Guest post by Raleigh City Councilor Thomas Crowder
The NCDOT has sent me a letter requesting comments from public officials/local agencies on the proposed widening of I-440 from Wade Avenue in Raleigh south to Walnut Street (Crossroads) in Cary.
The project is included in the North Carolina Deportment of Transportation’s (NCDOT) 10-year plan (2011-2020). It is scheduled for right-of-way (row) acquisition in fiscal year 2016 and construction in fiscal year 2018.
I know this matter is of particular interest to the neighborhoods who abut the highway between Hillsborough Street and south to I-40. I am already aware of issues important to many of those residents as follows:
- Number of homes that will be impacted or removed due to the project
- Location and type of sound barrier walls, lighting and landscape remediation proposed along the widening
- Loss of trees in the narrow eastern strip of land between the Progress Energy (Duke Power) high transmission lines and existing highway
- Potential loss of the interchange at Melbourne Road
- Impacts to White Oak Lake and Kaplan Pocket Park
- Amount of time the Athens Drive bridge will be closed
- Stormwater/runnoff mitigation for Lake Johnson
- Changes/impacts to the Wade, Hillsborough, Western Boulevard, and Jones Franklin Interchanges and adjoining properties
I have already started to collect constituent comments about this projects. Feedback from agencies and elected official are being sent to Leza Mundt, AICP and Jill Gurak, PE, AICP. If you have additional feedback or concerns about this project, please contact me at my city-provided email address: Thomas Crowder <[email protected]>.