A busy mile of Kerr Avenue is slated for a reduced speed limit–and a median charmed by trees.
That’s per the N.C. Department of Transportation’s plan to widen the often heavily congested Kerr, converting it from two lanes to a four-lane, median-divided corridor with bike lanes and sidewalks.
With the state’s project budget including $138,000 for landscaping, officials with the city and the Wilmington Tree Commission have recommended it fund median trees along a segment wide enough to accommodate them, according to the city manager’s office.
That would be between Randall Parkway and Fairlawn Drive, the latter point on the east side of Market Street. It’s a distance of about 1.2 miles.
Recommended are a possible mixture of shumard oaks, high rise live oaks and crepe myrtles, though not necessarily all three.
But that would also mean a slower speed allowance for traffic.
State transportation guidelines won’t allow trees as such on a 45 mph road, explained Mike Kozlosky of the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Wilmington City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting a speed-limit drop to 35 mph on that segment of Kerr. The same resolution backed the tree concept.
The overall Kerr Avenue project–widening it from Patrick Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway–is scheduled to begin in November with completion in 2017, a city memo said. That’s assuming the project isn’t impacted by federal funding shortcomings.
Related stories:
With Randall Parkway widened, Kerr Avenue’s next
Gas stations at Market and Kerr removed for widening project
$703K bike lane and sidewalk proposal on council’s agenda
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter:@benbrownmedia
