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(Road
roundup is a standing feature of the
Gazette, designed to keep people
informed about the progress of the
various street and road projects in
town. New projects or updated projects
will appear at the top of each week’s
column in
blue.)
S.T. Wooten, the contractor
for the N.C. 98 bypass, was a day or two
later than its planned date of Monday,
May 8, in closing the entrances to
Retail Drive and Galaxy Drive from
Capital Boulevard. They were not closed
Tuesday, but by Wednesday noon traffic
was using the temporary entrances to the
north and dump trucks and bulldozers
were building up and compacting the
ramps to the bypass.
Traffic on Capital was
restricted to one lane in each direction
Wednesday and there were long lines.
Wooten still has a target
date of June 7 to open the bypass to
traffic with a target completion date of
July 7.
Wooten’s contract for
$21,211,427 was let in late 2003 and
work began early in 2004.
If you want to keep abreast
of road projects, you can go to the
town’s web site at
www.wakeforestnc.gov/residents/engineering_
roadandconstructionprojects.aspx.
* * * *
If you thought the widening
of South Main Street took forever and
have doubts about seeing the roundabout
at the seminary completed in your
lifetime, you are not alone.
Kimley Horn and Associates,
the consulting firm the town has used
for many street projects, did the
engineering work and construction
observation for both. They will ask the
town board next Tuesday for additional
money because the construction has been
drawn out past the estimated time and
the KHA staff has done much more
construction observation than
anticipated.
The state has let a contract
for the South Main resurfacing,
including milling out and replacing some
of the old pavement, but there is no
date yet for the work.
* * * *
Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell says the plans for the
roundabouts and median on Franklin
Street are about 70 percent complete.
Once they are 90 percent complete and
have a nod of approval from the state
Department of Transportation, he and his
staff will hold a public meeting, asking
for comments.
A third roundabout is in the
plans in addition to the ones at Elm and
Holding avenues. This would be at the
intersection of East Owen Avenue, which
currently ends between the police
station and town hall annex. O’Donnell
says the town plans to extend the street
and use some form of a bridge or culvert
to take it over two small streams.
* * * *
Put this date on your
calendar if you care about Capital
Boulevard (U.S. 1) – Tuesday, June 27.
The second public meeting on the U.S. 1
Corridor Study will be held that day at
Triangle Town Center at a time to be
announced later.
* * * *
Work on the bridge on
Stadium Drive appears to be on schedule,
judging by the removal of the old
bridge, the piles of dirt on either side
of Richland Creek and the amount of
equipment Balfour Beatty Construction
has on site.
The new bridge – 40 feet
wide – should be complete by the end of
August. It will be wide enough for the
planned three traffic lanes to be
constructed at some future date.
Balfour Beatty’s contract
with the state Department of
Transportation is for $1.1 million.
* * * *
For a couple weeks, Road
Roundup had been saying the roundabout
at South Main and South Avenue (N.C. 98)
would soon allow traffic to enter, merge
and exit without stop signs.
It finally happened, albeit
with a small forest of orange barrels
and at least three, maybe four, men
directing vehicles through the maze on
May 1. No more stop signs, but some
confusion. Mark Roberts documented the
confusion on the part of some drivers,
many of them using cell phones.
The interior circle,
destined to be bricked and landscaped,
is unfinished, and the last word was it
would take at least another two months
before it is complete.
* * * *
Wake Forest, with the help
of federal funds funneled through the
state, is about to build two sidewalk
sections near the seminary campus, but
the first step will be to remove some
trees in the way.
The sidewalks, each 5 feet
wide, will be 480 feet on the east side
of Front Street from the Roosevelt
Avenue underpass to the intersection of
Front and North Avenue, and 1,200 feet
on the south side of Stadium Drive from
North Wingate Street to past Judson
Drive.
Town crews will remove one
large oak at Front and North. They were
to remove some trees on the seminary
property, but a Raleigh landscape firm,
Realiscape, asked Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary for the seven small
maples and 13 crape myrtles. The firm
will dig up the trees and plant them
elsewhere.
“It will give us a chance to
plant canopy trees,” planner Lisa Potts
said. She plans 21 shade trees along the
Durham Road sidewalk, a mix of oaks,
maples and elms. “When you’re walking to
class, you want some shade.
The town has a $99,800 grant
through the North Carolina Department of
Transportation Enhancement Program. It
was given on a cost-reimbursement basis.
The town has to pay the full cost for
engineering, design and construction and
then can be reimbursed for up to 80
percent of the cost. The town’s share
will be $19,960. The state is then
reimbursed by the federal government.
Sidewalk construction is
planned to begin May 15 after the trees
are removed and transplanted.
* * * *
Work has begun on the next section of
the Smith Creek Greenway, this one 1,500
feet from the Smith Creek Soccer Center
to Rogers Road. A 60-foot bridge will
link the new section with the existing
greenway section in the soccer center.
The Smith Creek Greenway,
which will eventually be a 7-mile
corridor from the Franklin County line
to the Neuse River, is the town’s
number-one greenway priority. Along with
the sections described above, there is
an existing paved section that runs
three-fourths of a mile from Burlington
Mills Road to the river. The town has
acquired much of the right-of-way for
other sections through negotiations with
subdivision developers.
* * * *
When the N.C. 98
bypass is complete from Jones
Dairy Road to Thompson Mill Road, there
will be nine traffic signals on the
4.8-mile limited-access road.
There will be the set at
Jones Dairy Road and business N.C. 98
(Wait Avenue); a set where Heritage Lake
Road intersects but does not cross the
bypass (and you can already see the
clearing for the road); a set at
Franklin Street but not, perhaps, until
that street is extended into Heritage;
the current signals at South Main
Street; a set at Ligon Mill Road when it
is extended; a set at Capital Boulevard;
and signals in Wakefield, at the
realigned Falls of the Neuse Road, and
at Thompson Mill.
Planning Director Chip
Russell said there is still a question
whether Siena Drive – which has sections
north and south of the bypass already –
will be connected. That could be the
tenth intersection with traffic signals.
* * * *
The traffic signal on
Rogers Road at the entrance to
Heritage Elementary and Heritage Middle
School is still slated to be installed
this spring. Mayor Vivian Jones and
other town commissioners vigorously
lobbied for the signal, and state Sen.
Neal Hunt was instrumental in getting it
approved by DOT. |
