Monday Mayor Vivian Jones confirmed that construction to change Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) into a six-lane, controlled-access freeway has been delayed until 2024. As late as the past October, the North Carolina Department of Transportation was holding meetings to discuss the plan with construction scheduled to begin in 2021.
The reason? Rising costs. “Yes, it is true that the construction has been pushed back to 2024 due to lack of funds. The projects being constructed now have increased in cost so much that the department has had to delay future projects,” Jones wrote in an email. “I understand that the right of way and design work will continue and if they can find funding, the project could happen earlier. This pushback is just simply to let people know that there is a strong possibility the construction will not start until 2024.”
Jones continued in her email, “I am extremely disappointed and I have been and will continue to speak with everyone I believe can make a difference to get this project back on track. The original schedule was too late. Capital Blvd. has been identified as one of the busiest highways in the Triangle for years. I know that Secretary Trogdon and all the NCDOT folks are trying very hard to make this project happen as soon as they can.”
The mayor is right in saying Capital Boulevard has long been identified as one of the Triangle’s busiest roads and in saying the original schedule – construction beginning in 2021 – was too late.
On the NCDOT website there is a statement that a corridor study for the highway was completed in 2006, meaning its identification for congestion was widely accepted at least two years earlier. In 2004, Wake Forest had only had 20,300 residents according to town records, less than half the 43,000 people now living in town. The website says: “In 2006, Phase 1 of the U.S. 1 Corridor Study was completed in collaboration between the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), N.C. Department of Transportation, City of Raleigh, Triangle Transit, and Town of Wake Forest. STIP Project U-5307 is included in the area studied during Phase 1, and the Corridor Study serves as starting point for further analysis of this project.” 2006! Thirteen years ago, fifteen years before the construction start date of 2021, now delayed to 2024.
On Tuesday, Oct. 9, before the Oct. 11 public meeting about the Capital Boulevard changes, the Raleigh News & Observer said, “NCDOT says the goal of the $465-million freeway project is to reduce congestion and travel time. The highway would be six lanes wide. With 12-foot shoulders and a concrete median with a speed limit of 65 mph.” Also, the newspaper said, “NCDOT hopes to refine its plans by next summer and award a contract for final design and construction, which would begin in the spring of 2021.”
The October plans did not include the access roads necessary for access to the new freeway; those were to be included in meetings planned for 2019.
Also, the October plans proposed to build a bridge between Stadium Drive and Jenkins Road over the new highway with no way to access the highway or the large shopping center, Wake Forest Crossing, which sprawls along the east side of Capital Boulevard from the Wake Union Church Road/Agora Drive intersection north to Stadium Drive and Jenkins Road.
The new Wake Forest Fire Department Station #4 would be left without a way to access Capital Boulevard as would the residents of a growing number of subdivisions along Jenkins Road and students and parents at Wake Forest High School.
Wake Forest Planning Director Chip Russell did tell the Raleigh News & Observer before the public meeting that “there’s a possibility of an exit from the northbound lanes of the freeway into the shopping center, but not a full interchange.”
All other major intersections on the route, including the Harris Road/Purnell Road intersection, are proposed as interchanges with full on/off access.
These are the proposed changes in the 2018 plans:
*Traffic signals on Capital Boulevard are proposed to be removed and replaced with interchanges at:
– Durant Road/Perry Creek Road
– Burlington Mills Road
– Falls of the Neuse Road/South Main Street/U.S. 1-A
– Purnell Road/Harris Road
*Existing interchanges at 1-540, N.C. 98 Bypass (Dr. Calvin Jones Highway), and N.C. 98 Business (Durham Road) will be modified
*A bridge (grade separation) is planned at Jenkins Road/Stadium Drive.
The project will be built in four segments which are listed without dates, expected construction time or anticipated cost:
*Segment A from I-540 north to Durant Road/Perry Creek Road
*Segment B from north of Durant Road/Perry Creek Road north to Burlington Mills Road
*Segment C from north of Burlington Mills Road to south of Durham Road (N.C. 98 Business}
*Segment D from south of N.C. 98 Business to Purnell Road/Harris Road. This will probably not be constructed until 2024.
The meeting will have an informal, open house-style format, so there will not be a formal presentation. Attendees may come any time between 4 and 7 p.m. to view the conceptual designs and ask questions.
A map of the proposed improvements is still available on the NCDOT public meetings website at www.ncdot.gov/news/public-meetings/Pages/U-5307-2018-10-09.Aspx<http://www.ncdot.gov/news/public-meetings/Pages/U-5307-2018-10-09.Aspx>.
NCDOT has not issued a statement about the delay “because the change was made in the draft STIP, with approval expected later this year in June/July,” David A. Stark, the project engineer in the Priority Project Unit/Technical Services, wrote in an email Monday.
3 Responses
Wow. 2021 was already too late. WF population is exploding and by 2024 people will be moving out of WF due to traffic trying to get to RTP due to antiquated roads.
Mayor Jones is right to stand up for this one. She knows that US1 and Falls of Neuce are the lifelines keeping this town growing.
The proposal to turn Capitol Blvd. into a freeway was already under discussion back in January 1987 (32 years ago) when we moved here. It might even have been mentioned at the closing on the property in early December of 1986. I assume it will never happen, because either costs will go up and up, which DOT cannot afford, or else there will be another major recession like there was in 2008 that caused many building projects to be postponed for at least another ten years. Either way, I will probably be in my grave before Capitol Blvd. ever becomes a limited access freeway.
The discussions that you are referencing are the initial widening of Capital to 4 lanes. It was North Boulevard when it was only two lanes from Mini-City in North Raleigh all the way past Wake Forest. That project was completed in the mid 1990s.
The current project has been in discussion for about 15 years as I recall. I was actually on the CAMPO board that developed the plan for 4 years and have watched it closely.
DOT knows that Capital is an extremely important connector from North Raleigh to I-85 for many reasons so in my opinion, it is likely to be prioritized and we will see it completed before 2030.