During last week’s work session, Mayor Vivian Jones, the five town commissioners and Town Manager Kip Padgett learned that the North Carolina Department of Transportation had funding for only one of the four planned segments to turn Capital Boulevard into a freeway.
That funded segment will transform the current road from I-540 to just north of the Durant Road/Perry Creek intersection into a controlled access 70 mph freeway with six 12-foot lanes for traffic with service roads.
Director of Engineering Brandon Jones said DOT will buy the necessary land during 2024 and construction will begin in 2025. During DOT’s presentation, North Carolina Senator Mary Wills Bode was in the front row in the meeting room in the Wake Forest Town Hall.
The reason DOT has had to pare back what it can do is the same thing afflicting the town’s electric utility Wake Forest Power: the enormous inflation in the price of goods and services. Brandon Jones said costs for the project went from $205 million to $612 million in the years since planning began.
Segments B, C and D have been disconnected from Segment A, with Segments B and C now stripped of their funding – It apparently has been moved to a project near Fayetteville – and Segment D never had received any funding. Segment B would extend the freeway to just north of Burlington Mills Road, Segment C would extend it to just south of the NC 98 highway and Segment D would extend it to the Purnell Road/Harris Road intersection and the Franklin County line.
Mayor Jones was able to find a possible bright aspect after last week’s presentation.” I am of course disappointed in NCDOT’s decision but I understand their problem with funding. We will have to do what we can to make our intersections work better, have more connections and work with developers. Actually we might end up with a better design because things are very different now than 20 years ago when this plan was done. I am trying to be positive about it!” She may be referring to an interchange rather than a flyover at the Stadium Drive/ Jenkins Road intersection.
Although the idea of a freeway has been around for more than two decades – Commissioner Chad Sary said he heard about it in 1998 when he was hired as a town planner – it became a DOT project in 2018 and there was a remote video presentation about the plan in 2021.
This week Sary said, “It’s very disappointing. For me personally, this has been something that has been in the works for nearly two decades and we can’t seem to gain momentum. I don’t want two more decades to go by and no progress made.
Sary continued, “While the news from NCDOT is very frustrating, I am confident we (the Town) can figure out a solution or multiple solutions to get US-1 more functional. Our citizens, business owners, those traveling through and visiting our town deserve it.”
There was more disappointment from Commissioner Adam Wright. “I am disappointed but not surprised by DOTs actions. For years, they have been severely underfunded at municipalities like our’s expense. So, now that we have major projects that require serious funding, they are picking and choosing which projects they think they can fund and get done.
Wright went on, “Unfortunately for us, Capital Boulevard expansion is “shovel ready” so we lose out. We have been asking developers for years to base their traffic studies off this project being completed. So now the town is screwed over and we will have to use tax payer funds to fund studies on our path forward,” Wright said.
“I will not be deterred,” Wright continued. “I am calling on our regional, state, and federal representatives to get the funding we need to fix this issue. Let’s hope these calls do not fall on deaf ears. I am asking everyone that reads this to please call and write our state and federal representatives asking them to not only properly fund NCDOT but also for funding to complete parts B,C, and D of Capital Boulevard expansion.
He added, “Furthermore, I am incredibly disappointed that NCDOT messed up paperwork that will delay our traffic light upgrades for several more months. They really dropped the ball.”
He explained later, “As for the lights- they have done nothing. We were notified the project was to start and then right before meeting I found out they messed up the paperwork. So, now it’s pushed back several months and won’t finish until early next year…..hopefully. ”
In the January 11, 2023 Gazette issue, Wright explained how a DOT upgrade will transform all the town’s traffic signals to “smart” signals that can later be coordinated to allow traffic to flow more freely.
During that June 6 work session, Brandon Jones also referred to the Rogers Road project, the construction of a vehicle traffic bridge over the CSX tracks that narrow the road to two lanes. This much-needed traffic improvement has been delayed and delayed. This spring it was delayed again, from October of this year to March of 2024 because of some minor changes in the plans involving Raleigh’s water and sewer departments. For more details, see the April 19, 2023 edition of the Gazette.
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October 17, 2024
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9 Responses
The town should immediately suspend approval of all future development until funding is secured. Or else everyone should get out of town now before it gets any worse. It’s going to get WAY worse than the out of control it’s already gotten due to the inept leadership in place.
Soon traffic gridlock will strangle Wake Forest. An ode to wishful thinking planning.
I hate to state the obvious, but NCDOT belongs to the State. Saying DOT can’t do anything about it is saying that there is no legal/political recourse and CSX has the final say. That is wrong thinking at its best. We still live in the US. Somebody isn’t pushing hard enough or we would already have a 4 lane crossing on Rogers.
Welp, there’s only one thing to do. Build hundreds/thousands more of homes and apartments.
If the NCDOT can not complete the promised, planned projects that would have made travel on Capital Blvd. safer and easier then the speed limit from the Neuse River bridge to the Franklin county line should be reduced to 45MPH. There are too many wrecks along Capital Blvd. where other roads intersect. And many cars are speeding.
Nobody can make it even to 25 mph on that stretch ever since that realtor was on council and approved everything
I think the mayor may be trying to positively spin the states position, I however, don’t see a bright spot. I think it borders on dereliction how the state continues to avoid doing anything constructive around our community. We are falling so far behind in infrastructure development for our growing community that todays preschoolers may be able to reap some benefit from all the necessary work that has been delayed, cancelled or generally neglected!
I do not understand why we have all been held hostage by the railroad for so many years. The DOT should have put in a 4 lane crossing at the RR on Roger’s years ago and then they could have delayed the bridge for as long as they wanted! Durant Rd over in Raleigh surely got the crossing expanded, and that is the same track with the same rail traffic. It is obvious Raleigh has much more political clout than does WF. As someone who has lived here 25 years, it is beyond frustrating.
DOT cannot legally do anything about the CSX crossing or tracks. Scroll back or look for the April 19, 2023 edition of the Gazette and in the last half of the article about the latest delay for that bridge you can read what Andy Ammons went through trying to get ANY crossing for his plan for the Heritage subdivision. It definitely shows that Raleigh has more clout than Andy or the town or Wake Forest. Of course it is frustrating, both trying to deal with CSX or DOT.