Politics of trash and transportation

The almost forgotten Cone-Nealtown Connector was resuscitated by Greensboro at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins in early January. A key piece of infrastructure with the potential to drive economic development in northeast Greensboro, the connector would extend Cone Boulevard out to the Eastern Urban Loop.

Perkins’ inquiry into the status of the project also creates a political trigger point for residents who live near the White Street Landfill. The connector could provide a new access point and relieve truck traffic through residential neighborhoods — a plus for neighbors — but it could also make the landfill a more viable receptacle of municipal solid waste — a definite drawback for those who call the area home.

In a Jan. 12 memo to his boss, Transportation Director Adam Fischer provides a history of how the connector slid off the city’s list of priority capital investment projects during the same period that the city council decided White Street should no longer accept municipal solid waste.

State funds obtained in 2002 allowed the city to add the connector to a list of bond projects, Fischer said. Increased construction costs in the middle part of the decade exhausted bond funds, and the project was shelved. Today, the cost of the project is estimated at $8.5 million. Fischer said the city could either issue new bonds to pay for the connector, reprioritize a slate of projects scheduled for construction in 2013, or a combination of both. Projects currently ahead of the connector include work on Merritt Drive, general sidewalk improvements and improvements to Horse Pen Creek Road.

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