New turn lanes are being added now, but Smith Level Road is in for even more changes under a new widening plan. Photo by Kirk Ross
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Roundabout proposed near Carrboro High
After years of difficulties reaching an agreement, the Town of Carrboro and the state Department of Transportation have a new draft and a tentative agreement on the widening of Smith Level Road.
The project, which now has a price tag of $5.2 million, was first proposed in 1990. The new design includes widening the road from the Morgan Creek bridge to BPW Club Road to four lanes with a center median, bike lanes and sidewalks. The road would then narrow to three lanes with a center turn lane to Culbreth Road, narrow again from that point to two lanes with a center turn lane to a roundabout at Rock Haven Road, then narrow down to its current two-lane configuration.
The Carrboro Board of Aldermen got a look at the details of the latest draft by DOT planners at its meeting Tuesday night at Town Hall.
Mayor Mark Chilton said moving the project ahead took compromising over the widening.
While agreeing to accept the DOT’s long-sought four-lane design in the heavily trafficked part of the road, he said the town was able to get the roundabout into the plan — an important addition.
“One of the significant things about the roundabout is that it acts as a physical barrier to the possibility of four-laneing the road from there on,†he said. “The new plan does a lot to ensure the rural character of Smith Level for a long time in the future.â€
In reviewing the design, board members said they would like to gather feedback quickly from the public, especially residents in the Berryhill subdivision, who will lose a left-hand turn out of their neighborhood due to the placement of the median.
To head north on Smith Level Road, residents will have to use BPW Club Road, which will also be the main route for buses, school staff and parents dropping off students to Carrboro High School. Students driving to school will use Rock Haven Road, which will have a traffic signal installed prior to the school’s opening next fall. The signal would later be replaced by the roundabout.
The town’s Smith Level Road Task Force will have the plan on hand at its public information meeting at the Century Center this Sunday (May 20) at 2 p.m. The board of aldermen also plans to schedule a public information meeting within the next month. DOT has scheduled a public discussion of the proposal in July. Town officials are also sending the new design to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education for review.
The new plan for the road comes after decades of disagreement over the plans. The use of Smith Level as a major entryway has been in the town’s transportation planning strategy since 1980. In 1992, DOT presented a plan for a project that would widen the road from the bridge to the Chatham County line at Starpoint.
With concerns raised about the impact on the University Lake watershed, the scope of the project was reduced in 1997 to include the stretch from the bridge to Damascus Church Road and dropped back to Rock Haven Road in 1998, when DOT proposed a five-lane plan. After further revisions, aldermen and the DOT presented the plan to residents in 2001. Public response underlined concerns about the widening, and the town and DOT entered into an extended negotiation to try to find a new configuration.
In 2002, the board of aldermen rejected a DOT proposed four-lane plan and in 2005 adopted a three-lane approach with bike lanes and sidewalks. With a new high school on the horizon, the town formed the Smith Level Road Task Force and asked DOT to move forward on the project.
In December of last year, Doug Galyon, a DOT board member and representative of the DOT region that includes Orange County, offered to set up a meeting between the town and DOT. After a late-February meeting with town officials, DOT informed the town it would restart the project, and on April 4 sent the town the new plans. Last week, DOT informed the town that the project was on an accelerated schedule and that if environmental and engineering studies are completed on schedule, construction would start in 2011 — a year earlier than previously planned.
Please note the Sunday’s public meeting will be held at Carrboro Town Hall.