Lane change: Section of road to be realigned and resurfaced

Published 7:53 pm Tuesday, March 24, 2015

COURTESY OF FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION NEW LOOK: Plans call for a section of U.S. Highway 264 in Washington (Fifth Street and John Small Avenue) to be resurfaced and change from four lanes to three lanes with a center left-turn lane, but no bicycle lanes.

COURTESY OF FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
NEW LOOK: Plans call for a section of U.S. Highway 264 in Washington (Fifth Street and John Small Avenue) to be resurfaced and change from four lanes to three lanes with a center left-turn lane, but no bicycle lanes.

A section of U.S. Highway 264 in Washington likely will be resurfaced later this year.

During its meeting Monday, the Washington City Council unanimously endorsed the N.C. Department of Transportation’s plan to resurface the section of U.S. 264 (parts of it known as Fifth Street and John Small Avenue) from Whispering Pines Road to the terminus o East 12th Street (near the Walgreen’s and CVS pharmacies). John Rouse, division engineer with DOT’s 2nd Division, explained the resurfacing project, which includes changing the lane configuration — known as road diet — for the section of highway.

Rouse told the council DOT plans convert the existing four-lane configuration to a three-lane configuration — an eastbound lane, a westbound lane and a center left-turn lane. Rouse said the new configuration would make the section of road safer, especially at intersections. He also said the new alignment would not change the width of the road.

The plans for Fifth Street and John Small Avenue came as a surprise, sort of, to city officials.

“It was our understanding after Third Street (resurfacing), and I think there was some miscommunication on our part, it was our understanding that after Third Street had been completed, that we didn’t anticipate Fifth Street being resurfaced,” City Manager Brian Alligood said. “We found out a week or so ago that it was going to be in the program, so we’re very pleased about that.”

Alligood told the council “it sounds kind of counter-intuitive that you’re gong to take a four-lane road and make it a three-lane road and it will still carry the same amount of traffic.” Alligood said a DOT traffic study “shows it will handle the same amount of traffic at an acceptable level of service.”

“The belief that DOT is going to come in there and widen that road is just not a realistic belief,” Alligood said.

Alligood said city staff has safety-related concerns about that section of road because it is somewhat narrow. Some city emergency vehicles cannot travel that section without straddling lane lines, he said.

“The four lanes are way too tight, and it’s creating a safety issue. A lot of people are scared to go — they’ll actually stop, which means they’re going cause rear-end collisions on the four-lane set-up here. I don’t know why in the world we went with four lanes with the right of way that we’ve got on that road. That’s a dangerous situation,” said Councilman Bobby Roberson, adding the three-lane configuration would be safer than the existing configuration.

Rouse said Roberson understood why DOT wants to make the change.

“Councilman Roberson, you’re exactly right. One of the major improvements you get from taking a four-lane, undivided road to a three-lane section — if the (traffic) volumes allow it — is you get … a safer cross section,” Rouse said. “What we’ve seen in the past are reduced numbers of collisions with this type of action.”

Rouse said the new three-lane configuration would make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists using that section of road.

Rouse said DOT plans to begin the resurfacing and reconfiguration this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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