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GREENSBORO — City and state officials are working out an agreement using $15 million to $17 million in municipal money, plus local labor to speed completion of the Urban Loop’s western leg.

The plan envisions loaning that much to the state Department of Transportation to complete land-buying for the section stretching 4.8 miles from Bryan Boulevard to Battleground Avenue.

“The figure we’re talking about was an estimate they had for the western part, which is estimated to be about $15 million in land acquisition,” interim City Manager Bob Morgan said.

The city also is considering using its own right-of-way agents and surveyors on that part of the loop.

City and state administrators have agreed to pursue the plan in general, but details are being hammered out.

“They’re working on memorandums of agreement. Then, they’ll put the two together and work out any differences,” said Doug Galyon, the Greensboro resident who is chairman state Board of Transportation. “Hopefully, we can have it finished soon, in two to three months.”

Unlike some future parts of the loop, the western leg has been completely designed, meaning it would be ready for construction as soon as the land is available.

Transportation planners see that section as particularly valuable for linking heavily traveled Battleground with the airport and the interstate system, of which the loop is a part.

But it still could be a long time before Bryan-to-Battleground is built. The next section of the loop in eastern Greensboro is tentatively scheduled for completion in 2015, but both state and city officials say it will be a challenge to keep it on track.

The local money would come from bonds issued for city projects that are still in the development stages, said Adam Fischer, the city’s acting transportation director.

A key provision would involve the state repaying on a schedule so the city can complete its own transportation projects on time, Fischer said

The money is available because even after bonds are sold, it can take five years or more to get a local project designed, approved by review agencies and otherwise ready for construction.

“By the time we get paid back (by DOT), we can use that money on a city project,” Morgan said of the time lag.

The loan might not transfer huge amounts of money directly from city to state. Rather, it could involve city right-of-way agents using local money to buy land for the western loop over a period of five years or longer, Fischer said.

Then, the state would reimburse the city on a timetable that would enable Greensboro to keep its own projects on schedule.

Help from local coffers would be limited by law to areas within the city limits, but much of the loop’s yet-to-be-built 18 miles meet that test.

The plan grew out of a meeting between city and state officials in late June, authorized by the City Council, to explore whether financial aid might entice the state DOT to complete the loop more quickly.

Councilman Robbie Perkins attended the meeting for the council because he is chairman of the Greensboro area Metropolitan Planning Organization, transportation planning agency for northern Guilford County.

Perkins did not want to speculate how the council might react to the proposal because it is still taking shape and the details are important.

“We just need to get a proposal before them, ” he said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com