Drive NC 55 to Angier? NCDOT wants to hear from you

The state Department of Transportation wants to ease congestion for commuters who take N.C. 55 into southern Wake County from Angier, but it hasn’t settled on how.

NCDOT will present three options at a public meeting on July 27 in Angier. Two of the options involve building a new bypass around Angier – one on the east side of town and one on the west.

All three proposals entail widening N.C. 55 from Fuquay-Varina to Angier and then from Angier south to Oak Grove Church Road in Harnett County. If neither of the bypasses is built, N.C. 55 would also be widened through Angier, said NCDOT spokesman Andrew Barksdale.

The two-lane highway has a center turn lane most of the way between Angier and Fuquay-Varina and carries up to 18,000 vehicles on an average day. It would be widened to four lanes divided by a median.

But not all of the widening would take place at once, Barksdale said. NCDOT has nearly $80 million to spend on the project from Jicarilla Lane in southern Wake County to south of Angier. Construction would begin in 2022 and take three years to complete.

Meanwhile, N.C. 55 from Jicarilla Lane north to N.C. 42 in Fuquay-Varina would remain a two-lane road until sometime after 2027, Barksdale said. NCDOT doesn’t have enough money to do the entire project at once, he said, and chose to focus on the Angier area because the need is greater there.

The NCDOT’s meeting on July 27 will run from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Angier Municipal Building at 28 N. Raleigh St. Planners will consider what they hear at the meeting when working on the final design.

The public may submit comments or seek additional information by contacting Kim Gillespie at NCDOT at 1548 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699; at 919-707-6023 or at klgillespie@ncdot.gov. Maps and other project information will be posted to www.ncdot.gov/projects/publicmeetings/ as they become available.

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Drive NC 55 to Angier? NCDOT wants to hear from you."