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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.)
There is now a direct connection between
downtown and South Allen Road. The
developers of Avondale, the townhouse
development along East Elm Avenue east
of South Franklin Street, have completed
East Elm to South Allen.
* * * *
The holiday hiatus is over, and Rea
Contracting crews are completing the
resurfacing of South Main Street this
week. Hallelujah and amen.
* * * *
The N.C. 98 bypass
has only been open six months – since
June 10 – and it may be too early to
judge its effect on traffic patterns in
and around town.
If the bypass does relieve
traffic through downtown via Wait
Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, the underpass
and the section around the seminary
campus, the idea of making all the
streets around the campus one-way will
probably resurface. State traffic
engineers have modeled the idea, running
traffic in a counter-clockwise fashion
to allow for right turns only. (See this
week’s article about the seminary’s
master plan for the campus.)
An analysis of new traffic
patterns could also affect truck
traffic. The state is supposedly
contemplating marking a truck route
through town, and the residents along
North Main Street are adamant that
through truck traffic be banned from
their street.
The construction contract
for the third leg of the bypass –
Section A from Capital Boulevard to N.C.
98 near Thompson Mill Road – will not be
awarded until next year.
* * * *
Because of the town board’s vote in
December, $1 million of 2005’s
$9.5-million bond issue for streets and
sidewalks will not be used to widen
South Main Street from Rogers
Road to Forbes Road.
Residents on the street and
in the subdivisions along it objected
strongly and unanimously to the proposed
plan of four travel lanes and a 4-foot
concrete median. Town staff said it
would be much more expensive and less
safe to widen the street to four travel
lanes and a fifth turn lane.
Town Manager Mark Williams
said bond monies earmarked for specific
projects have to be spent for those
projects.
At the same time, the cost
for the Franklin Street
roundabouts, median and landscaping
has nearly doubled from the $2.4
million projected in the bond issue to
$4.2 million. Finance Director Aileen
Staples has sold $4.2 million in bonds
this fall for the project, which may be
built a section at a time. Deputy Town
Manager Roe O’Donnell said the steep
increase was due to an increase in oil
prices.
Town residents saw the plan
at a July 31 meeting.
The other projects in the
2005 street bond issue were 1)
construction of part of the North Loop
at $3.3 million, 2) widening Stadium
Drive to three lanes from Rock Springs
Road to Capital Boulevard at $2.2
million and 3) building a sidewalk on
North White Street from Juniper Avenue
to Flaherty Park at $600,000.
* * * *
The rough grading for two streets from
Heritage North has been done. Travelers
along Jones Dairy Road can see where
Friendship Chapel Road will
intersect. The road will, eventually,
extend from South Main to Jones Dairy.
Travelers on the N.C. 98 bypass have
been able to see the rough roadbed for
Heritage Lake Road for
some time. It will provide a connection
between the bypass and Rogers and
Forestville roads.
* * * *
There is a bit of good news
about the draft Transportation
Improvement Plan (TIP) for 2007-2013.
Although letting of the
contract for the third leg of the
N.C. 98 bypass – from Capital
Boulevard to Thompson Mill Road with a
realignment of Falls of the Neuse Road –
has been delayed from 2007 to 2008, the
information about the project in the TIP
available at the DOT web site is written
in green. This is a distinction given to
very few projects and means it is a
“deliverable STIP project.” That appears
to be DOT-talk for something they really
do mean to build. The construction cost
is listed at $16 million.
DOT apparently also plans –
though not in green ink – to continue a
sidewalk project underway around the
campus, along Stadium Drive and along
Durham Road. The cost is $73,000. DOT
will build half a mile of the Olde Mill
Stream greenway for $168,000 and begin
construction of the streetscape project
on South White Street in 2007 at a cost
of $114,000.
In addition, four bridge
projects over Smith and Austin Creeks on
different roads are listed in green but
not scheduled for construction until
2008 or 2009.
* * * *
The story for the U.S. 401
widening is dismal.
Construction of the leg from
Ligon Mill/Mitchell Mill up the hills to
Jonesville Road has been delayed several
times and now is being delayed again
from 2008 to 2009. The cost is set at $8
million.
In 2012 DOT plans to buy the
right-of-way for the Rolesville bypass –
Jonesville Road to N.C. 98 – at a cost
of $2.4 million, but the $32.4 million
for its construction is unfunded. There
is also no money for the rest of the
18.5 miles from Raleigh to Louisburg.
* * * *
The web site for the
U.S. 1 (Capital Boulevard) Corridor
study has been updated. You can
find it
http://www.ncdot.org/~us1study.
People at the July 27 public
meeting in Living Word Family Church
learned the project is estimated now at
$400 million.
Also go to
http://www.ncdot.org/doh/preconstruct/
tpb/shc/studies/US1 for
information about all the corridor
studies underway in the state. A lot of
local people use U.S. 70 from Raleigh to
Morehead City, and of course it is a
hurricane or disaster evacuation route.
Although the Clayton bypass ($179
million) is underway and work on the
Goldsboro bypass ($234 million) is
expected to begin in 2008, none of the
other bypass projects are funded.
* * * *
In the future, there will be
at least 12 sets of traffic signals on
the 4.8-mile N.C. 98 bypass.
We already have those at
Jones Dairy Road and business N.C. 98
(Wait Avenue), those at South Main
Street and the four sets at Capital
Boulevard.
Between Jones Dairy and
South Main, there may be signals where
Heritage Lake Road intersects but does
not cross the bypass, and it is very
likely there will be signals at the
intersection when Franklin Street is
extended into Heritage.
To the west of South Main,
there will certainly be signals when
Ligon Mill Road is built to meet or
cross the bypass.
In the third section, we can
count on at least one set of signals in
Wakefield, another at the realigned
Falls of the Neuse Road, and a third at
Thompson Mill Road.
Depending on the development
of the land and whether the northern and
southern portions of Siena Drive are
connected, there could be another set of
signals.
If you want to keep abreast
of local road projects, you can go to
the town’s web site at
http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/roadand
constructionprojects.aspx.
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