Agreed. Wish they would fix the lake by the tracks between 42nd St Oyster Bar and Five Star. That’s ridiculous.
2 Likes
I see lots of folks using the separated bike lane to walk through this section. Not a perfect solution, but it does help to provide an interium fix.
4 Likes
Seems the dog bar at The West isn’t dead! Reported in TBJ they’re targeting a late summer opening.
8 Likes
Correct, the project was never put on hold from my understanding, their bid process was just drawn out. I was only able to get the plans before being submitted to the city because my wife’s company was offered to bid on the project. Unfortunately they did not win the bid.
West St. is really shaping up to become the next entertainment district very quickly, from the Warehouse district all the way over Peace St. towards Cardinal and Layered Croissanterie.
5 Likes
City Council will consider signing a municipal agreement with NCDOT about moving forward with the extending West St. south of RUS and closing the Cabarrus St. railroad crossing this Tuesday.
19 Likes
The Cabarrus crossing closure will kind of suck for that new development but I get it. Railroads will always push for closures and DOTs want as many closed as possible. There’s still a surprisingly high amount of Train-Car collisions.
I think once SEHSR is implemented, all 3 of the downtown at grades will be gone
5 Likes
Agree with the Cabarrus closing being inconvenient but if I had to choose that or West St under the tracks, I’m voting for West St.
13 Likes
Absolutely. I think it’ll spur development basically extending the warehouse district south
3 Likes
Might be too hard with the grade / elevation change to get it to meet west with the bridge
3 Likes
I’d really like to see a pedestrian connection from the West Street extension to Davie Street here.
If we’re really dreaming here, a stairway to access the train platforms directly from the sidewalk on the east side of West Street would be fantastic… that would go a long way toward fixing basically all my misgivings about how Union Station was designed.
The only downtown grade crossings not planned for closure by SEHSR are the CSX crossings of West and Harrington near North Street (Which is stupid, since if you’re building HSR, why wouldn’t you just put all the trains on a single alignment?)
10 Likes
From what I remember from the public meetings about this a few years ago (memory could be fuzzy), there won’t be a connection to Davie because of the grade change. This was why those of us who live west of that crossing were pretty vocal about providing pedestrian and bike access over the tracks on Cabarrus. Otherwise it makes the trip to The Depot from the west pretty roundabout for it being physically so close.
8 Likes
I can’t quite put my finger on why @OakCityDylan would prioritize West St. Hmm? I wonder why???
Love ya man!
8 Likes
Well…
Karla and I were just talking about the advantages of West St ext but like @Deb said, we need pedestrian access across the tracks at Cabarrus.
5 Likes
Unfettered access between Dylan’s home and his namesake Dillon building? 
11 Likes
What is the actual timeline (or is there a timeline?) for the Cabarrus road closure?
If they don’t do some kind of pedestrian access, I say we install a rope ladder. Guerilla urban improvements
5 Likes
Funny you say that . . . I was up on the Dillon 9th floor deck the other day and saw a family make this very connection. They used this staircase that I had never noticed before, and somehow made it around/over all the fences to get to the parking lot off Davie.
Anyone know why the staircase was built there?
6 Likes
Not going to lie, I have made that same scramble before. Not sure if all those fences were there though.
I thought it was quite a ways off still (many years) but perhaps they’ll get the ball rolling on the West St. extension and I suspect Cabarrus closure would follow that shortly.
We’ve made our way through there as well. Not really worth the few steps you save vs going around Martin/Harrington. I wish they’d do something to make that cut off more walkable at least for now until that block goes under construction (probably years off).
3 Likes