10 FOR 10: TEN LOCAL CHALLENGES FOR 2010
BY KIRK ROSS
Staff Writer
CARRBORO — For anyone coming into Carrboro on Smith Level Road, crowded crosswalks at the intersection with BPW Club Road are a familiar sight. That’s the point where the large and heavily student-populated neighborhoods west of Smith Level Road reach the bus lines that feed into town and campus.
Also among the familiar scenes are pedestrians walking in the tall grasses along the shoulderless road and elderly residents from nearby assisted-living centers making their way slowly along the uneven terrain.
The search for a way to widen the road and put in sidewalks and bikeways has engendered one of Carrboro’s longest-running negotiations with the state’s Department of Transportation. The town has resisted more conventional widening proposed over the years, while the state has been reluctant to fund a project transportations officials said didn’t provide enough lanes for traffic projections.
After more than two decades of active discussion, plans have morphed from five lanes in places to no more than four to three, and now two. At Town Hall next Tuesday, the results of the negotiations hammered out over the past three months will be the subject of a public information session followed by a hearing on the plan by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. The information session starts at 6:30 p.m., with the hearing opening around 7:30 p.m.
The main compromise by the DOT reduces the number of travel lanes in the plan to two, with a divided median. Bike lanes and sidewalks will be constructed on the other side of the ditches that run along the road, with the state acquiring enough right-of-way for future expansion.
In a recent interview with The Citizen, DOT engineer Mike Mills said a future increase in the number of lanes would only be planned if the town requested it. He said acquiring more right-of-way would also make the addition of the sidewalks and bikeways easier to accomplish.
Town representatives, including Mayor Mark Chilton and transportation board chair Charlie Hileman, have been cautiously optimistic that the new design will pass muster.
According to the DOT, the new plan also calls for widening Smith Level Road to a two-lane road divided by a grass median with eight-foot shoulders from the bridge crossing Morgan Creek to the BPW Club Road. The proposed design for other sections of Smith Level Road includes:
• widening Smith Level Road from just south of Rock Haven Road to Culbreth Road to three lanes;
• constructing a roundabout near Carrboro High School at the intersection of Smith Level and Rock Haven roads; and
• building a three-lane section between Culbreth and BPW Club roads.
10 for 10 is an occasional series following 10 top issues in the town for 2010. Visit carrborocitizen.com/main/tenforten for more stories and to follow the issues.
While the design is for two lanes and a median, the total width/footprint of the section from Culbreth Road to the bridge before FPG is the same as when the design was for four lanes.