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Q. If you are headed south on Falls of the Neuse approaching Interstate 540, there are two lanes. About 500 feet prior to the light at Falls and I-540, it turns into four lanes -- a left-turn lane with a left-turn arrow on the road, two straight lanes with straight arrows, and another lane with a right-turn arrow on the road to get onto westbound I-540.

But the light for that right-turn lane onto I-540 is a solid green light, not a right-turn only as the arrow on the road indicates.

I live within 200 yards of that intersection. Hardly a week goes by that there isn't a wreck there. People in that right-turn lane go straight through the intersection based on the solid green light. Cars in the [southbound] lane to the left (one of the two straight arrow lanes) move over into that lane to get onto I-540 East [on the other side of the bridge] assuming there is no one in the lane, and wreck.

I would think that DOT would either make that right lane a combo arrow on the road to either go straight or turn right or change the light to a right turn only arrow.

-- Tom Pittman, Raleigh

A. According to Andy McKay, Deputy Division Traffic Engineer for the Department of Transportation, the plans for the intersection actually call for the far right lane to have a straight/right combo arrow on the pavement.

"The contractor failed to mark it that way, and we failed to notice it," he said.

McKay said he will let the Traffic Engineering Branch of N.C. DOT decide what to do about the pavement marking, and that some change may come.

A little on how the intersection was planned: The traffic plans for southbound Falls call for three straight lanes of traffic, one of which is shared with the right turn traffic.

McKay speculates that when the intersection was designed, there probably wasn't a call for a right-turn only lane: there may not have been enough traffic projected to be turning onto westbound 540 from Falls. Or there could have been some right-of-way issues that didn't allow the space for an additional right-turn only lane.

McKay admits that traffic projections done by the DOT are sometimes not accurate, erring on the side of less traffic rather than more:

"We don't want to build something and then have no one use it," he said. Conversely, the DOT does not want to build something and then have over capacity problems.

McKay doesn't recall hearing about an especially large number of collisions in this area, although he has not done an accident data study. He thinks that drivers who use the road routinely probably figure out the intersection after they've driven it a few times.

On a different subject related to the Falls/I-540 intersection, McKay says that the I-540 exit onto northbound Falls is going to be reconfigured. People complained about traffic backing up onto I-540 during rush hour and a citizen pointed out that there was plenty of room on the ramp for two left turn lanes.

McKay says the citizen was right and that the DOT will go forward with the revision. The center lane of the three exiting lanes will then allow cars to turn left, turn right or continue straight through the intersection.