Woman seeking alternate route during Rogers bridge closing
When a local businesswoman thinks about the reconstruction of the Rogers Road bridge and the widening of the Road between the bridge and the Heritage Lake Road/Forestville Road intersection in the spring and summer of next year, she thinks about the dangers school buses, carpool parents, students and other drivers could face on the detour using Heritage Lake Road, the N.C. 98 bypass and South Main Street.
“What the detour is going to be is scary, is frightening,” Susan Calloway said this week, and she is trying to lessen those dangers by arranging for an alternate route near the bridge.
And though people tell her how glad they are to see her working on this and 640 people have signed her petition to the Wake Forest mayor and board of commissioners, state Sen. Chad Barefoot, Department of Transportation Division 5 Engineer Joey Hopkins and nine other people, Calloway feels alone because “nobody is doing anything” to help her.
Calloway said she only learned about the bridge reconstruction and road closure earlier this year though public hearings were held in 2013 and the town’s press releases and website have had full information about the four bridge replacements for more than a year. “We were in the middle of building a business.”
She talked to town officials and staff who could give her no help for an alternative to the detour, which she says will mean five-mile bus routes for those on the east side of the bridge. The public schools on the west side are Heritage Middle and Heritage Elementary schools, plus some private schools and day cares. Town officials told her the project is a part of a larger DOT project to replace aging and obsolete bridges with new, safer ones. The Rogers bridge, built in 1975, will be rebuilt to five lanes with sidewalks on both sides as well as a greenway trail underneath. The town will pay for the greenway trail and will pay a portion of the cost for rebuilding the short section of street DOT had planned to do in 10 to 15 years.
She went to Hopkins in DOT’s Division 5 office in Durham, who told her the project would go ahead. However, if she had the funding and the permits to build an alternate road he would talk to the contractor about delaying the bridge a year. Using the list of construction firms Wake Forest Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori had given her, she called until one man, with the permission of his firm, said he would help.
Calloway had determined the best fix would be to connect the entry into the Heritage High School campus, Foundation Drive, with the stubbed end of Heritage Branch Road where Standard Pacific of the Carolinas is building a 206-home subdivision, The Homestead at Heritage, on 73 acres. Her plan is for Heritage Branch to be extended a very short distance into a wooded tract owned by the Town of Wake Forest, then turn east, cross Smith Creek, and connect to Foundation Drive on land the Wake County School System owns. The half mile of three-lane road and bridge was estimated at $3 million with all costs included from permits and fees to construction. Building it was estimated at a year to 18 months. “This is the only safe option to the closure which will happen but with this solution, we will protect the community during the shutdown,” the petition says. (Not included is the additional cost of a traffic signal where Heritage Branch meets Rogers, a difficult intersection already because of a curve, the railroad line and short sight distance.)
Barefoot, who lives in Wake Forest, is sympathetic, Calloway said, but with the recent changes in how road projects are decided and funded legislators have no authority to help with the road through DOT and only very limited funds for small projects.
Calloway said she would persevere. “I’m trying to be heard so someone will do something. I can’t just sit by and do nothing. If we do nothing, nothing’s going to get done. Do we have a hope, I don’t know.”
People can find news and updates about the reconstruction of four bridges inside and near Wake Forest on the town’s website at http://wwwwakeforestnc.gov/operation-bridge-exchange.aspx. The Purnell Road bridge project was finished in late June, and the Forestville Road bridge over Sanford Creek is underway, expected to be complete in early December. West Oak Avenue is scheduled to be done from Oct. 2 through May 28, 2016, and Rogers Road is scheduled for April 4, 2016 through Aug. 16, 2016.
Blythe Construction in Charlotte has the design/build contract to rebuild eight bridges across Wake County. There is a $2,000-per-day penalty for not completing the Rogers Road bridge in the 135 days now planned.
The Rogers Road bridge was slated for earlier replacement but that changed when the Town of Wake Forest asked DOT to add the road widening to the project. Right-of-way purchasing took longer than expected, causing the change in construction timing.
