Does anyone know if there are any plans to “freshen up” the approaches to downtown Raleigh. It’s kind of weird driving into our great downtown on Saunders Street. It almost just feels like you’re driving through an old little town.
If they did something like this on the I-40 bridge over Saunders that could go a long way.
And then on Saunders itself a nice tree-lined boulevard with wider sidewalks and lights would go a long way into welcoming people into downtown. And then maybe the same for people heading south into town on Capital Blvd from 440.
Also it seems weird how I-87 seems to be heading straight into town and then just ends at 440. Seems pretty easy to extend as a boulevard south of the hospital and connect to New Bern so there’s straight access from the East as well.
you’re not impressed with the most popular skyline photo of downtown Raleigh from the south? haha
I don’t have any problem really with any of the gateway approaches - they’ve spruced up the North, West will get better once Dix Park is a reality (and they figure out what’s going on with the prison) and the East will get better once the New Bern improvements are in place.
lol the skyline part is good but when you get off 40 it’s almost like "where the … am I? And then the East, I’m biased since I’m coming from Wendell and don’t like not having a straight shot
I think it’s one of those things that will organically come as downtown expands. If the Downtown South project happens, that’ll be something that’s visible from 40
The Southern Gateway Corridor study was adopted in 2017 (you can download the study from this page https://raleighnc.gov/SupportPages/adopted-plans). There hasn’t been much movement yet, but I’m sure things will start happening whenever Downtown South and Park City South (or whatever it’s currently called) get going.
That weave with the cloverleafs would probably not fly, but throw in a C/D and I bet DOT would be OK. C/D would probably mean widening the west(north)bound 440 bridge over Crabtree creek but, eh?
Takes load off of the New Bern Ave / 440 interchange and might make it easier to extend the BRT OTB.
I’ve had a lot of free time since I moved up here lol
I’ll honestly probably be doing a lot of concept drawings to further develop my CAD skills for work.
Based on the types of things NCDOT likes to do it seems like a decent idea. It’s also good for connectivity to downtown and that hospital district. You could also route a New Bern BRT / express busses on it and bring it out to the East side and tie directly into the express lanes on I-87. This also shaves 5-7 mins off the commute time from the East so there are a lot of benefits and could help that side catch up growth wise.
I-87 was basically built to get people to the beltline quicker, to relieve traffic on New Bern outside of the beltline. This in turn would allow people to get downtown quicker by not having them stuck in traffic for people going only to the beltline. Thus, the Knightdale bypass.
I don’t recall if this was part of any visioning for DTSouth, or if it was in chatter here in the community, but I do recall some conversation about a pedestrian bridge over S. Saunders that could also be a welcome bridge to downtown.
Just like the Eastern side or Raleigh & Wake County is lower on the numbers of population & development pace vs the N/S/W sides, I’d expect the Eastern approach into downtown will also be years behind whatever improvements come first on the N/S/W sides. I mean it’d be nice and impressive, but there’s only so much $ to go around, and won’t get spent till it identifies solving something that’s a problem. COVID probably set everything back years if not a decade or more for anything on the East, just my guess.
Agreed. This is just a pipe dream of mine since it’d help me! lol but it also does make logical sense. But there are many other improvements that if I was in charge at DOT that would come first.
I do think though that Eastern Wake is the next hot spot. So much land that is “close” to Downtown
Does anyone know how NCDOT handles sidewalks in the new stuff they build? The big thing I have been advocating for the east side ITB and 440 is some sidewalks on New Bern over I-440. There is a situation there where we have affordable housing with the Waverly Apartments just inside I440 and grocery stores just outside, but not sidewalks to get there. I see people walking over I440 up against the rails on the bridge over 440 and it stresses me out for them.
If they’re anything like GDOT (I’d assume they’re a good bit more progressive, open to change than them), any improvements to any state road must consider sidewalks.
I’d be willing to bet if any work were to be done there, sidewalks would be required. Also, how some of the bridges around here don’t have the barrier fence really shocks me.
NCDOT does not build or pay for sidewalks usually. It is up to the municipality to do that. “It is the policy of the Department of Transportation to replace existing sidewalks
disturbed as a result of a highway improvement. In addition, the Department of
Transportation is authorized to construct new sidewalks adjacent to State highway
improvement projects at the request of the municipality provided the municipality agrees to
reimburse the Department of Transportation for the actual construction cost of the
sidewalks. Maintenance of sidewalks will be the responsibility of the municipality.”
Yikes, yeah. I remember the issues with overpasses in ATL. I am from Gainesville, GA originally and remember traffic on I-85 getting shut down from jumpers. That just doesn’t seem to be a thing here thankfully!
