Very interesting. As you know, we live right over there, and the art museum is the best thing over here to me. Seeing some nice new buildings nearby replace the absolute garbage leftovers from the 70s or 80s is always super welcome to me.
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Yup, I always hit the curb on these with my monster truck tires, makes for great fun, lol.
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Took some photos of the NCDHHS site today, seem to have gotten most of the old Mail Facility taken apart. They have maybe already started digging for the base of the tower it seems, or maybe they plan to have the ground lower than the old facility.
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The familiar Ramada hotel on Blue Ridge Rd looks be to seeking redevelopment to add up to 400 residential units.
"Summary of Conditions The request is to rezone the property from OX-12-UL w/SHOD-1 to OX-12-UL-CU. The conditions proposed would maintain the same development limits on the property for three scenarios: 1) hotel with no more than 288 rooms or; 2) office with no more than 75,000 square feet or; 3) retail sales limited to no more than 28,000 square feet. The conditions would establish a new entitlement of a maximum of 400 residential units. Additionally, the amended conditions would allow for accessory use or retail sales or restaurant bar up to 6,000 square feet with residential or office use. Of note, the conditions effectively prohibit mixed use by limiting development to only one of the scenarios at a time. "
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They need a mass development if they state won’t build he with their property they need a lot. There a museum, the fair (every October) there’s a lot of opportunities the city could since it wouldn’t help Downtown South redirect that money to there.
This helps the PNC arena. Honestly I’ll ask Megan Patton if she willing to direct tourist funds to save the canes!!!
Went by the location of the new Blue Ridge Road Bike/Ped Bridge, and it seems they might be starting some work. They was supposed to start in October, then delayed to November, then December, and now the city website still says its delayed with no dates in sight at the moment. To me it seems they might have started but maybe I’m just optimistic.
Also went by the new NCDHHS site today and seems that they’ve now started some concrete retaining walls, not sure if they’re for the building or not, but progress nonetheless.
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I’ve noticed some incremental progress for the bridge over the last several months while driving down Wade Ave. Little things like clearing some brush, orange fencing, etc. But it seems to have definitely picked up in the last week or so. I haven’t been able to see much since I’m just driving by underneath. Thanks for the pic and update!
Edit: I looked at the city website for the project and found the renderings below (just to refresh everyone’s memories) and a staff contact. I sent an email asking about an updated timeline, and I’ll share whatever I hear back. This will be a nice gateway into the city from the west… which is how I come to downtown every time!
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What part of Wade is this red ped. bridge going over??
Just west of Blue Ridge Road bridge.
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I was hoping it would be on the east side of the bridge, since all the bike trails near the Art Museum are on the east side of Blue Ridge Rd.
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That would defeat half the purpose of making a cool gateway coming into the city. 
They are massively redoing the whole intersection and adding sidewalks, protected areas, etc. I couldn’t care less because I’m personally never gonna be walking or biking in that spot, but it should all be a unified final result.
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I believe their main goal with this project is connecting the art museum to the fairgrounds. Also, @GucciLittlePig is correct, they’re reworking the intersections as a part of this effort. Not the best, but much better than what currently exists.
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Hey, 1000x better than what’s there now! I’ll take it!
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This will definitely be a huge improvement, but the only thing that is driving me nuts about the project is that they didn’t choose to build a bike lane going south on Blue Ridge (before the bridge). You can see the existing one going north towards the art museum (and it’s a very nice separated lane!) but there isn’t one on the other side going south to also link to the new infra from this project.
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Up at Reedy Creek and the DHHS project, there will be 6’ sidewalk (white) and a separated 5’ bike lane (green) (and guessing above curb). That’s a city project so assume that would continue to Wade.
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Oh word! I sure hope so.
Rode this yesterday (just to see what a 5 foot bike lane is like) and don’t like it. I don’t like that there’s a “buffer” between the sidewalk and bike lane. Not that it’s the worst thing, but you need to ride across the grass to get off the lane. I’ve expressed on other threads that it’s not good for causal riding side by side either with another bicyclist.
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