CARY - Residents can offer advice to planners about U.S. 64 between Cary and Pittsboro at two community workshops later this month.

The N.C. Department of Transportation is coordinating a study that will examine options for improving traffic flow and protecting land along the corridor from overdevelopment

The study will take a look at expanding the four-lane, 19-mile stretch into a freeway and expressway over the next 30 years. DOT statistics indicate that seven of 10 intersections along the corridor will operate at F on a scale of A to F unless improvements are made.

Among the issues to resolve is how a freeway west of the proposed route of Interstate 540 to Pittsboro could provide access without harming Jordan Lake and state parkland surrounding it, study coordinator David Wasserman said.

The study will also look at potential land uses along the stretch of U.S. 64 to ensure, for example, that future shopping centers have highway access even if the road becomes a freeway or expressway.

Then there are environmental and aesthetic concerns.

"What we don't want to happen is for this corridor to become a Capital Boulevard," Wasserman said, referring to Raleigh's heavily developed north-south artery.

Chatham County Planning Director Keith Megginson said whatever decisions are eventually made will affect the county, which is already drafting zoning regulations for land along its major traffic corridors.

A freeway would limit access to development as well as to recreational facilities on Jordan Lake, Megginson said.

Though the corridor's long-term future is the point of the study, shorter-term improvements are also being reviewed.

Over the next five to 10 years, the highway could be changed to incorporate elements of the "superstreet" concept, Wasserman said. A relatively new transportation model, a superstreet eliminates most left-hand turns and uses elongated U-turns to send traffic in the opposite direction.

In places such as Chapel Hill and Leland in Brunswick County, superstreets have improved safety and traffic flow, Wasserman said.

The study team has 30 staffers from DOT, Wake and Chatham counties, the towns of Apex, Cary and Pittsboro and several other agencies.

Wasserman said that after the two workshops, the team will digest the public input and host another series of meetings, probably in October.

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