Looks like the Red Route kill bill really was a jobs bill. Now that the legislature has canceled the N.C. Turnpike Authority's option to consider running a toll road through the middle of town, Garner is preparing Monday to announce the coming of an employer who promises to bring lots of jobs to the town in southeastern Wake County.

The announcement, said to involve a $12 million facility with more than 250 jobs at an average salary of $50,000, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, town council chambers, Building B, 900 7th Avenue, Garner. [See 3/29/11 story, "Garner lands treatment center for kids"]

What's the connection? Garner officials have said that the employer had optioned 10 acres in a Garner business park that found itself in the path of the Red Route, an alternate route for exending the Triangle Expressway toll road across southern Wake County. ... [MORE]

The House moved quickly today (Thursday) to enact legislation barring the N.C. Turnpike Authority from building or even studying the unpopular Red Route option for a Wake County toll road that would bulldoze neighborhoods and split Garner in half. [Update Friday 4 p.m.:  Gov. Bev Perdue signed the measure into law this afternoon.]

Gov. Bev Perdue is expected early next week to sign the measure, The legislation was sought by Garner officials who had worried they were about to lose a major new employer.  An unidentified health services company has an option on 10 acres in a business park that would have been threatened by the Red Route, with plans for 225 jobs at salaries averaging $50,000 a year, town officials said.

"This is a jobs bill," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, as the House approved the Red Route kill bill by 115 to 1.

"You can build this expressway -- just don't do it to Garner," said Rep. Darren Jackson, a Wake County Democrat.  The Senate had approved the bill last week in a 50-0 vote.

“I think we can announce to the world now that we’re open for business,” Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said later.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reaffirmed warnings that had been sounded earlier by turnpike officials.  ... [MORE]

The House will surely pass Senate Bill 165 today, and the governor will surely sign it as quickly as possible. So the N.C. Turnpike Authority will surely be barred by law from building or even studying the reviled Red Route option for a toll road that would cut Garner in half.

Turnpike officials concede defeat and  promise to find some other way to get permission from federal environmental regulators to build the TriEx Southeast Extension across southern Wake County. They favor the Orange Route, which would muddy sensitive streams that harbor an endangered mollusk, the dwarf wedge mussel. Environmental regulators are still not ready to forget about the Red Route.

And Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams, still in a combative mood, is not ready to concede victory and lay down his weapons. ... [MORE]

Two Wake senators have filed legislation to block the N.C. Turnpike Authority from doing what it says it doesn't want to do anyway:  build a new turnpike through the town of Garner.

Senate Bill 165 proposes that the planned Triangle Expressway Southeast Extension "shall not be located north of an existing protected corridor established by the Department of Transportation circa 1995, except in the area of Interstate 40 East."

That means nothing north of a widely favored path known as the Orange Route, which would take TriEx well south of Garner to extend the turnpike across southern Wake County from Holly Springs to Interstate 40 near the Johnston County line. ... [MORE]

Two Wake County senators have filed legislation to block the N.C. Turnpike Authority from doing what it says it doesn't want to do anyway:  build a new turnpike through the town of Garner. [3/3/11 update: More in today's story.]

Senate Bill 165 proposes that the planned Triangle Expressway Southeast Extension "shall not be located north of an existing protected corridor established by the Department of Transportation circa 1995, except in the area of Interstate 40 East."

That means nothing north of a widely favored path known as the Orange Route, which would take TriEx well south of Garner to extend the turnpike across southern Wake County from Holly Springs to Interstate 40 near the Johnston County line. ... [MORE]

The N.C. Turnpike Authority said this afternoon that it still has not received permission from environmental regulators to abandon the option of running a six-lane toll road across southern Wake County on the widely criticized “Red Route" and "Pink Route”, which would bulldoze homes, businesses, parks and churches in Garner.[Update: see 1/21/2011 story.][Another update: see 1/21/2012 story, "Feds get TriEx report."]

The announcement came after meetings with state and federal agency representatives who said they still are weighing the Red and Pink routes as alternatives to a more southerly path. The other option, known as the Orange Route,  crosses streams that are home to an endangered species, the dwarf wedge mussel. ... [MORE]

N.C. Turnpike Authority officials hope today to win state and federal environmental regulators' permission to drop the option of running a six-lane toll road across southern Wake County on the widely criticized “Red Route" and "Pink Route” that would bulldoze homes, businesses, parks and churches in Garner. [Updated 10:30 a.m.]

David Joyner, the Turnpike Authority director, said reports that the Red Route had been dropped were premature. "We hope it happens very, very shortly," he said this morning. [Update: see 1/21/2011 story.]

Turnpike officials are scheduled to meet today with federal environmental regulators who required them to consider the Red Route as an alternative to a more southerly path, known as the Orange Route, which crosses streams that are home to an endangered species, the dwarf wedge mussel. ... [MORE]

Eastern Wake residents are invited to an open house Thursday for an update on the N.C. Turnpike Authority's plans for the eastern leg of the Triangle Expressway toll road.

That's the part that would run from Interstate 40 near Garner north to the eastern tip of the 540 Outer Loop on U.S. 64 / 264 at Knightdale.

The meeting is 4:30 to 7:30pm Thursday at the Barnwell Road Community Center, 3935 Barnwell Road, Raleigh.

Planning for the eastern leg of the TriEx Southeast Extension is several years behind work on the southern section between Holly Springs and Garner.  Garner residents are pressing the turnpike authority to drop consideration of the alternate "Red Route" for that road, which would run through the middle of town.

An overflow crowd is expected tonight at the 450-seat Garner Historic Auditorium -- where N.C. Turnpike Authority officials’ ears will overflow with Garner’s objections to the so-called “Red Route.”

That’s a new alternate path for a long-planned extension through southern Wake County of the Triangle Expressway toll road. (See Sunday's story, "Highway may divide Garner to protect mussels.")

The meeting (7 p.m., 742 W. Garner Road) will start with the airing of a damning documentary video whipped up last week by town officials and Eagle Video Productions. The video firm's proprietor, Bruce Wittman, happens to live in a subdivision west of Garner that would be split by the Red Route. ... [MORE]

The N.C. Turnpike Authority says it will stop considering unpopular options to route a six-lane toll road through Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina -- but folks around Garner are not out of danger. [See Nov. 5 story with map.]

The state’s toll-road agency today trimmed its list of alternate routes for the planned 30-mile extension of the Triangle Expressway through southern and eastern Wake County.

The agency expects by 2012 to choose one of its two remaining options for the section between N.C. 55 at Holly Springs and Interstate 40 near Garner.

One path, marked with an orange band on planning maps, is a 300-foot-wide corridor that was set aside in the mid-1990s as the path then preferred by the state Department of Transportation. Shielded from new development since then, it remains the consensus favorite among local leaders and residents who attended public meetings on the issue in September.

Also still under review is new alternative, revealed in September, that would push the turnpike farther north. Known as the red corridor, this route passes just north of Lake Benson and splits the town of Garner. 

Steve DeWitt, the turnpike authority’s chief engineer, said the agency no longer is looking at options that would push the turnpike route farther south through Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina. ... [MORE]