GASTON COUNTY, N.C.-- When John Medlin heard the Southern Connector toll road that loops around Greenville, South Carolina had forced it's non-profit owners into bankruptcy, he wasn't surprised.
"I've been on it," the Gastonia man said, remembering back to the years when he road in a cycling club in Greenville. "There were no cars. You didn’t here that whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of cars going under as you went over the bridges."
The 16-mile Southern Connector was built 9 years ago around a portion of Greenville that was expecting industrial growth. Last week, the Connector 2000 Association that runs it said the road is not making sufficient revenue to pay the association bond. The non-profit organization filed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy.
Now, Medlin is a staunch opponent of the proposed 22-mile Garden Parkway toll road that's planned to connect I-485 in Mecklenburg County near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport with I-85 in northern Gaston County. The project's goal is to reduce congestion on I-85. It would be built through Medlin's neighborhood.
He says the South Carolina road's failure is a harbinger of what's to come in Gaston County.
"As a taxpayer--nevermind as a homeowner that’s being affected by it--as a taxpayer, it really concerns me," Medlin said. "If it fails, the taxpayers are going to be left holding the bag to pay for a road that doesn’t pay for itself."
"If you look at the traffic counts [for the Southern Connector] back at the beginning of it, they were predicting 20,000 cars a day and they have a third of that, and I really believe that’s where this one is headed, I've not talked to anybody that's "for" it that says they are going to use it," he added.
The planners of the road strongly disagree with the comparison. Hank Graham, Gaston Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Planner, says the projects are "very different."
"Each road project is unique in its own way, each geographic area is unique in its own way, and each funding source is unique," Graham said.
The Garden Parkway, Graham said, is an immediate need, and not passed on projected growth. "I think North Carolina is doing a wonderful job of dotting its "i"’s and crossing its "t"’s as far as making sure before we try to use tax dollars to fund the project."
The Garden Parkway would be funded with a combination of federal funding, state GAP funding, and revenue from tolls. It would cost $2.50 to drive the length of its 22 miles.
The economic and environmental impacts are still being studied and the plan is not final.
Construction is planned for 2011, with a goal of finishing the first of two legs of the project in 2015.
