Stadium Drive, one of the western town entrances which is busy with student traffic from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Wake Forest High School be friendlier for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in the near future.
At the start of Tuesday night’s Wake Forest Town Board meeting, Theresa Gresham with Kimley Horn, a consulting engineer firm, described the plans which are now about 30 percent complete.
The street will have two 14-foot travel lanes for vehicles with an 11-foot center turn lane with wider shoulders on both sides. The travel lanes will share the lanes with bicyclists.
From the Glencoe Drive intersection to the bridge a 10-foot wide multi-use path will be built on the south side; there will be a 5-foot paved sidewalk with grass verge on the north side.
From the bridge to the planned full-sized roundabout at the North Wingate/North Avenue intersection, there will be sidewalks on both sides of Stadium Drive. The current parking in front of the student housing will be moved to new parking areas next to the one-story duplexes.
Gresham said the group is still deciding how to handle the parking along North Avenue, which is now allowed on the north side. They may keep it on the north side, move it to the south side, or remove it from the street entirely.
All of Stadium and North will be totally resurfaced during the project.
“I think it looks great,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.
Commissioner Greg Harrington asked about the design for the roundabout, wondering if it would be similar to the plan for redoing the one at South Main and South Avenue. Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said it would be a “standard urban” roundabout, capable of handling full-sized trucks and similar to those on Franklin Street.
Senior Planner said the funding for the project is part of the bond issue. (The town has federal authorization for preliminary engineering for the project which must be completed by Sept. 30 this year. The initial funding was through a LAPP program, Locally Administered Projects Program, for $234,350 in federal funds, $58,588 local funds. Town staff will pursue a LAPP grant for fiscal 2016 for the right-of-way and construction costs, which would be $1,758,000 in federal funds and $440,000 in general obligation bond funds if voters approve the November bond issue.)
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Much of the action meeting was routine except when the question on the floor was to approve issuing private revenue bonds to rebuild the John B. Cole electric substation and provide new street lighting along North Main, the first step in a street-lighting campaign.
“I’m all for the substation, but the North Main lighting gives me heartburn,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said without further explanation. She, however, did vote yes with the other four commissioners.
Stinnett was also reluctant to approve the Capital Improvement Plan Tuesday night, wanting some more time. She also said, “I thought we were going to have a work session with the fire department.” It was agreed they would continue Tuesday night’s meeting to the April 1 work session to consider the CIP. The only speaker at the CIP public hearing was Jan Ammons, the chairman of the Greenways Advisory Board, who thanked the commissioners for their support and reprised the history of greenways in town. The plan was first approved in 2002 and funded in 2003. She noted that they have fallen short of their 10-year goal of completed greenways, but the ambitious plans in the November bond issue would complete them and connect the Dunn-Smith Creek corridor.
Jones will try to set a date to meet with the fire department board to talk about the department’s needs.
She announced that with Wake Habitat for Humanity building five new houses in town this year, there will be over 150 Americorp volunteers in town during May to help.
She also announced negotiations are continuing with Duke Progress Energy about a buyout of the town’s interest in several power plants.
The board went into a closed session at the end of the regular agenda to discuss a personnel matter.
