The N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) is traveling down a rough stretch right now. Major hurricanes, paying settlements in a massive lawsuit, and past overspending have left the DOT cash-strapped. Any light at the end of the tunnel was extinguished as coronavirus-related revenue shortfalls have left the DOT cash-strapped and placing projects on hold.

State law requires the DOT to maintain a minimum cash balance of $293 million. Once the department falls below that floor -- as it did at the end of April when the balance fell to $272 million -- it is not allowed to enter contracts or purchase land until revenues are back up. Preliminary engineering work has been suspended on all but a select list of priority projects and even those will not be able to move forward once any right-of-way acquisitions are needed.

“Never in the history of NCDOT has there been such an immediate and sustained decline in revenues,” Sec. Eric Boyette said in the May 4 announcement that the DOT had fallen below its legally mandated cash balance.

While engineering work can continue, the moratorium on right-of-way purchases leaves the freeway from the Interstate 140 Wilmington Bypass to north of Hampstead effectively on hold. The delay puts the brakes on an August 2018 big announcement that completion of the long-anticipated project was being accelerated. The bypass is actually two separate projects, and both have been affected. The actions taken by the DOT are not expected to directly affect the Military Cutoff Road extension, also part of improvements for the U.S. 17 and Market Street corridor in Pender and New Hanover counties.

The often-controversial Hampstead Bypass has been seen as the primary solution to ease the traffic that pours down U.S. 17 toward Wilmington. Rapid growth in eastern Pender and northeastern New Hanover counties has added even more pressure to the coast-hugging highway, which runs from Punta Gorda in southwest Florida to west of Washington, D.C.