On Tuesday morning, Aug. 22, a private contractor working on the Preserve at Kitchin Farms subdivision, closed Burlington Mills Road from just east of One World Way to Ligon Mill Road. It will remain closed through most of October, but Bratt Avenue will remain open, giving Caddell Woods and Moss Creek subdivision residents access to Burlington Mills Road and thus to Capital Boulevard.
The contractor, Gaines and Company, will use the nine or ten weeks to rebuild the closed section of road, changing the grade and the contours of the road while adding turn lanes required by the North Carolina Department of Transportation as part of the construction of the subdivision.
Eric Keravuori, the Wake Forest director engineering, says DOT will be holding the contractor to the strict schedule of improvements with the threat of $5,000 a day in fines or damages if the construction takes longer than planned. Gaines and Company will not work on Sundays unless it is necessary to make up for rain or other weather problems. This is a DOT project but Keravuori has been kept current with the project and the closure.
There are signs on Burlington Mills and Ligon Mills roads about the closure and the detours, which include U.S. 401 and South Main Street.
The subdivision, which will have frontage on both Burlington Mills and Ligon Mills, was approved in June of 2016 for 263 single-family lots on 146 acres. The original farm was larger but the Kitchin family sold considerable acreage for the South Forest Industrial Park.
Residents along Burlington Mills Road and commuters and school buses who use the road have been warned for several weeks about the planned closure although the original plan was to close one lane for a few weeks and later close both lanes. There was no indication why the plan changed to closing both lanes yesterday.
