And yes, they are planning to flatten everything between the railroad and West Street. The EIS is approved, the ROD is issued, and they have clearance to start acquisition under threat of eminent domain tomorrow if they so choose (and can find the money to it.) I am pretty sure that developers are well aware of this plan and that is likely why the only projects that have been moving forward in that area are rehabs, which probably have an investment horizon on the order of 10 years or less.
There actually wasn’t much opposition to it. There isn’t much noteworthy there. At the time this was drawn up 8-ish years ago, this route was seen as a good compromise.
My suggestion is to take it one step further; rather than building a long 2 track viaduct and leaving the freight corridors intact, to build a long 4 track viaduct and repurpose both of the existing freight corridors. Leave the structures and embankments in place for the Norfolk Southern line between Glenwood and West, and convert it to a rail-trail. For the CSX route, abandon and sell off the single block portion between West and Harrington, and convert the rest of the right-of-way into a street (as an extension of North Street).
As for what to do with a big viaduct facing a prominent street in downtown Raliegh: put retail underneath it. This is less common in the US than overseas, but it does happen even here (some examples can be found in my slide deck)
Cool. Yeah if all the RRs can be relocated onto this new alignment, it leaves all manner of reuse on the table for all of this. Trails, streets, and redevelopment.
I kind of prefer letting that route (the CSX route) be a street rather than another trail. That porkchop of land between Capital, Peace, and the RR has been proposed for a pretty big development (up to 40 stories tall!) But it has really awful access. Seaboard Station is also slightly disconnected from other parts of downtown not least because of Capital Blvd and the RR. This is an opportunity to rectify that. Think: complete street. Two way car traffic, protected cycle track, and generous sidewalks.
Looking at the train traffic - these are really under-used corridors in general compared to the ones in Atlanta which have upwards of 50 trains per day. You could easily get away with 3 tracks if the RRs can agree (Huge if there)
As far as extending the street what do you think of something like this?
The idea is these corridors will (hopefully soon) see over 50 trains per day: passenger trains. (Unlike Georgia, somehow, NC, has shown some bipartisan interest in passenger rail, ever since the early 1990s.)
I’m out exploring Chavis for the first time this morning.
Does anyone know if the city own the strip of land immediately adjacent to the Chavis greenway? Some incredible opportunity here to activate the greenspace and have some little shops / cafes at each road intersection, especially near Davie st since Transfer is right there? Some pretty cool views at some of the intersections as well.
The City owns the strip that connects Chavis to the City Cemetery. I would fully support continued investment in this area. You are right, it does have a lot of potential. Right now, it’s biggest purpose is as a greenway connector.
Didn’t know if this was an appropriate space, please feel free to move. Saw this yesterday and thought I’d put it out here today. Especially after reading in another thread about potential impacts towards the Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve. City of Raleigh is going to open a new park in the New Bern Ave/264/87/540 area.
Wow, I wasn’t aware of this project! Went ahead and found the property on Google Maps for y’all (see below). You can find the newly-approved master plan here: https://www.wakegov.com/kellamwyatt
Edit: I’m most interested in the “community orchard,” seen below. This looks really promising.
That certainly is interesting! You think they know anything we don’t, or could this simply be a “boy, this sure would be a nice place to put a greenway, cough cough” sort of thing?
Beats me. My gut instinct is that it’s the latter; it’s a very quiet, sneaky way to add it into the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Adding ideas like this to the CP gives it legitimacy when the city applies for state or federal grants, but it’s not a solid commitment in the same way as a rezoning case.
Then again, I remember city and CAMPO folks being at the virtual coffee chat Owen et al. had about the Artery way back when. Some people there should remember the idea, but I’m not sure how much they took that idea seriously. I couldn’t attend it (due to shitty internet if I recall correctly), but maybe someone who was there for it could share their notes?
The first recommendation to come out of that zoom discussion was to get it in some sort of plan, be it the city’s, CAMPO’s, or the directly into the state trails plan.
This is just a line on a map at this point but still it’s nice to actually see it there.
I’ve been thinking about another component of the ARTery plan.
If we’re going to do something with all the outmoded rail yards along Capital Blvd, well, you still need rail yards. Let’s build a better-functioning yard, that’s better located for rail operations - but keep it in Raleigh.
Do it by moving the railroad into the Hammond Road underpass under I-40, and putting Hammond on a new bridge.
This is better located because it’s on the mainline and closer to I-40 (Maybe we could have an intermodal facility?) Better functioning because it’s longer.
Disclaimer: I don’t know much about the ins and outs of a project like this - just a potentially interesting concept.
I have been interested by the uptick in water-themed development in Raleigh. We all know Raleigh has little in the way of large, glamorous water features found in rival cities - I think taking advantage of existing assets can have a high impact with relatively low-cost. Since completion, daylighting projects on Pigeon House Branch, Grassy Branch, and Rocky Branch have remediated problems with illegal dumping, urban pollution, storm water surges, pedestrian mobility, and lack of riparian habitat.
A very suitable candidate for such a project, in my opinion, can be found in Olde East Raleigh; west of Hunter Elementary and south of Davie St Park is the urban-most extent of the Walnut Creek drainage basin with an already daylighted stretch that isn’t incorporated into any other park or greenway plans. The creek is heavily littered, invasive plants have out-competed natives, and back-to-back chain link fences make it very difficult for ground-dwelling wildlife to pass through. The portion most well suited for rehabilitation is on Hunter Elementary’s property and thus is owned by Wake County BoE. Its possible that a project here is not feasible based on this. I am not sure if there is a precedent for converting a county property to a park or using CoR’s park resources on school property. As it stands, creek rehab and additional park facilities could potential use a mix of city, county, and state parcels.
I’d like to take some photos and render a design concept, but I figured I’d solicit feedback before potentially wasting time.
I don’t know if there’s a precedent for passing county property to the city’s hands, but I’m sure there is, even if it’s not for parkland. After all, Dix Park was state property until a few years ago; if that was possible under existing powers, I can’t imagine it would be that hard.
First question: can you have a meaningful water feature here, in the first place? The creek daylighting projects you mentioned clearly have water flowing through them year-round, so you can make the case for legit water features. But at least from the photos you posted plus what I could find on Google, it doesn’t look like there’s water always present.
I don’t know if its wet all the time. Its not especially accessible, as is. I would guess that it runs dry regularly. It certainly moves after/during a rain event. I’ll have to see if there have been any restoration projects centered around semi-dry creeks.
I think the proposition is valid whether or not there is water all of the time - I would welcome any N/S pedestrian connectivity in the neighborhood that isn’t walking in the road. I could easily see a broad, well lit greenway-style path meander along a short section of stabilized, appropriately landscaped watershed. It would become a nice pass through for students and residents. Personally speaking, it would also make me happy to see it the trash removed in addition to the invasive vegetation. Even if just a linear park centered around connectivity and nature, I’d use it!
Oh yeah no, I think it would be great to see a better park with more walking options around here! It would help bring even more people to Chavis Park and beyond, too. I just felt like it seemed a bit misleading to say you’d have water features as a main feature of this park if it’s only stormwater drainage.
It could be different if you were to build an artificial pond here or something… but I’m not sure if that would be better or worse for the local ecosystem.
