In the (urban) loop
Last month U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., wrote Gov. Mike Easley and N.C. Secretary of Transportation Lyndo Tippett to complain about delays in the completion of I-485 around Charlotte.
One of her Nov. 15 assertions puzzled staff at the N.C. Department of Transporation:
“And how many loops does Raleigh have now?” she asked. “Three?
“Why does Raleigh get three loops before Charlotte gets one? Last I looked, Charlotte was the largest city in the state. There seems to be no recognition of that fact in Raleigh,” she wrote.
She may have a good point about a lack of recognition of Charlotte in Raleigh, but I’ll be daggone if I can figure out where Raleigh has three urban loops. We’ve lived in the Cap City since 1977 and can count only a couple: I-440, which incorporated the existing U.S. 1 and U.S. 64 routes for much of the southwestern and northwestern arcs of that loop years ago. The other is I-540, very roughly half of which has been completed.
I asked Ernie Seneca, spokesman at DOT, about the three beltlines. “We’ve got 1.5,” he said.
I asked Andy Polk, Rep. Myrick's communications assistant. Here's what he sent via e-mail: "The three loops Rep. Myrick refers to is if you count Route 1, and the 440 and 540 outer belts. 440 and 540 are the most obvious ones..."
Evidently the belief in Myrick's office is that U.S. 1 is a loop. Take a look at a map of Raleigh's roads. You be the judge. Here's a link.
Tippett didn’t mention the three-loop assertion in Myrick’s letter when he wrote her back Nov. 21 (reprinted on Wednesday’s Observer editorial page. Here’s a link.)
Charlotte, he said, had gotten nearly $1 billion for urban loop funding, more than any other N.C. city, but he allowed that much more needs to be done. He added, “And there is no funding in the plan at all for the completion of the I-540 Outer Loop in the Raleigh area.”
