January 31, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

             Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said Rea Contracting still needs to do some shoulder work and return in the spring when the weather is warmer to replace the temporary striping with more permanent thermoplastic. For drivers, however, the widening, patching, repairing and resurfacing on South Main Street (U.S. 1-A), Durham Road (N.C. 98), and Ligon Mill Road are complete.

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            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, 2008.

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            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.

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            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.

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            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.

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            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.

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            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.

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            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/

roadandconstructionprojects.aspx.