March 22, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The closure will inconvenience students at both Wake Forest-Rolesville High School and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, but Wake Forest firemen feared it might have much more serious consequences if there were a fire, vehicle accident or serious health problem on the west end of Stadium or in the part of town usually reached by that route.

            Therefore, Fire Chief David Williams Jr., with the help of the seminary, hopes to be able to station a fire truck and at least two firefighters on the west side of the bridge.

            “We are still discussing that,” Williams said Tuesday, saying that the fire department board has not finalized the plans yet. He has reached an agreement with the seminary to use a vacant apartment in one of the apartment complexes the seminary owns and pay only utilities.

            Wake Emergency Medical Services is counting on the Wake Forest Fire Department to provide first-responder service.

            Tony Crawford with Wake EMS said Tuesday they will continue to station their ambulances on South Franklin Street. “The first-responders will get there. It will not increase our response time by more than two or three minutes.”

            The contract for the bridge reconstruction was won by Balfour Beatty Construction Inc. for $1,141,692. Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said the bridge will be built to a 40-foot width or three lanes wide.

            Widening Stadium Drive to three lanes “with interspersed median trees” to resemble the section of North Main Street just north of the seminary is the number six project on the town’s transportation plan adopted in 2003. The cost was then estimated at just over $2 million.

            Project number one was hastening work on the N.C. 98 bypass.

            Project number two was the South Main widening which will be complete when it is resurfaced from Capital Boulevard to the N.C. 98 bypass this summer.

            Project number three is the extension of Ligon Mill Road on the west side of South Main. The road currently ends just to the west of Wal-Mart and cannot be extended there until a new sewer line is laid and a sewer pump station in the right-of-way can be dismantled. The transportation plan calls for the construction of a four-lane section from Caveness Farms Road north to the bypass to be done at developers’ expense and a three-lane section from the bypass to Stadium Drive at an estimated cost of $7 million.

            Project number four is the North Loop, envisioned as three lanes, from North Main Street to East Wait Avenue. The town will contract this week for preliminary engineering of the section between North Main and North White Street, which includes crossing the CSX Railroad line. The contract stipulates planning for at-grade crossings for the streets and the railroad. Planning Director Chip Russell said Tuesday the reason for letting the contract now is to establish a right-of-way so that when or if a high-speed rail line is built through town that entity will have to build the elevated crossing that will be required.

            Last May Wake Forest voters approved two bond issues -- $7 million for parks and recreation and $9.5 million for streets and sidewalks. Part of the $9.5 million was $3.3 million to build part of the North Loop from North Main to North White, and the bond issue specified building a bridge over the railroad line and North White.

            Project number five is extending Franklin Street from the bypass to Rogers Road at a cost of $5 million. That was not included in the bond issue because Heritage Lake Road is being extended to the bypass – it will intersect but not cross it – just to the east of Franklin and will carry traffic between downtown and Rogers and Forestville roads.