Rogers Road bridge delayed again and Capital Blvd. pushed back to 2040
On February 21, the state Department of Transportation announced it will begin to study the possibility of Capital Boulevard as a toll road. The announcement was made during a meeting of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, where Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones is the board chairman.
The study will look at the logistics of making all or part of Capital Boulevard from I-540 to Purnell Road a toll road. During the January meeting Jones had put pressure on DOT to do the study.
The study will begin in March, and DOT representatives said it could be completed by this fall. The cost is estimated at $600,000, and CAMPO pledged $150,000 for the study. There is no indication of what will happen after the study is complete except discussion.
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority has said it could complete a toll road by 2030 if it took over the project. It is not clear what improvements would be made to the major highway for interstate and local traffic.
Mayor Jones said she was very pleased that NCDOT has agreed to conduct the study. In answer to a question whether the study would encourage DOT to begin to implement its four-part plan for Capital Boulevard earlier, she said, “I do not believe the results of the study or the fact that they have agreed to conduct the study will result in NCDOT making the Capital Blvd. accelerated in their plans.”
Jones also explained one of the requirements for a toll road. “When toll funding is used, there is a requirement that there are other ways to travel so that those who do not want to use the tolled facility can still go where they want to go. I am sure, however, that there will be people who will be inconvenienced. Unfortunately, there are also many people who are inconvenienced now and will be seriously inconvenienced in the next 20 years if nothing is done.” She added that there is no direct cost to Wake Forest; NCDOT will pay the remainder of the cost minus CAMPO’s $150,000 from its fund balance.
The alternative, of course, is DOT’s plan to build a six-lane limited-access freeway in four sections, only one of which is said to be funded (with uncertainty now clouding that). Although DOT had said last year that land acquisition for the first segment would begin this year, 2024, DOT is now saying that that the first start date is 2040.
The second blow to improving the town’s traffic flow is that DOT has again pushed back the start date — bidding, award of the winning bid — for the Rogers Road bridge to 2025 because the utility pipes that were discovered in 2023 that interfere with the construction are not going to be moved until the spring of 2025.
Brian Gackstetter, the DOT project manager for the bridge, has released a notice about project P-5705 to the Town of Wake Forest. It shows that DOT obviously had the bridge in mind before 2017 when DOT estimated it would cost $1,890,000 to buy the right-of-way. Right-of-way purchase began in 2018, and in September of 2022 the cost of the bridge construction was estimated at $32.1 million.
The only possible bright note came from Brian Pate, the chairman of the Government Affairs Committee in the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, who is working with other committee members and elected officials in Wake Forest, Rolesville, Youngsville and Franklinton to expand to a regional focus. “Waiting on Capital until 2040 or beyond is bad news for Youngsville and Franklinton too. We will have to work together for the regional impact as we could have 250,000 people in this area in 25 years.”
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4 Responses
I should have also said that once the study is complete there will be a public input time to get everyone’s opinion.
Nothing will get done so long as the NCDOT is run by politics.
“Jones also explained one of the requirements for a toll road. “When toll funding is used, there is a requirement that there are other ways to travel so that those who do not want to use the tolled facility can still go where they want to go. I am sure, however, that there will be people who will be inconvenienced. Unfortunately, there are also many people who are inconvenienced now and will be seriously inconvenienced in the next 20 years if nothing is done.” She added that there is no direct cost to Wake Forest; NCDOT will pay the remainder of the cost minus CAMPO’s $150,000 from its fund balance”.
Why should Wake Forest residents find other ways to travel ? All thats doing is maybe solving one problem and creating another one elsewhere. Has the Town even considered polling the residents of Wake Forest as to whether they would consider a toll road to expedite the project. This idea of an expressway is ludicrous, with some good old engineering, widen Capital Blvd to three lanes from Durant Road to 98. Problem solved and in all probability, at a substantially lower cost than the price for this dreaded expressway. There is a direct cost to Wake Forest residents for this study. Who do you think helps to fund the NCDOT ?
The town can’t ask the residents what their opinion is if there is not a possible plan in place.
The toll study will figure out if tolling is possible, at what cost, and what the other arteries of traffic will be.
I personally would be more than happy to pay a toll to skip the traffic and get to 540 faster when needed.
If you wait for NCDOT to widen Capital to three lanes (which is the goal of S-5307) it will be at least 2043 before any potential construction will begin.
We can’t just sit and wait while Capital gets worse. We have to look at other possibilities.