ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — For Kofi Caldwell, a West Asheville resident for 20 years, living in the shadow of the Interstate 26 Connector project has felt like playing a game of ping-pong: constant back-and-forth.
“The best way I can explain is like a ping-pong ball. It can bounce between this, that. I wish they would make the big decision,” Caldwell said. “I mean, I guess after last year, they made a decision, but I just feel like, why do you keep dragging your feet on this part?”
Caldwell was referring to the long gestation period of the I-26 expansion, which has endured multiple reimaginings since its announcement in the late 1980s. The $1.8 billion North Carolina Department of Transportation initiative is intended to link I-26 in south Asheville with U.S. 19/23/70 to the north, bringing improvements to bridges and interchanges and adding greenways, bike lanes and other multimodal infrastructure along the way…