A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to restore the railroad from wallace to Castle Hayne, to make capital improvements to the railroad from Castle Hayne to wilmington, and to study additional improvements to military TRANSPORTATION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Department of Transportation shall expend up to two million dollars ($2,000,000) for assessing and applying for needed environmental permits to restore the abandoned State owned rail line from Wallace to Castle Hayne.
SECTION 2.  The Department of Transportation shall seek and expend funding in the amount of sixty‑three million two hundred thousand dollars ($63,200,000) for an economic development project to improve rail access to the North Carolina State Port at Wilmington. All of the funds are to be used to revitalize and restore the rail connection between Wallace, Castle Hayne, and the Port of Wilmington.
The Department shall investigate any and all options for sources of this funding, including, but not limited to, investment in the project or dividends from the North Carolina Railroad Company, DOT Mobility Fund, any available economic development funds, the United States Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Department of Defense. The Department shall report options to accelerate in the TIP the rail project described in this section to the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee no later than November 1, 2013.
SECTION 3.  The Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee shall study additional improvements that may be made to the State's transportation infrastructure to improve military transportation throughout the State, including moving military personnel and equipment from bases or depots to North Carolina facilities such as the North Carolina State Ports or Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point.
SECTION 4.  All dividends and one‑time cash payments, as defined in Report Number 1012‑10 by the General Assembly's Program Evaluation Division, shall be appropriated for the use of the Rail Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the project authorized by this act and for other rail freight enhancement activities in the State. The Department shall address the ongoing rail needs of all commercial traffic, including those which serve the military and agriculture.
SECTION 5.  The Department of Administration shall maximize the non‑rail assets of the North Carolina Railroad and shall lease, sell, or develop the State's holdings to the maximum extent possible to benefit the DOT Rail Division for the upgrade of freight rail lines in the State. No action by the Department of Administration to liquidate surplus value shall impact the existing trackage agreements that the North Carolina Railroad is currently under.
SECTION 6.  This act is effective when it becomes law.