|
The discussion included a trip outside
to see look at the surveyors’ stakes
last Wednesday as the directors for the
Wake Forest Fire Department and town
officials agreed on the Franklin Street
median and roundabout.
The plan, Deputy Town
Manager Roe O’Donnell said, is for a
17-foot median with trees and shrubs and
17-foot travel lanes. On each side of
the redesigned roadway will be 6-foot
sidewalks separated from the street by 6
feet of grass and trees.
The roundabouts planned
where Franklin intersects with East
Holding Avenue and East Elm Avenue will
be of large urban design that can handle
a heavy volume of traffic. The overall
design was recommended in the
Renaissance Plan and will make Franklin
Street the major gateway to downtown
from the south.
The fire board directors had
been concerned that fire trucks would
not be able to cross the median, making
their driveway on Franklin Street
unusable for left turns; that the
roundabout design would impinge on the
Jimmy Keith Memorial, requiring it be
moved; and that the type of trees
planned for the street would have
low-hanging branches that would damage
or rip off fire truck mirrors and/or
aerials.
They were reassured on all
points, although the median cut at the
east driveway would be only for
emergencies, O’Donnell said.
Project manager Jeff Moore
with Kimley-Horn said he would put a
construction fence around the memorial,
have workers carefully remove the bricks
and replace them, along with the sod, at
the end of construction.
“We don’t think we’ll have
to move the memorial,” O’Donnell said,
but if the fire department wants it
moved the town will coordinate with them
and move it. “It will be moved only with
your approval and with your contractor.”
Moore said they will send
out requests for bids in June, open them
in July or August and begin construction
in August or September with an end date
late in 2008. “A good contractor will
want to do it earlier than that.”
The work will include moving
all utilities underground and installing
two levels of lighting, a high one for
traffic and a lower one for pedestrians.
The work will be paid for by
the $9.5 million street and sidewalk
bonds town voters approved in May of
2005. At that time, the commissioners
projected the Franklin Street project –
two roundabouts and the treed median –
would cost $2.4 million.
O’Donnell said last week the
cost will be “in the scheme of three
point six million.”
The other projects to be
paid for by the $9.5 million were $3.3
million to build part of the North Loop,
including a bridge over the CSX railroad
line; $1 million to widen South Main
Street from Rogers to Forbes Road; $2.2
million to widen Stadium Drive to three
lanes from Rock Springs Road to Capital
Boulevard; and $600,000 to build a
sidewalk along North White Street from
Juniper Avenue to the just beyond the
entrance to the Flaherty Park Community
Center.
Sharply rising construction
costs have eaten away at the list of
projects. |
