A person or persons unknown committed an act of engineering. That's essentially what the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors concluded after examining an eight-page traffic analysis submitted by a North Raleigh neighborhood group to the state DOT (see today's Road Worrier with reader comments).
Since the board could not identify the author / culprit, it dismissed a charge that David N. Cox was practicing engineering without a license.
Cox distributed the report, titled "Analysis of Traffic Signal Warrants for Selected Intersections of Falls of Neuse Road," by email. (See document copy at the end of this blog post.)
But it didn't have his name, or anybody's name, as author. (It said, "Submitted by the Residents of North Raleigh," a silly stretch.)
The board doesn't know whether Cox was the author because he refused to answer its questions. Cox's lawyer says there were several authors, including Cox, but he says none of them was an engineer.
The ruling vindicates Kevin Lacy, the DOT state traffic engineer, who called on the engineers licensing board to investigate. The board agreed with him. Under state law, if a licensed engineer wrote it, it was required to include the engineer's name and professional seal.
Meanwhile, Lacy also responded in lengthy detail to the report's arguments about Falls of Neuse Road.
He concluded that DOT was correct in its refusal to authorize new traffic signals at two intersections as part of a city project to widen the road, but he said the state will take another look at the situation after the new road is built and new traffic patterns are established.
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the