As you know from the proliferation of orange barrels all around us, the Town of Cary and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) have several road projects under construction in our area. Here is a brief summary of these projects.
[A] Louis Stephens Drive from Heritage Pines to Morrisville Parkway Under construction. The Town's portion will be complete by end of August. However, a critical segment of the road within Heritage Pines will be completed by the developer. The Town expects Heritage Pines to finish construction on its portion in mid to late Summer 2007.
[B] Louis Stephens Drive between Morrisville Parkway and Morrisville Carpenter Road Under construction. The Town's portion will be complete by end of August.
[C] Morrisville Parkway Plans for the Morrisville Parkway segments are complete but permitting remains to be the holdup. Town staff, its consultants and lawyers have met with officials from the US Army Corps. of Engineers (COE) and Division of Water Quality (DWQ) multiple times to determine the level of permitting necessary. COE & DWQ are requiring that both phases of Morrisville Parkway be permitted together and that the Town provide them with special modeling of the area to illustrate the environmental effects of the road widening on the area. The Town has not had to go to this level of permitting before and has been told that it can take six months to one year. Therefore, the Town does not expect construction to begin before Summer 2007. The project will take approximately one year to complete.
[D] Carpenter Upchurch Road at High House Road This roadway is closed in order to raise the roadway to meet the new High House roadway and bridge grades. The bridge is being raised due to required NCDOT structure height and required CSX railroad clearance. The roadway is scheduled to be reopened with Phase 1 of the High House Bridge in late August or early September.
[E] High House Bridge The north side of the bridge is scheduled to open in late August. There will be two lanes at this time while work continues on the southern side of the bridge. The entire six lane bridge is scheduled to open in late April 2007.
[F] High House Road High House Road is being widened in front of the Wellsley neighborhood. Construction is scheduled to begin in September. Widening here is minor, but is being done to tie into the new bridge and accommodate the new four lane, median divided cross-section. High House Road will have bike lanes.
[G] Jenks Carpenter/Carpenter Upchurch Road The Jenks Carpenter/Carpenter Upchurch Intersection Realignment is estimated to start construction in Summer 2007 and be complete Spring 2009. As part of this realignment, dual left turn lanes have been designed for eastbound High House Road (for turning onto northbound Carpenter Upchurch Road towards Carpenter Upchurch Road towards the high school). The Town has proposed using dual left turn lanes to shorten the storage distance, allowing a median break at Widdington for the Wellsley subdivision. NCDOT has some concerns about this arrangement and has not given its approval for this part of the work. For more information on the realignment project, go to http://www.townofcary.org/depts/d s d e p t / e n g i n e e r i n g / e n g p r o j /jenkscarpenteroverview.htm
Other projects of interest: NCDOT expects to finish the NC 55 widening in November. The project will be four lanes, median divided north of High House Road. It will be fives lanes (four with a center turn lane) south of High House Road. NCDOT expects to complete the I-540 segments (I-40 to Davis Drive and Davis to NC55) in August 2007. Local mayors are in discussion with the N.C. Turnpike Authority about making the portion of I-540 between I-40 and Holly Springs a Toll Road in order to expedite the construction of this corridor. NCDOT will advertise the bids for contractors for the Davis Drive widening (north of Morrisville Carpenter Road) in December 2006. If you want to track these NCDOT projects, go to http://apps.dot.state.nc.us/constructionunit/ proglocreport/ProgLocSearch.aspx
We are all glad the roads are being finished in Cary. Now on to I-540.
The I-540 segment opened 7/17th ahead of schedule and HWY 55 is also complete. The Davis Drive widening is underway but it will be next year before they are finished.