WILMINGTON — On Wednesday North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Deputy Division Engineer Chad Kimes presented designs for four projects along College Road — each scheduled to begin in the summer of 2024 with $290 million in state funds — to members of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO).
“We got resolution on these yesterday,” design engineer Trace Howell said. “We are moving forward with these preferred alternates.”
Howell, who works under Kimes at the NCDOT Division 3 office based in Castle Hayne, said they are scheduled to begin acquiring right-of-way properties in October 2021 and accepting bids by June 2024. Construction typically begins within two months after bids are accepted, he said.
A fifth project included in the funding — a “trumpet interchange” taking U.S. 74 over U.S. 421 just west of Isabel Holmes Bridge — is scheduled for right-of-way acquisitions in 2020 and construction in 2022.
Although several residents at the meeting raised concerns about the designs’ accommodations for bicyclists and pedestrians, Howell said the NCDOT will incorporate such elements based on public comment and discussions with the city, the WMPO, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
“We’ll continue those discussions throughout the design process,” Howell said, also noting that the concept itself needs to be chosen before elements like crosswalks and pedestrian access points can be addressed.
Ultimately, designs were selected based on a number of factors: purpose and need, environmental impacts on wetlands and streams, landowner impacts through relocations, traffic data, and new developments within the project’s scope.
Gordon Road to New Center Drive
According to Howell, the interchange at College Road and MLK Jr. Parkway is not only the largest in terms of funding and scope of construction — it’s also the most crucial for the College Road project as a whole.
“The MLK interchange itself sets up for the other improvements along College Road,” Howell said.
The project, a combination of two originally proposed projects that overlap in scope, will convert the intersections of College Road and MLK Parkway, Kings Road, and Ringo Street into interchanges — bridge junctions with access ramps. The project will also include building additional northbound and southbound lanes.
Kimes said during the presentation that controlled access along the corridor will reduce conflict points and improve safety. The chosen MLK interchange design in particular, he said, was the best option to minimize impacts on wetlands, reduce travel delays, and provide a “setup entrance to Wilmington in a free-flow condition.”
New Centre Drive to Carolina Beach Road
The project, labeled U-5702, was presented with no alternate designs. It will focus on improving access management (driveways) and travel time by improving capacity with three northbound and southbound thru lanes, as well as additional “intersection improvements where needed.”
The first section of U-5702, from New Centre Drive to Wilshire Boulevard, will follow the construction timeline of the rest of the project, beginning in the summer of 2024. The second section, however, from Shipyard Boulevard to Carolina Beach Road, will not begin construction until 2027.
Intersection of College Road and Oleander Drive
Kimes presented three alternate designs for Project U-5704, and the design recommended by the NCDOT and backed by members of the WMPO is a quadrant layout, which will remove left-turns from the main intersection and redirect those left-turns to Parkway Drive.
Kimes argued that it allowed for the least commercial impacts of the three alternate designs, lower construction and right-of-way costs, and fewer impacts during construction. Additionally, three northbound and southbound thru lanes will improve traffic capacity, he said.
Intersection of College Road and Carolina Beach Road
Designs for a continuous flow intersection (CFI) were chosen over a more expensive “flyover” interchange. The flyover interchange would have cost a total of $57 million, while the CFI is budgeted at $33 million.
CFIs allow left-turning vehicles to cross before they enter the intersection, requiring no left- turn signal; instead, northbound and southbound vehicles can proceed when traffic signals permit.
The project will widen College Road to Sanders Road and improve capacity with three thru lanes in northbound and southbound directions.
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com
