
{"id":5157,"date":"2009-03-12T07:59:54","date_gmt":"2009-03-12T15:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5157"},"modified":"2009-03-12T07:59:54","modified_gmt":"2009-03-12T15:59:54","slug":"smith-level-roundabout-draws-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/12\/smith-level-roundabout-draws-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith Level roundabout draws concern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The safety of a roundabout near Carrboro High School is one of the focal points of concern in the latest plans for widening Smith Level Road.<\/p>\n<p>Department of Transportation (DOT) officials discussed new plans for the widening at an information session with local residents at Carrboro Elementary School on Tuesday. In addition to fielding questions about right-of-way acquisition and timing of construction, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools officials were on hand to look over how students would get across the road and the intersection of Rock Haven Road.<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/ncdot.org\/doh\/preconstruct\/highway\/roadway\/hearingmaps%5Fby%5Fcounty\/resource\/u2803_rdy_phm_FULL.pdf\">Link to DOT&#8217;s map of the project<\/a>) <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The intersection, which now has a stoplight and turn lanes, would be replaced with a roundabout \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a move championed by Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton.<\/p>\n<p>School board chair Lisa Stuckey said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerned about how safely students heading from neighborhoods east of the school will be able to cross without a stoplight.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to increase the walk zone for the school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The configuration presented by DOT engineers shows a crosswalk south of the roundabout with a pedestrian safety island.<\/p>\n<p>At the information session, DOT officials stressed that the crossing would be safe. Should there be a difficulty with the plan in the future, engineers said the intersection could be rebuilt with a light and conventional crosswalks.<\/p>\n<p>Chilton said he had not reviewed the latest plan for the widening in detail. He said he expects the board of aldermen to hear a presentation on the plan this spring. The idea of a roundabout to keep traffic moving near the high school is important to the town, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Intersections with roundabouts, he said, are safer than those with conventional traffic lights. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They force cars to move through the intersection more slowly, which traffic lights do not.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design is the result of a long-running negotiation between the DOT and the Town of Carrboro over how best to improve the key southern route into town. The plan shows a three-lane section from just south of Ray Road to Culbreth Road; a wider three- and four-lane configuration from Culbreth Road to BPW Club Road and a four-lane section from there to the Morgan Creek bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Sidewalks and striped bicycle lanes are planed along the entire length of the project.<br \/>\nRight-of-way acquisition is scheduled to start in July and construction in January 2011. <\/p>\n<p>The total cost of the project is projected to be $6,605,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer The safety of a roundabout near Carrboro High School is one of the focal points of concern in the latest plans for widening Smith Level Road. Department of Transportation (DOT) officials discussed new plans for the widening at an information session with local residents at Carrboro Elementary School on Tuesday&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5158,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions\/5158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}