AGENDA #15a(2)

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

FROM:            Ed Harrison

SUBJECT:       Work Session on Traffic Congestion

DATE:             February 11, 2002

This is a petition to the Town Council to hold a work session on potential solutions to congestion on the major transportation facility within our boundaries, U.S. 15-501(Fordham Boulevard). 

The most likely potential solution to be implemented in this corridor is the “Superstreet” in the Erwin Road area.  NCDOT expect that there will be a formal public hearing on this as early as mid-Spring this year.  This would be a central part of the process required under the National Environmental Policy Act, triggered because Federal funds are expected to be spent on this.

In its discussion of a possible moratorium in the Erwin Road/15-501 vicinity, our Planning Board passed a resolution recommending an examination of problems from the Ephesus Church Road intersection east to I-40.  To my knowledge, Council has never taken any action on this Resolution. Meanwhile, these intersections continue to have varying degrees of congestion and danger.

The ongoing and increasing dysfunction of Fordham Boulevard in the corridor outlined by the Planning Board has had, and will continue to have, important implications for the welfare and safety of our citizens.  Neighborhoods such as mine are affected in several ways by truck traffic which opts to take secondary roads to and from I-40 and Durham to avoid a series of failing Fordham Boulevard intersections.  With increasing congestion, transit and pedestrian connections to several neighborhoods and commercial locations will become more and more challenging, and at some point may become virtually impossible to sustain.

A number of us were not on Council when the Superstreet was first presented to Chapel Hill as part of a solution to 15-501 congestion some 16 months ago, and we have not been educated on its workings. While I have been involved in examining the problems and possibilities of 15-501 for over a decade, those who joined the Council alongside me have not been.  A work session on structural problems and solutions for this critically important corridor could be invaluable in clarifying our collective thinking about this corridor.

This proposal is for a Council-only work session.  The actual content and format should be a product of the entire Council, not only this member. It could, and probably should, be followed by a public workshop and design charette. My impression is that both NCDOT and Town staff would find both sessions helpful in their own planning and operations.

I look forward to discussing this with my colleagues.