Red is dead, and Orange may be passé. Consultants hired by Garner, the Regional Transportation Alliance and the regional planning agency CAMPO have redecorated the Triangle Expressway / 540 Outer Loop map with two new route colors: Lilac and Plum (see 5/23/12 story and 5/22/12 Road Worrier column with reader comments).

Appended to this blog post you can find two new documents: the Turnpike Authority's May 17 letter to the Federal Highway Administration, which includes the Regional Tranpsortation Alliance's Lilac-Plum update, and a large map showing where the Lilac and Plum routes would go.  [Note to jittery property owners: ... [MORE]

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Some commuters in western Wake County will face the choice of driving a free, four-mile detour during construction of a new bridge on Green Level Church Road -- or paying a toll for a shorter detour that will open about the same time.

The state Department of Transportation says it has awarded a $2.5 million contract to S.T. Wooten Corp. of Wilson to replace the 60-year-old Green Level Church Road bridge over White Oak Creek at the Cary-Apex town limits.

The contract gives Wooten the option to start work between Aug. 1 and March 1, 2013, with completion in 240 days. While the bridge is closed during construction, drivers will have a detour of four miles via Green Level West, Wimberly and Jenks roads. ... [MORE]

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Drivers on the 540 Outer Loop should expect to see lanes closed frequently at night to allow for work on an $8.4 million resurfacing project that will continue until early November.  (The N&O reported incorrectly Monday that the work would end this week.)

The nighttime work will cover all lanes on 17 miles of 540 between Intersate 40 near Research Triangle Park and Triangle Town Boulevard in northeast Raleigh, DOT said:

Because of the heavy volume on the interstate, which averages about 78,000 vehicles a day along that stretch, the work will be done at night to lessen the travel impact for motorists. No lane closures will be allowed between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Initially, work is scheduled to take place overnight Sunday through Thursday, although that could change during the project or if there are delays caused by weather during the week.

In addition to the road resurfacing work, there will also be some shoulder reconstruction and structural rehab work.Work at interchanges could result in ramp closures and detours to the next exit.

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Seventeen miles of Raleigh's northern 540 Outer Loop will receive a fresh coat of asphalt this year in an $8.4 million repaving project that could start by the end of February.

The state Department of Transportation says it awarded the contract to the Fred Smith Co. of Raleigh. The work will cover all lanes of 540 from Interstate 40 near Research Triangle Park to Triangle Town Boulevard in northeast Raleigh.

The work will be done at night to reduce travel delays on the Outer Loop, which carries 78,000 cars and trucks each day.

All lanes will stay open from  6 a.m. to 9 p.m on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. The project also includes some shoulder repairs and work on ramps at interchanges.  Nov. 15 is the deadline for completion.

The first section of the 540 Outer Loop, from I-40 to U.S. 70, opened in January 1997.  The newest section included in the repaving project, between Falls of Neuse Road and Triangle Town Boulevard, opened in August 2002.

NCDOT says it now will allow truckers to haul twin-trailer rigs on freeways in the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina where they were not allowed before:

* The Durham Freeway (N.C. 147) from Interstate 85 in northern Durham to Alexander Drive in RTP
* U.S. 64 between U.S. 15-501 near Pittsboro and U.S. 1 in Cary
* U.S. 64 from U.S. 13 / 15 in Martin County to N.C. 94 in Tyrrell County
* N.C. 148 (Felix Harvey Parkway) between N.C. 58 and U.S. 70 in Lenoir County.
* The southern half of Raleigh's 540 Outer Loop, most of which has not been built yet. The loop eventually will extend from Interstate 40 near Research Triangle Park to U.S. 64 / 264 at Knightdale. [Updated 1/11/12]

State law requires NCDOT to withhold permission for twin trailers to use a route until it has conducted a traffic engineering study to show that the route can handle the traffic safely.

Twin-trailer permission is pending for the first section of the Triangle Expressway, which extends N.C. 147 south through RTP to the 540 Outer Loop.

Trucking companies do not need state approval to drive twin trailers on interstate highways, including the northern 540 Outer Loop, and certain other fedeeral routes.

The state Department of Transportation has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by five Wake County landowners who seek to force DOT to buy their land immediately for a road project proposed as a toll-road extension of the Triangle Expressway.

The landowners claim that DOT effectively took their property in 1996 when it marked a swath of land between Holly Springs and Garner as the preferred path for the southern leg of Raleigh's 540 Outer Loop.  They argue that DOT unfairly has prevented them from developing the land or selling it at its full market value. (See landowners' complaint PDF, attached below.)

DOT took steps to protect its preferred corridor under a law that limits development of land that might be needed for a highway. Other landowners have exercised a "hardship" provision giving them the option to petition DOT to buy their land immediately; the plaintiffs argue that this option should be open also to property owners who do not meet the law's criteria of economic and physical hardship.

In its 12-page response, filed Monday in Wake Superior Court, DOT said the five plaintiffs have never asked DOT to buy their land ... [MORE].

Five landowners in southern Wake County have filed suit against the state Department of Transportation, seeking to force the state to buy their land in a corridor designated for 15 years as the likely path for extending the 540 Outer Loop from Holly Springs to Garner.

James and Carol Deans, Mose and Martha Wiseman, and Veronica Williams Woodruff, all with Apex addresses, contend in their lawsuit that they have been unfairly prevented from using their land since 1996, when DOT took legal action to prevent development in the corridor.

The N.C. Turnpike Authority, part of DOT, has begun planning construction of a toll road it calls the Triangle Expressway Southeast Extension.  It would connect to the Triangle Expressway now under construction between Holly Springs and Research Triangle Park. No schedule for land acquisition and construction has been published. ... [MORE]

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A 540 Outer Loop exit ramp at Interstate 40 will be closed at night to allow construction of a sign for the Triangle Expressway toll road, for three nights starting late Wednesday night (early Thursday morning).

The state Department of Transportation said the work will close the exit from northbound NC 540 to westbound I-40 between midnight and 6 a.m. early Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Motorists will be detoured to the Aviation Parkway exit of I-540 North (Exit 2), then back onto I-540 South and to the ramp for I-40 West.

View I-40 weekend construction delays in a larger map

Three road projects will cause slowdowns this weekend for drivers on Interstate 40 in Durham and western Wake counties -- including football fans heading to Chapel Hill Saturday for the UNC-NCSU game, NCDOT says.

SATURDAY: 

- Two of the four lanes on westbound I-40 will be closed 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. Saturday for paving between 540 Outer Loop (Exit 283) and NC 147 Durham Freeway (Exit 279). It's part of the project to widen the exit ramp from 540 to I-40 west, which NCDOT hopes to have open for traffic in December.

-- Paving on Airport Boulevard (Exit 284) will close on- and off-ramps for I-40 travelers in both directions intermittently 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. Saturday. Detour signs will direct airport travelers and other drivers to Aviation Parkway (Exit 285).

Football fans attending the game (12 noon) should allow time for traffic delays or look for other routes.  One option is US 64 west from Cary to NC 751, then north to I-40.

SUNDAY: ... [MORE]

Hardly anybody likes the N.C. Turnpike Authority's new ideas about possible routes through southern Wake County for a planned six-lane toll road from Holly Springs to Garner and Knightdale. 

So the Turnpike Authority will announce today that it is eliminating some alternative routes from further consideration.

Residents of neighborhoods in and around Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs and Garner criticized the new options presented in September at public meetings on a project called the Triangle Expressway Southeast Extension. The Wake County commissioners voted unanimously in October to endorse the original path (it's the dotted line you see on the map here) that had been proposed in the 1990s.

Check back here later for updates on the turnpike announcement.