This story is part of our ongoing series, Ask INDY, in which INDY staffers put their expertise (and impeccable taste) to use answering your questions about navigating life in the Triangle.
Welcome back to Ask INDY. Last week, we invited you to send questions about Wake County transportation—something everyone loves to complain about, often for good reason.
We got a handful of questions about the Triangle’s confusing amalgamation of transit agencies—GoTriangle, GoRaleigh, GoDurham, etc.—which share a graphic designer but not a staff or leadership team. But that’s a conundrum for later, because today’s Ask INDY submission, from Reddit user Plane_Highlight_867, is: Where has all of the money from the transit bonds gone?
Raleigh voters have approved four transportation bond referenda in the last 20 years, and other Wake County municipalities, including Cary and Apex, also passed recent transportation bonds. For the sake of your attention spans, I’ll focus on Raleigh’s whopping $206.7 million bond from 2017 because it is the most recent and most expensive and impacts the most people.
The bond referendum was popular, passing with more than 70 percent support. The money, raised through a tax increase of $1.29 per $100 in property value, was supposed to be spent in two buckets: about 30 percent for broad “programs” like sidewalk improvements, bike lanes, street landscaping, and partnerships with the NC Department of Transportation, and 70 percent for specific “projects” around the city. Most of them involved widening streets and adding sidewalks—which is important, but not particularly thrilling.
Eight years after the bond passed, most of the 16 proposed projects still aren’t finished. Some have barely started.
Of the projects described in the original bond proposal, three are complete (price tag = approximately $35 million), one was canceled due to insufficient funding, three have been deferred indefinitely for the same reason, and eight are languishing in the design, bidding, or construction phase. At a work session in March, the Raleigh City Council questioned staff about why so many of these projects still haven’t materialized. TL;DR: the City of Raleigh bit off more than it could chew.
Once the bond passed, the city tried to start every single project simultaneously, which slowed all of them down. By the time some of the later projects were through the time-consuming design and community engagement phases, inflation had driven them over budget. Hence the cancellations, deferments, and foot-dragging. Case in point: the Six Forks street-widening project (stalled until the city purchases 96 private properties) was originally supposed to cost about $30 million. Today, the estimate is closer to $94 million. Yikes.
When voters pass a bond of any kind, they’re entrusting their local government to take their tax dollars and execute specific projects within a reasonable time frame. It’s obviously disappointing that the City of Raleigh hasn’t completed many of the transportation projects promised in 2017. Back in March, staff told the council that if they had to do it all over again, they’d propose a smaller bond with fewer projects they could deliver faster. It seems like they’ve learned some valuable lessons and would be able to do a better job next time—that is, if voters approve another transportation bond.
A new Ask INDY topic is posted weekly. Send us your questions at indyweek.com/ask-indy or [email protected].
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].