Drivers beware: Cary will close rail crossing this week

On Wednesday, weather permitting, the town of Cary and CSX Transportation will close the rail crossing on Carpenter Fire Station Road between N.C. 55 and Morrisville Carpenter Road.

That section of Carpenter Fire Station will be open to local traffic only. Through traffic — some 6,000 cars daily — will face a short detour using N.C. 55 and Morrisville Carpenter Road.

While the crossing closure is permanent, the town aims to open the route again via a new roadway under the railroad. Specifically, the town will realign Carpenter Fire Station Road from N.C. 55 to Morrisville Carpenter Road, creating a four-lane, median-divided highway with paved shoulders for bikes.

"The project," the town says, "will provide additional capacity and increased safety for drivers." Cary estimates the four-lane road will see 20,000 cars daily by 2035.

Drivers will likely welcome the new roadway, but they will have to be patient. The town doesn't expect to complete the realignment until the summer of 2022. When that happens, the town will also close the at-grade rail crossing on Morrisville Carpenter Road south of the current Carpenter Fire Station Road crossing.

(In closing the rail crossing on Carpenter Fire Station Road and, later, the crossing on Morrisville Carpenter Road, Cary is essentially trading two at-grade crossings for one. In work that should wrap up this summer, a private developer is extending O'Kelly Chapel Road from N.C. 55 to Little Drive, a project that requires its own at-grade crossing.)

The town has budgeted $30 million for the road realignment, including the underpass of the railroad. More than half of the money — $17 million — will come from a bond issue that voters approved in 2012. The rest will come from other Cary revenue sources, the town says.

The original budget was $21.3 million, but in May, town staff asked for another $8.7 million, citing "increased construction, real estate and utility construction costs."

The road realignment falls within the Carpenter Historic District, home to some of Cary's oldest structures, and the town will take steps to mitigate the project's impact on the area. It will, for example, design the railroad underpass to minimize its visibility from the historic district. And it will, in the area near Saunders Grove Lane, use road shoulders and ditches to maintain the district's rural character. Between N.C. 55 and Good Hope Church Road, the town will use nonstandard expressway gutter and ditches to minimize the disturbed area through the historic district.

Also, the town plans to dismantle two historic barns along Saunders Grove Lane and use the wood in future parks projects. And as the road realignment nears completion, the town will install signs letting drivers know they are entering a historic district.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 5:33 PM.