought after goals.
Corridor K
Since the 1960s, North Carolina officials have discussed improving a narrow 12-mile stretch of road in the Appalachian Mountains called Corridor K. However, nothing has been done until now.
Thanks to IIJA funding, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has launched a project to improve the corridor, which stretches from Dillsboro, N.C., to Cleveland, Tenn.
Construction began in August 2022, and it has received $20 million from the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects Grant. This grant is one of many under the IIJA that funds projects that fit specific requirements.
The three phase project costs $681.1 million. Funding isn’t just coming from the IIJA. The federal Appalachian Regional Commission also has contributed money.
This corridor is one of many that are part of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS), a road network Congress established in 1965. The estimated cost to complete the ADHS corridors in North Carolina, specifically Corridors A and K, was $490 million in 2020, according to Wanda Payne, the division engineer at NCDOT.
“At the time, North Carolina had $199 million in ADHS funds available,” Payne said. “North Carolina appropriated the additional funding to fully fund 2.6 miles of the 11.6 miles.” However, parts of the corridor remain unfunded.
Prior to construction, pedestrians walked along North Carolina Highway 28 and North Carolina Highway 143 on dirt paths or on the road’s edge. Motorists had to wait behind slower vehicles due to lack of passing opportunities or had to travel several miles through the Nantahala Gorge, which is prone to rockslides.
Pedestrians using the Appalachian Trail had to cross Highway 143 in a horizontal curve.
The Corridor K project team includes TGS Engineers, Charles Blalock & Sons Inc. and Watson Contracting Inc.
They are building a 10-foot multiuse path for pedestrians and cyclists from Stecoah Road to Hyde Town Road on the south side of Highway 28. Sidewalks will be constructed along Highway 143 from Robbinsville High School to U.S. Route 129.
They also plan to add passing and climbing lanes. Highways 28 and 143 will be widened to two, 12-foot lanes with 10-foot shoulders.
They will build a land bridge over Highway 143 at the Stecoah Gap. The bridge will realign the Appalachian Trail for hikers and wildlife.
These upgrades will make the road resilient, sustainable and safer for pedestrians, as well as truck drivers carrying freight between southern states.
Interstate 10
Mississippi’s Interstate 10 project also received money from the IIJA; however, its grant funding is different from North Carolina’s Corridor K.
The project won $60 million in IIJA funds from the Mega Grant Program. This program supports large, complex projects that have difficulty getting funds by other means and are likely to generate national or regional economic, mobility or safety benefits.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) secured other state and federal funding to help push the project along. But without the IIJA’s Mega Grant Program, the project would have been postponed for several more years, according to Anna Ehrgott, the public information officer at MDOT.
The southernmost transcontinental highway in the country, I-10 is the fourth longest interstate. Mississippi’s I-10 corridor sees about 51,000 vehicles a day and connects the Magnolia State’s Gulf of Mexico region with New Orleans and Mobile, Ala.
MDOT plans to expand I-10 from four to six lanes west of Diamondhead to east of County Farm Road, where an existing six-lane segment ends. Other upgrades to the corridor include intelligent transportation system (ITS) improvements, drainage improvements and the construction of a sound wall in the Diamondhead area.
The project team is led by designer Gresham Smith and contractor Huey P. Stockstill LLC. It began this spring and will take approximately 3 years to complete.
Once construction is complete, motorists will notice ITS improvements such as digital message signs and traffic cameras that will aid in traffic flow, accident detection and communication with motorists. A noise-reduction wall and multi-use pedestrian path will be constructed north of I-10. All of this will create a safer corridor.
“MDOT anticipates traffic will flow more efficiently with minimal congestion, ultimately reducing accidents and making the corridor safer for motorists and pedestrians alike,” said Ehrgott. “MDOT expects this project to reduce the crash rate in the area by 22% based on statewide crash data for similar facilities with similar traffic counts.”
Bend North Corridor Project
Not to be outdone by the south’s corridor projects, Oregon’s Bend North Corridor Project is realigning one of the most congested portions of U.S. State Route 97 and U.S. State Route 20.
This is yet another instance of IIJA funding being used on a road project that will enhance mobility for the region, while also making the corridor safer for truck drivers who are carrying freight to nearby states.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) plans to realign U.S. 97, improve its intersections, create new ramp connections to improve traffic and build pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
These upgrades will improve travel time reliability, support economic development and aid with congestion. Kiewit is the contractor on the $175 million project.
ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) worked with local agency partners to scale down and modify alternatives to reduce impacts, address public comments and reduce the project's cost.
Funding came from Oregon House bill 2017, also known as Keep Oregon Moving, and $60.4 million in federal funding from the INFRA grant program, one of the grants under the IIJA.
The IIJA is not a perfect law. Parts of it are controversial, like the Build America Buy America act, and the money hasn’t been distributed fast enough for many in the roads and bridges construction industry.
However, these projects are proof that the IIJA is working. States are putting the money to use by investing in projects that rebuild infrastructure and improve mobility. RB
