Progress slow but signals coming

Last week Wake Forest Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori assured the Gazette that there is progress in erecting traffic signals at three troubled intersections. In February Planning Director Chip Russell said all three should be built this year.

The first set of signals will probably be at the Jones Dairy Road/Chalk Road intersection because Keravuori said the foundations are being designed by the contractor selected by the state Department of Transportation.

The next will be the signals at the Marshall Farm Road/Rogers Road intersection. Keravuori said DOT is acquiring the right-of-way and will “soon” begin advertising for bids “once the right-of-way is certified.”

Finally, although the Wake Forest Town Board approved the municipal agreement between the town and DOT in February for the Franklin Street intersection with the N.C. 98 bypass (the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway), it is still being processed. Once that is complete, DOT will have to acquire the right-of-way, advertise for bids and select the contractor before the foundations can be designed and the lights installed.

The fourth intersection that worries people is at Caveness Farm Avenue and Capital Boulevard, and that will be improved as part of the Sam’s Club construction. Clearing and construction for the building on the private road parallel to Capital Boulevard could begin at any time, but it is all the road improvements that could take as much as year. All the traffic improvements have to be completed before the town will issue a certificate of occupancy for the large store.

There will be two synchronized traffic signals, one at the Caveness Farms Avenue and one at the driveway access to the unnamed private road that runs behind the office building housing DentalWorks and Mattress Firm, the Texas Roadhouse and Red Robin.

The developer, Sam’s Real Estate Business Trust out of Bentonville, Arkansas, must widen Capital Boulevard to three lanes north and south between the Walmart/Nissan access and the ramps for the bypass and build right-turn lanes for the unnamed driveway, Caveness Farms Avenue,  Corona Boulevard, Common Oaks Drive, Wakefield Park and the Walmart/Nissan access.

There will be dual left-turn lanes on southbound Capital at Caveness Farms Avenue and dual left-turn lanes on the unnamed driveway for access to the southbound lanes of Capital.

Traffic to Sam’s Club will mostly enter from Capital Boulevard onto Caveness Farm Avenue; traffic leaving and turning left will mostly do so at the unnamed driveway. Right turns will be allowed out of both streets onto Capital, and right turns will be allowed into the two streets.

The site is accessible from South Main Street by using the Ligon Mill extension which meets the east end of Caveness Farm Avenue and also by the unnamed private road which connects to the Walmart/Nissan access road and then to South Main through the Walmart parking lot. The town plans to widen the part of Ligon Mill Road from South Main to the Walmart driveway in the near future.