Falls of Neuse Road widening plan refined, but that doesn’t mean people will like it

When the state Department of Transportation released two options for widening a stretch of Falls of Neuse Road north of Interstate 540 last year, they were met with protest from nearby residents, who said the project would make a bad traffic situation worse.

Now NCDOT has refined its plan and will present it at a public meeting on Tuesday evening, where the reception is likely to be much the same. NCDOT representatives will answer questions and take feedback on the plan from 4 to 7 p.m. at Lifepointe Church, 9500 Durant Road.

NCDOT proposes to widen Falls of Neuse from four lanes to six between I-540 and Durant Road. The idea was endorsed by the Raleigh City Council in 2013 and by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO.

The main goal of adding a travel lane in each direction is to try to alleviate congestion that city and state traffic engineers say will only get worse in the future. NCDOT says as many as 60,000 vehicles per day will use this 1-mile stretch of Falls of Neuse by 2040, up from a peak of 47,000 a day in 2015.

But nearby residents and other opponents say adding two lanes won’t solve congestion on Falls of Neuse, which they say is mostly a problem during morning rush hour when drivers wait to get on I-540.

“We don’t need additional lanes, because no one is going anywhere because of the I-540 backup,” said Lillian Overton, who along with her husband Randy lives in the Muirfield subdivision just off Falls of Neuse.

“You can add 10 lanes to Fall of Neuse Road, but if you cannot access I-540 you are just sitting in a larger parking lot (the lanes of Falls of Neuse Road) with more chances for accidents,” Randy Overton wrote in an email.

The Overtons have been among the leaders of the opposition. They’ve met with NCDOT’s regional engineer Joey Hopkins and spoken to city council members about the project. They say some aspects are welcome. The proposed median down the center of the road to limit left-hand turns, better crosswalks and the bike and pedestrian trail along the east side of the road would all be improvements, they say.

But the widening to six lanes isn’t necessary, they say, and could hasten the transition of Falls of Neuse into something more like Capital Boulevard, which areas residents fear.

Instead, opponents would like to see NCDOT and the city wait until other planned projects in northern Wake County are completed before they consider adding lanes. Those projects include adding lanes to I-540, widening Creedmoor Road to four lanes between N.C. 98 and I-540 and turning Capital in to a freeway between I-540 and Wake Forest. Those could all help reduce congestion on Falls of Neuse without the extra lanes, they say.

But NCDOT is moving ahead with a widening plan that does address one of the fears of Muirfield residents. One of the two options the department presented last year pushed the road and a sidewalk closer to the homes along the west side of Falls of Neuse. That idea was scraped, in favor of going with a single pedestrian and bike path on the east side, which is lined with businesses.

NCDOT should not have to trim bushes or cut trees on the west side of the road, said John Braxton, the senior project engineer.

“We are replacing the curb and gutter there,” Braxton said. “Other than that, it’s very slight impacts.”

NCDOT is scheduled to award a construction contract for the Falls of Neuse project in late 2019, Braxton said, with the work likely to get started in early 2020.

This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 12:25 PM.