As you read Dan Way’s Carolina Journal Online article about Gov. Pat McCrory’s new transportation plan, you might want to revisit the ideas national transportation scholar David Hartgen helped prepare for the John Locke Foundation earlier this month.

A revamped North Carolina transportation program should include merit-based project selection, an increased emphasis on road maintenance, and a funding solution for Interstate 95. Those are among the 20 immediate recommendations set out in a new Policy Report prepared for the John Locke Foundation.

The report’s authors note their recommendations would require no new revenue. “In total the 20 recommendations would save about $21 million annually and would substantially realign and refocus the transportation program on needed and affordable activities,” said lead author Dr. David Hartgen, professor emeritus of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and president of the Hartgen Group. …

… The 20 items listed for immediate action fall into three categories. The first category features six recommendations targeting “major changes,” Hartgen said. “These would increase maintenance and concentrate expansions on projects with statewide significance,” he said. “A key step is to constrain the four- to five-year State Transportation Improvement Program by merit-based project selection, then shifting some of the savings to maintenance, major projects, and rural safety.”

Within this group of recommendations, the report recommends devoting $150 million annually to a funding solution for I-95’s long-term needs, expanding the Mobility Fund by $100 million annually, and improving rural safety. Thanks to savings tied to the other recommendations, the overall impact of these half-dozen recommendations is a net savings of $50 million annually.

The second category features four items “intended to increase economic productivity and strengthen maintenance management and project selection, through head-to-head project evaluation, adding maintenance needs to funding formulas, and contracting out light maintenance,” Hartgen said.

Selecting road projects within a region or district, rather than a county, could save $50 million annually, and increasing performance-based maintenance contracting could save $20 million annually. But adding maintenance needs to funding formulas and building some logistics-related projects could cost $100 million annually. Together the four recommendations in this category would increase costs by about $30 million annually. “Despite the additional cost, if implemented fully these proposals would result in better system condition and improved economic productivity,” Hartgen said.

A third category features 10 lower-cost recommendations intended to strengthen long-range planning, Hartgen said.

Hartgen also discussed the McCrory plan during an appearance Thursday on the Bill LuMaye radio show.