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The major problem for traffic on South
Main Street is not the capacity of the
road but the traffic signals at the N.C.
98 bypass, Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell told the Wake Forest
commissioners Tuesday night.
“It’s operating at one- and
two-cycle delays. It’s only going to get
worse” when Holding Village, Reynolds
Mill and development along the bypass
are complete, he said.
“That intersection is not
going to operate well ever. You’ll have
to accept more than two-cycle delays,”
O’Donnell warned.
He suggested there could be
some improvements to the geometry of the
intersection, but those will have to be
studied.
When the bypass was built,
several people suggested the
intersection be grade separated with a
bridge carrying bypass traffic over both
South Main and the CSX rail line. The
state Department of Transportation,
however, chose to build up South Main by
about 12 feet to nearly equal the height
of the roadway over the railroad line.
Earlier in the meeting,
Planning Director Chip Russell referred
to another grade separation that was
never built, the one to separate traffic
on Capital Boulevard from that on South
Main Street and New Falls of Neuse Road.
For a time DOT had an option
to purchase the land needed for the
work. “DOT has chosen not to buy the
land for the grade separation, but now
it’s part of the U.S. 1 Corridor
project,” Russell said.
He asked the commissioners
to approve a joint request to DOT from
the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning
Organization (CAMPO) to allocate funds
for that bridge. He also asked them to
join with Raleigh in asking for at least
one other grade separation where Capital
Boulevard meets Durant Road and Perry
Creek roads.
“If we can get those done it
saves a lot of time with the other
improvements” for the U.S. 1 project,
Russell said.
Commissioner David Camacho
said he would also like to see the town
piggy-back on Raleigh’s traffic signal
synchronization project to include the
signals at I-540, Perry Creek and other
intersections along Capital. |
