State plans to widen I-40 bottleneck

I-540 ramp also will be unclogged

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CORRECTION

A front-page story Thursday erred in describing how many lanes the state Department of Transportation will add to a four-lane portion of Interstate 40 in West Raleigh. One lane will be added in each direction. The story also said incorrectly that this is I-40's only four-lane section between Orange and Johnston counties. I-40 narrows to four lanes in eastern Wake County between U.S. 70 and Johnston County.

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Two of the Triangle's worst bottlenecks will be loosened by highway construction projects scheduled to start in 2010, according to plans released Wednesday by the state Department of Transportation.

Interstate 40 will be widened from four to six lanes between Wade Avenue and U.S. 1/64. An overstuffed I-540 off-ramp near Research Triangle Park also will be widened.

The draft of the State Transportation Improvement Program for 2009 through 2015 also calls for:

* Chapel Hill-Carrboro's computerized traffic signal system to be installed starting two years earlier than planned, in 2011.

* Construction on Durham's East End Connector, joining U.S. 70 and N.C. 147 to form a freeway link between North Durham and Research Triangle Park, to start in 2014, a two-year delay.

* Construction of twin river bridges on New Falls of Neuse Road, a project managed by the city of Raleigh, to begin in 2009, two years earlier than planned.

The four-mile stretch of I-40 in West Raleigh suffers from the Triangle's worst freeway congestion. It is the only four-lane section of I-40 between Orange and Johnston counties.

The DOT previously proposed to spend $60 million to make it eight lanes, but state officials had said they didn't have the money.

Wake County leaders suggested making it six lanes instead, hoping the lower cost would allow the work to begin. The DOT now says it will spend $38.6 million to build two new lanes each way where the wide, grassy median is now.

State and local engineers agree that I-40 will eventually need eight lanes. The DOT's planning and environmental study would account for that, and the existing bridges will be widened now to handle eight lanes in the future.

"That will add about $1.5 million to the project, but it's a whole lot more cost-effective to do that now," said Wally Bowman, a DOT engineer who oversees work in Wake and six other counties.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said the I-540 and I-40 improvements will provide limited relief for commuters.

"Those are fairly minor steps," Meeker said. "We pay some $160 million a year in state and federal gas taxes. We get some back in maintenance, but we're getting nowhere near our fair share in Wake County."

North Raleigh residents who drive the I-540 Outer Loop to RTP have long complained about backups at the exit ramp to westbound I-40. The Outer Loop was extended a few miles southwest of I-40 this year, providing new entry points to RTP, but congestion at the off-ramp did not improve.

Bowman said the DOT will spend $3.9 million to add a second lane to the off-ramp. The added lane will continue west on I-40 and onto the exit loop to Page Road.

"The growth in that area has far exceeded the traffic forecasts we had when that interchange opened in the mid-1990s," Bowman said. He added that 15 to 25 percent of I-540 commuters continue driving south each morning on the new Loop section, called N.C. 540, instead of taking the I-40 exit.

Meeker said city engineers hope to start building the Neuse River bridges in 2009, but the starting date will depend on how quickly they can obtain permits. An earlier start could make the new bridges available as a detour for traffic on the old Falls of Neuse Road bridge a mile upstream. In a separate project, the DOT plans to close the road in late 2010 for two years while it replaces the old bridge.

Bowman said tight funding has forced construction delays on urban loop projects across the state, prompting the schedule change on Durham's East End Connector.