The NC 54 - I-40 interchange has the worst traffic congestion in Orange and Durham counties. What to do about it?

Come to a public workshop this evening in Chapel Hill to find out what transportation planners are thinking -- and to give them the benefit of your thoughts.

It's from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Friday Center on NC 54 on the east side of Chapel Hill. For more info call Leta Huntsinger with the Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization, 560-4366 ext 30423 (email: leta.huntsinger@durhamnc.gov). Let her know if you'd like to join a citizen contacts panel for this effort.

Learn about the NC54 - I-40 corridor study online at http://www.nc54-i40corridorstudy.com/

View Tar Heel Express in a larger map

If you're one of 60,000 football fans heading to Chapel Hill for the Florida State game this evening, remember these words: park and ride.

Most Carolina football fans are familiar with all the places around town where you can leave your car and board a Tar Heel Express bus that will deliver you to Kenan Stadium for the 8pm kickoff.

The bus makes your ride easier, and it cuts down on traffic hassles for everybody else.

And the combination of football and rush hour guarantees that there will be traffic delays this evening.

DOT planners are hosting an informational workshop today, Tuesday Oct. 13, on plans to widen Interstate 40 from the Raleigh Beltline (Exit 301) east to N.C. 42 (Exit 312).

The meeting takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Comfort Inn meeting room, 126 Cleveland Crossing Drive, just off the I-40 interchange with N.C. 42 (Exit 312).

DOT now plans to start buying right-of-way for the I-40 widening in 2014. If you can't make today's meeting, contact DOT for more info:

Robert Deaton, DOT Project Development and Environmental Analysis Branch
1548 Mail Service Center, Raleigh 27699-1548
Phone: 919-733-7844 ext 323
E-mail: rdeaton@ndcot.gov

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

Engineers at the state Department of Transportation are still trying to repair all the broken technology on the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass – and DOT is still trying to engineer victory in an online vote for the nation’s most innovative transportation project.

Transportation Secretary Gene Conti urged his 12,000 employees Tuesday to stuff an online ballot box with their votes for the $123 million freeway in a competition with nine other projects picked by judges for three organizations including the AAA motor club, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

“U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass in the running for national award - cast your vote today!"

That was the boldface headline on an e-mail Conti sent to all DOT employees at 3:14 p.m. Tuesday. Conti continued: ... [MORE]

View US 70 Clayton Bypass in a larger map

The real-time traffic info sign on US 70 east of Clayton told me that if I took the old 70 Business route through town, it would take 11-15 minutes to reach I-40 Exit 306.

It was 7:30 a.m. on a workday Thursday. The sign flickered and said 12-16 minutes, then toggled back and forth between that and the shorter time. 

But how long would it take if I drove the Clayton Bypass -- the $123 million road that is supposed to make the morning drive faster? 

The sign was supposed to show those numbers, too, to help drivers decide. But the sign is broken, along with most of the other smart info technology that was installed with this project (see today's Road Worrier column). 

I chose the bypass.  When I reached I-40, the traffic was mostly stop-and-roll north from Exit 309 to Exit 306.

Drive time to Exit 306: 23 minutes. Your minutes may vary.

You can't ask for much better than same-day service, and that's what DOT provided this week.

In Tuesday's Road Worrier column, Debra Aycock explained a paint problem that makes navigation difficult for left-turn drivers at the big, busy U.S. 15-501 interchange with I-40 in Durham.

By the end of the day Tuesday, a DOT paint crew was out there putting down fresh "mini-skips" -- the two-foot-long lane divider lines that are supposed to guide drivers from the I-40 off-ramp as they curve across 10 lanes of traffic on U.S. 15-501. Aycock pointed out that heavy traffic had erased the lines, leaving drivers confused about how to make that turn and how to end up in the correct lane on 15-501.

Joey Hopkins, DOT deputy division engineer for a 7-county area that includes Durham, said a DOT crew freshened up the mini-skips at this interchange on Tuesday -- and also at a similar trouble spot on the 540 Outer Loop in Wake County, where some left-turn drivers were flying blind. ... [MORE]

The US 70 Clayton Bypass is a contender for national honors as an innovative highway project that was constructed and opened to traffic ahead of time.

The question for commuters is: Does it get you to work ahead of time?

Your online vote can help decide the winner in this national contest.

Please let me hear about your experience with the new US 70 route around Clayton to I-40, which opened in June 2008:
- Has it quickened the pace of your daily drive, or did it merely relocate your traffic jam?
- Does the extra technology -- speed information signs, cameras etc -- help you?
- Did they do this one right?

Call me at 919-829-4527 or e-mail me. Don't forget to include your workday contact info.

The AAA motor club and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) have named the Clayton Bypass as one of 10 finalists in the 2009 America's Transportation Awards competition. Judges will make the final call in late October, and the public also is involved in online voting for the "people's choice" favorite. ... [MORE]

View Greensboro Urban Loop in a larger map

Maybe you want to take the family to splash around this weekend at Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, the water park on the south side of Greensboro. It sits right next to the Greensboro Urban Loop near its interchange with northbound Business 85 and southbound I-85.

You can see Emerald Pointe as you drive by. But you can't get there from the Loop, if you're driving west from the Triangle.

There is no off ramp to northbound Business 85 for westbound Loop drivers.

This missing exit is just one of the myriad mysteries of Greensboro's Urban Loop, where NCDOT has changed the signs again to reroute I-40 back onto its old path through the city's crowded Death Valley corridor (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments). (Why did DOT make the switch? For money.)

It's hard to navigate Death Valley and the Loop and their various interstates. The signs are lacking or confusing. And don't ask Google or Mapquest to help you -- they're both wrong on how they label the interstate routes around and through Greensboro ... [MORE] .

I get lost when I'm trying to find my way home after Sunday dinner with Mom.

It should be easy: Follow I-40 from her place near Greensboro to my place near Chapel Hill.

But it’s hard. I blame DOT and the fiendish maze it calls the Greensboro Urban Loop.

Now DOT is switching signs again – rerouting I-40 and “Business” I-40, posting new exit numbers, putting up new sign colors, even changing the mile markers. Can't they leave dumb enough alone?

Is it just me, or are there other folks who long for the old days of Death Valley -- where all roads through Greensboro led to a narrow, smoky, dangerous corridor?

If you have problems traveling I-85 and I-40 through or around Greensboro – or if you have solutions – I’d like to hear from you.

Please e-mail me or call me at 919-829-4527. Don’t forget to include your name and workday phone number.

Westbound I-40 in West Raleigh will be squeezed into a single lane at night, starting tonight, as NCDOT begins a project to widen a 6-mile stretch of I-40 from four to six lanes.

Tonight's work starts near the Jones Franklin Road overpass at the eastern end of the project, and moves west toward Wade Avenue. The work will continue at night from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. weekdays, until 9 a.m. Saturdays and until 10 a.m. Sundays.

The contractor is installing barriers on the grassy median, where most of the work will take place. While the barriers are being installed, the left or inner lane of westbound I-40 will be closed. The project is to be completed in June 2011.

You can check traffic conditions on the I-40 project online at or by dialing 511. 

View I-40 widening / Beltline renaming in a larger map