You might have expected hoopla for the opening of a $25.5 million highway project in eastern Wake County -- with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and a bunch of grip-and-grin photos.
Far from it. David Bone, the Wendell town manager, buried the news in a sentence on page four of his weekly memo to the town board of commissioners:
ITEM 14. OTHER
A. The Wendell Falls interchange opened on Wednesday, November 4th.
Wendell Falls is or was a planned 1,400-acre suburb off U.S. 64/264 between Knightdale and Wendell. It was supposed to have 4,000 new homes. The developer, Mercury Development Co., spent a lot of money to lay in water and sewer lines and to build the new interchange on U.S. 64/264, midway between the exits for Smithfield Road and U.S. 64 Business / Wendell Boulevard.
Besides serving as the main road through the new Wendell Falls community, the parkway was touted as a new back way into the town of Wendell itself.
Then the real estate business tanked last year, followed by the rest of the economy. No lots have been sold and no homes have been built.
But NCDOT made sure the new U.S. 64/264 interchange, financed entirely with private money, was finished. The new interchange opened earlier this month, but only half-way.
If you take the new exit, you can turn west toward Knightdale on Knightdale-Eagle Rock Road. There are barricades on the east side of the overpass because the seven-lane-wide Wendell Falls Parkway hasn't been finished.
Greg Ferguson, a founding partner of the builder, Raleigh-based Mercury Development, still hopes to make it all happen in 2010.
“There are a number of things in motion right now, and all these things have to fall one after the other," Ferguson said today by phone. "It’s still a very challenging time in the economic environment.
"We still have a plan under way that would get us back under construction and open for business in the first half of the year.”
Meanwhile, Mercury Development's website has been wiped clean of any reference to Wendell Falls.
And when I look for info on the web address formerly dedicated to this project, www.wendellfalls.com, my browser tells me there's nothing there. I get a message that the website (not the development) is
Under Construction
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter and editor since 1976, he took over the 
