January 17, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The mayor and commissioners will explore the idea more – including a detailed cost analysis – but are discussing it because, as Mayor Vivian Jones said, Ligon Mill will relieve the traffic load on South Main. The plans are to extend Ligon Mill from South Main (U.S. 1-A) to the N.C. 98 bypass and then to Durham Road (N.C. 98) parallel to but farther west from South Main.

            The town board in December decided not to do anything about the South Main widening because the residents and businesses along the street and in the subdivisions that border it had unanimously rejected the town’s plan for four travel lanes divided by a 4-foot concrete median to prevent left turns.

            The present portion of Ligon Mill west of South Main is “a very narrow three-lane section,” Planning Director Chip Russell said, and will need to be widened to serve the four lanes in the sections north of Wal-Mart that will be built by developers. The first section, from the street’s present dead-end next to Wal-Mart up to Caveness Farm Avenue, will be built by Parker & Orleans Home Builders Corporation, which will also remove the sewer lift station that is in the road right-of-way.

            It may be expensive to widen the short existing section of Ligon Mill because the town will have to purchase right-of-way and build retaining walls.          

            The discussion about Ligon Mill was part of a larger one about how to spend the $9.5 million voters approved in 2005.

            Roe O’Donnell, the deputy town manager, said the latest cost for the Franklin Street improvements – roundabouts, a median, lighting and landscaping – is $5.66 million.

            In the spring of 2005, the cost for the project was set at $2.4 million which grew to $4.2 million last year. The other projects outlined in the bond proposal were $2.2 million to widen Stadium Drive to three lanes from Rock Spring Road to Capital Boulevard, $600,000 to build a sidewalk on one side of North White Street from Juniper Avenue to Flaherty Park, and $3.3 million to build the portion of the North Loop from North Main Street to North White Street.

            Given the increase in costs, O’Donnell said, the money to do the North Loop, Stadium Drive and the North White Street sidewalk may have to come from a future bond issue.

            Jones said she wants to see the sidewalk built sooner than that and Commissioner Margaret Stinnett agreed.

            Commissioner David Camacho said he is interested in building the North Loop because of its economic impact on the northeast part of town.

            O’Donnell is also interested in building at least the part between North Main and North White that would cross the CSX rail line. “Then when the high-speed rail line comes through we might get that bridge (to separate vehicle and train traffic) built for us.”

            O’Donnell said they can shave about $600,000 from the Franklin Street cost by using the town’s lighting standards instead of the state Department of Transportation’s because the town will take over maintenance of that street. The project has been planned so it can be built in three phases.

            O’Donnell suggested they finish the engineering plans for Franklin and take base bids for the roundabouts at Elm Avenue and East Holding Avenue and spend about $3 million.

            At the same time they can do the engineering for the Ligon Mill project by May and then look at the current prices for construction, mostly based on oil prices. At the same time they could begin the engineering for the sidewalk and associated drainage.

            Because of high costs for all highway and traffic projects in the state, Russell said the town “could be hard-pressed to see any DOT projects up here” once the third leg of the N.C. 98 bypass is complete.

            His suggestion, and one CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization) is exploring, is to “start building those lower-tier roads and we may not have to build the higher-tier roads.”

            The question of unpaved streets also arose.

            “I just think it’s a sin and a shame we still have unpaved roads in the city limits,” Stinnett said.

            There are about 2 miles of unpaved streets, many in short sections.

            Paving would cost between $200 and $300 for each foot of street depending on whether there was curb and gutter or other improvements.

            “The biggest issue is one of equity,” O’Donnell said. “When people bought their lots, they paid for whatever improvements were done to their streets.”

            Spring Park Drive and Forest Drive were paved in 1994 because the town received petitions from the property owners, who paid one-third of the cost for each side and the town paid the final third.

            “If we now want to go and pave the rest of them, what do we do with those property owners? You can order the improvements and assess,” O’Donnell said.

            Commissioner Frank Drake suggested paving streets that connect from one paved road to another.

            “I don’t think having an unpaved street is such a horrible thing,” Jones said. “There were no paved streets in the town of Wake Forest in 1909.”

            “In 1979 there were Johnny houses in the back yards in the northeast part of tow,” Drake said.

            “If they want their street paved they should pay,” Jones said, but she softened that to say the town could examine paving Cameron and Mangum streets south of Ligon Mill because the town had created a traffic problem by approving The Wake Forest Eatery at the corner of South Main and Carter streets.