Just hours after Clinton Mayor Lew Starling called for a lawsuit against the state, information previously asked for was provided to the council.
At the May Council meeting, Starling advised legal counsel to begin proceedings to sue the state after the city’s request for information from the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) “pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act” for copies of contracts, information on liquidated damages and incomplete construction had not been addressed.
Starling, who said he received a call from Mike Fox, chairman of the Transportation board, just hours following the Council’s May meeting, advised that those requested documents were now in the hands of city employees and located in the city’s office.
“We have now had a number of meetings on all levels,” Starling shared. “The DOT, I think, is embarrassed they are in this spot.”
In November, the city sent a letter to the NCDOT asking for the “public” information regarding the delayed completion of N.C. 24 after years of complaints from disgruntled motorists.
“When we requested this information, we wanted everybody to see what communication was being made between Fred Smith and the state,” Starling said.
Sampson County Board of Commissioners were advised nearly a year ago that the N.C. 24 project extending through Clinton should be “substantially complete” by December, with anticipated completion in January of this year. That date was changed after Hurricane Florence hit, with district engineer Keith Eason saying in November that “little to no work was performed for the 6-8 weeks following the hurricane.”
“They (DOT) have requested and Fred Smith and others have obliged by letting people off other jobs to come to this job,” Starling said. “If you go out there now, you see the most people you have seen in a while.”
Starling, who says he feels there is now an “open line of communication” between DOT, Smith and the City, felt the possibility of a lawsuit “worked out well” and now the City could see “sunlight on the project.”
In recent months, Starling, and fellow government officials, have expressed their frustration with the seemingly little progress being made on the road. Along with the request from DOT, certified letters were sent in November to contractor Fred Smith asking those involved in the construction to attend a meeting to explain the status of the project.
Work on the entire N.C. 24 project began back in Cumberland County in October 2013 and was, for a time, slated for a November 2017 completion. That was then revised to March 2018 and, last year, DOT officials said the timeline for the project was delayed to early 2019. Eason said utility relocation issues early on were to blame for a majority of the delay, saying the contractor was forgiven for nearly a year of the 422 days the project fell behind.
The 40-mile N.C. 24 Improvement Project running through the center of Sampson County will serve as a major connector between Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. The first four segments from from Vander in Cumberland County to U.S. 421/701 Bypass (Faircloth Freeway) in Clinton totals about 27 miles, of which 25.5 miles is opened to four lanes of traffic, DOT officials said at the end of last year, noting that work on the last mile and a half in Clinton was still ongoing.
The last two segments will extend further east from Faircloth Freeway toward I-40 in Duplin County.
A host of DOT officials came to the next Council meeting, in December, along with representatives from Fred Smith Company, but DOT District Engineer Keith Eason did the bulk of the talking.
