Officials say DOT ready for Dorian despite budget woes

That means the response to Dorian could lead to even bigger budget woes for the state’s roads unless lawmakers step in to help.

In August, DOT Chief Operating Officer Robert Lewis told reporters the agency is cash-strapped thanks to 2018's storms, snowstorms, floods and landslides, slow federal reimbursement for Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018 and costly lawsuits related to the state’s now-repealed Map Act.

In the case of another big storm, Lewis said at the time, "We are very limited on how we can respond. That is why we are trying to reduce our expenditure now. We know we have an obligation to the people of North Carolina to keep the roadways safe, so we are trying to do all we can to make sure we can respond at some level."

Agency spokesman Steve Abbott confirmed Tuesday that DOT is suspending work on approximately 900 projects in the preliminary engineering phases until the cash-flow problem eases, although projects that have already been awarded or that will start in the next year won’t be affected.

Dorian is already shaping up to be an expensive storm. Speaking at a press briefing Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon said the agency has 1,000 chainsaws, 1,700 pieces of equipment, and thousands of "Road Closed" and "High Water" signs ready to respond to any emergency.

But Trogdon and Gov. Roy Cooper said the cash crunch won’t affect the response to Dorian.

"We will find a way to make sure that emergency operations are covered. The way it works is that the state has to advance money, and eventually the feds reimburse in their percentage, mostly 75 percent," Cooper explained.

"This has got to be our No. 1 priority," agreed Trogdon. "I think the safety of our citizens, supporting our economy, response and recovery is going to be our No. 1 priority, no matter what, so it will not affect how we respond.”

"Once we see the magnitude of the damage, we’ll come up with estimates. We’ve already been working with our federal partners on faster reimbursement, got some things that are moving very well," he added. "We’re working lots of strategies internally, both for disaster response and then our normal TIP [Transportation Improvement Plan] delivery, operations and maintenance side."

In mid-August, state House Transportation Chairman Rep. John Torbett told WRAL News that lawmakers would take steps to allow DOT to more easily access emergency funds from the state's "rainy day" reserve fund.

"We have to figure out how it happened and make sure it can never happen again. That’s the most important thing," Torbett, R-Gaston, said at the time. "But also, if there’s holes that we can plug, we can find ways to plug through additional revenue or different source of funds to take care of those immediate needs."

However, the legislature left town for a break last week without discussing a fix.

Torbett said Tuesday he’s hoping they can address the issue with a bill next week when they return to Raleigh.