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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.)
Winter is here, and there are almost no
road projects for the Wake Forest area
either planned or underway by the town
or the North Carolina Department of
Transportation.
Rea Contracting may need to
return for some shoulder work on
South Main Street (U.S. 1-A), Durham
Road (N.C. 98) and Ligon Mill Road,
and the company must return with warmer
weather to replace the temporary
striping with the more permanent
thermoplastic.
The town is considering
using the $1 million from the 2005 bond
issue earmarked for widening South Main
Street for other projects. Residents
along the street emphatically rejected a
plan to widen it to four travel lanes
with the opposing lanes separated by a
4-foot concrete median that would
prevent left turns.
One of the proposed projects
is to widen the short stretch of Ligon
Mill Road west of South Main – it
provides a back entrance to Wal-Mart and
ends at a sewer pump station – to align
it with the planned four-lane section
which will be between Capital Boulevard
and South Main.
Check out an article
in last week’s edition for another way
to use the $1 million.
* * * *
Within the next year, the
town and DOT will evaluate the impact of
the N.C. 98 bypass on
local traffic and make some changes. One
would be to revisit the idea of a large
roundabout around the campus with
traffic flowing counter-clockwise,
allowing for right turns only.
The analysis 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. The
project will include re-aligning Falls
of the Neuse Road to connect with
Thompson Mill Road.
* * * *
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.
* * * *
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.
* * * *
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. |
