I like “brobdingnagian.” This brobdingnagian interchange will be safer and allow traffic to move at continuously high speeds.
I know this interchange completion is part of the requirement before they can badge the upper bit of 70 as I-42. The bypass around Goldsboro is already badged that way. I think the section around Wilson’s Mills is under construction now to get up to interstate standards. That might be the last segment until you get past Princeton; I haven’t been to Kinston in a while to see.
Tangential but I was down in Apex/HS recently for like the third time ever and holy crap the amount of land area being consumed by 540 is just insane. I assume this thing’s like four lanes each direction with frontage roads? I’m so glad I live in town.
Not sure what part you’re referring to but it’s 3 lanes plus grass median. No frontage roads or anything except for at the cloverleaf. It’s a pretty compact design no bigger than any other highway.
I guess it just seemed bigger; probably the effect of my brain filling in what was just a big blank space. Once it’s built it probably will not seem so enormous. Still, glad I live in town.
Probably the 3:1 grading rule that makes the under construction part feel huge. So much dirt has to move to fit the grading standard
Point well taken, however… I believe the interchange is about a full square mile in size. That’s hundreds of acres, perhaps closing in on a thousand.
Yep it’s a behemoth.
640 acres (extra characters)
That interchange is gigantic, but at least it’s not the only thing Garner and the state are doing to improve people’s mobility?
Garner is trying to make itself more walkable, and they want to learn why people (don’t) explore their town on foot and what people are broadly looking for. The N&O article on this survey says it will be open for comments until the Fourth of July.
I have only walked in Garner in big box stores and their parking lots. They have a long way to go, but good for them.
Is there anywhere less pedestrian friendly than Garner? It is truly an awful place.
It’s possibly the least densely populated municipality in the county. It’s filled with Stroads, subdivisions and big box stores. There’s very little in the way of anything walkable at all.
Zebulon and rolesville say hello
Zebulon has a pretty neat downtown, so if you’re in that area you have a few places to walk to.
Very true. Even downtown rolesville has big plans.
Garner actually does as well, supposedly. Their Comprehensive Plan shows promise. I summarized it here if anyone’s curious.
Nice! If they can ever get property owners to buy in etc.
Wendell just published their very similar blueprint plan as well focused majorly on activity centers.
Shared my thoughts on it here. My Thoughts on Wendell’s 2030 Blueprint Plan – Phil Veasley
Garner has an exceptionally small downtown, even by Wake County standards. Blocked in on one side by the railroad and the other side by US-70. Aversboro Rd. from the Food Lion shopping center, past the Library/Town Hall, all the way down to Timber Dr. has some multimodal potential, but that’s about it.
It’s not for lack of good intentions by the city council, which really does want to improve this stuff, but they’ve had some very impressive looking plans on books for years but have made absolutely zero progress toward making the reality look like the plans. It’s just so hard to overcome the interia of the built environment.
The inertia is strong with this one.
So true. It also doesn’t help when a city still has land left to develop more suburban supply to grease that inertia.
“I began in Garner, on the edge of Raleigh, at the Full Bloom coffee shop. The barista had rainbow-colored hair. The menu advertised a vegan bagel sandwich and a “From the Hive” selection of drinks — an orange blossom latte, a lavender blossom latte — made with local honey.”
About the last person I would have pictured walking around Garner is Frank Bruni, one-time NYT restaurant critic Opinion | One of America’s Most Seductive States Is Also One of Its Scariest - The New York Times