CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One Mecklenburg County State Senator is looking to address roads that have fallen into disrepair, with no obvious government agency assigned to fix them.
'Orphan roads' are categorized as roads that are publicly used but not maintained by any local, state or federal dollars. The dynamic is often the result of a road that is now public but was previously private.
"I quickly learned that is all throughout our county, all throughout our state. And particularly, there are a few really big areas of concern within my district as well," N.C. State Senator Deandrea Salvador, who represents southwestern Mecklenburg County, said on WCNC's Flashpoint.
An orphan road in her district is Grand Palisades Parkway, in the Palisades subdivision. When developers built houses in the area, they failed to turn over the newly constructed roads to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Salvador introduced a bill that would help improve the quality of roads like the parkway so that the N.C. DOT could then take over maintenance.
"My bill in particular really is trying to address the shortfall between the funding needed to take a privately maintained road up to state standards so that we can essentially adopt it as a state maintained road, and really help with that maintenance," she said.
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