Raleigh begins 2-year overhaul of Atlantic Avenue. Here’s what’s going to happen.
Contractors have begun taking down trees and moving dirt along a section of Atlantic Avenue that the city will overhaul over the next two years.
The city is rebuilding a one-mile stretch of Atlantic between Highwoods Boulevard and New Hope Church Road just north of the Beltline.
The main goal is to make travel safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. The street will remain four lanes wide, but the city will widen each lane a foot or more to a standard 11 feet, add more turn lanes and build a grassy median down the center.
There will also be a new 10-foot-wide path for cyclists and walkers on the west side.
Among the biggest changes will happen where Atlantic meets Ingram Drive, in and out of the Brentwood neighborhood. The intersection lies between the crests of two small hills, and the reduced sightlines contribute to an outsized number of crashes.
The city plans to improve those sightlines a bit by raising the intersection about 3.5 feet. Also as part of a strategy to reduce crashes, it will build a lane for left turns onto Ingram and prohibit people from turning left from Ingram onto southbound Atlantic.
To get that work done, the city plans to close off access to Ingram for about two months and build a temporary bypass to carry Atlantic Avenue traffic just to the west of the intersection. Ingram is scheduled to close in June, though that could get pushed back depending on utility work and the construction of the bypass lanes, said Chad Cantrell, project manager for the city.
“The bypass road will allow us to avoid a large offsite detour for Atlantic Ave. traffic while we raise the Ingram intersection,” Cantrell wrote in an email.
The city also plans to install a new traffic light at Atlantic and Bramer Drive to help manage traffic from businesses and institutions there, including the WakeMed operations center. The light at Bramer would turn red on Atlantic only when triggered by waiting cars or pedestrians, Cantrell said.
Atlantic will remain open throughout construction. Lane closures are possible, though the city plans to keep all four lanes open between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The project extends as far south as Highwoods Boulevard, where the intersection will be configured to allow the bike/pedestrian trail to someday continue south under the Interstate 440/Beltline. As of now, there are no sidewalks or paths under the bridge, but the city is working on that, Cantrell said.
“There is a design consultant on board doing a feasibility analysis on how to get under 440 and connect to the recently installed bike lane on Atlantic on the other side of 440 as well as the greenway system over there,” Cantrell said. “So they’re in the early design stages for that with hope of finding funding for the project.”
For more information and updates during construction, go to the city’s project website, bit.ly/2UyuEDT.
