The decision by North Carolina’s Council of State to approve the sale of $700 million for the Build NC bonds program on Oct. 6 means that the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s 2021 and 2022 spend plan can proceed as planned — ensuring contracts and jobs will be secure in the months ahead.
“The current schedule is for pricing of the bonds to be received on Oct. 29 with a closing date of Nov. 12,” the Carolinas Associated General Contractors (CAGC) reports on its news site. “The bond proceeds will be used to fund 45 active construction projects across the state. This will allow revenue being received to be used to fund projects on the 12-month let list.”
“NCDOT indicates that the spend plan is conservative regarding revenue projections. Revenues are currently exceeding projections and if that trend continues, they will be able to add projects,” CAGC reported. “The spend plan will be adjusted monthly to take that into account.”
In addition, NCDOT received $33.3 million in emergency relief funds from the Federal Highway Administration to cover expenses from five storm events from 2018 and 2019 with the largest amount of $21.5 million for Hurricane Dorian. This frees up an equivalent amount of money to fund other purposes.
“This is certainly good news! NCDOT is in a better financial position than they have been in over a year with a cash balance of $646 million as of last Friday,” said CAGC’s victor Barbour, director of the association’s NC Government Relations and Highway-Heavy Division.