Toll road plan bothers EPA workers

Some Research Triangle Park workers are unhappy that a planned toll road through RTP will add extra miles, money and minutes to their daily commute.

Construction on the planned Triangle Parkway will close a busy half-mile extension of the Durham Freeway that links Interstate 40 to Alexander Drive.

The N.C. 147 link is part of the path to work each day for many of the 1,800 commuters at a rolling, wooded RTP campus shared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

About 150 workers gathered in an EPA auditorium Wednesday to air their concerns with officials from the N.C. Turnpike Authority. The agency hopes this year to win the legislative funding it needs to start building the 3.4-mile Triangle Parkway along the eastern edge of the EPA-NIEHS site, connecting I-40 to the 540 Outer Loop.

"We'll get all the pain and none of the benefits" when the N.C. 147 link closes and the toll road opens, EPA employee Chris Nolte said in an interview.

Too close to the kids

Some workers also worry that noise and air pollution from the new expressway will hurt their children at a day-care facility on the NIEHS-EPA campus. The toll road will pass 350 feet east of First Environments Early Learning Center, which cares for about 180 infants and preschoolers.

Turnpike officials said they will shield the day-care center with a noise barrier wall 1,100 feet long and 12 to 18 feet tall, to muffle the sounds of traffic.

"I would be interested in the turnpike being farther away from the day care," said Gary Bird, an NIEHS scientist with two children at the center. He serves as the center's board chairman.

An environmental report is expected this month. Meanwhile, day-care parents -- many of them environmental scientists -- have installed pollution and noise monitors at the center for future use in before-and-after comparisons.

Awkward commute

EPA and NIEHS workers use entrance gates on Alexander Drive west of their campus, and a new gate on Hopson Road south of the campus. State officials said earlier that cars exiting onto Hopson Road would be prevented from making left turns toward the planned turnpike.

But David W. Joyner, the turnpike authority director, told local officials in a Jan. 25 letter that left turns will be permitted and that the turnpike authority will install a traffic signal if one is needed at the Hopson Road gate.

Triangle Parkway commuters who take a short hop from I-40 to Hopson Road will pay 30 cents each way, with most drivers paying electronically.

"It's not going to be economical for people to get off I-40 and take a very short tollway and pay 30 cents each way," said EPA worker Matt Witosky. "That's not going to work."

New road by 2011

Turnpike officials hope to receive money from the General Assembly this year to cover an expected gap between toll collections and construction costs for the Triangle Parkway and the nearby 13-mile Western Wake Expressway toll projects.

Commuters could be using the new toll roads by 2011. Traffic counts are expected to reach 100,000 per day by 2030. Turnpike officials said the toll road will pull as many as 50,000 cars a day off the most congested part of I-40.