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Board talks Smith Level widening

Posted on September 4, 2008September 4, 2008 by Staff

by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The North Carolina Department of Transportation plans to complete revisions and select a design for long-awaited improvements to Smith Level Road by November of this year, to be presented to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen early next year.

On Tuesday, the board of aldermen reviewed a letter from NCDOT responding to comments made by the board regarding the revised draft design in June 2007.

The Smith Level Road Improvement Project would widen Smith Level Road from the bridge at Hwy. 54 to Woodcrest Road, and includes sidewalks, bicycle lanes and a roundabout at the Rock Haven Road intersection near Carrboro High School.

According to Carrboro transportation planner Adena Messinger, NCDOT plans to present a design alternative for the project to board members in March 2009. A public hearing regarding the design will follow in April 2009.

Several board members questioned whether enough crosswalks would be installed with the improvements.

According to the letter from DOT officials, “a crosswalk will not be installed if pedestrian facilities (sidewalk or pedestrian trail) do not exist or are not constructed during this project on both ends of the crosswalk.”

However, Messinger said because sidewalks are planned from the bridge at Hwy. 54 to Woodcrest Road, as well as for a small portion of Culbreth Road, crosswalks will be installed at several locations along Smith Level Road, including at the roundabout near Carrboro High.

“I think that in general, they’re just restating their policy that they have about sidewalks,” she said.

Messinger said there could be a small section of Smith Level Road that might not include sidewalks in the design alternative.

“I feel confident that there will be a piece missing,” Mayor Mark Chilton said.

NCDOT stated that pedestrian signals would not be installed at the crosswalk at the roundabout at Rock Haven Road.

In addition, officials do not plan to extend sidewalks to Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, as requested by the board of aldermen, because the school is outside of the project limits and “extending the project limits to the north across Morgan Creek would require substantial reprogramming of the project,” according to the letter from NCDOT.
Chilton said he wanted to ensure that comments from residents at a meeting in November 2007 would be considered in NCDOT’s design, noting one resident’s comments that the design would drastically affect his property.

“I think there are some additional burdens on some residents of Carrboro that this project is going to put down, and for my part I kind of accept that as a reality of the situation along Smith Level Road,” he said. However, he added, “It seemed more burdensome than it really needed to be for one particular homeowner.”

In other action, the board received an update on the Greenbridge Project from the project developers. Although the project is located in Chapel Hill, it lies on the south side of Rosemary Street, between Graham Street and Merritt Mill Road, near the Chapel Hill-Carrboro border.

According to developers, construction began in July on the underground parking deck, but work will soon begin on the seven- and 10-story buildings in the sustainable development.

Because workers will begin pouring concrete at the development, sections of Merritt Mill Road and Graham Street will be completely or partially closed on certain days over the next few months. Three days a week, lanes will be closed during the day; and two nights a week, one of the streets will be closed from 2 to 7 a.m.

According to the developers, the night work will generate some noise that could affect Carrboro residents.

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