Charlotte Interstates not wide enough?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

or better yet, run for congress yourself!

[dubone]

Why isn't 85 and 77 at least 8 lanes through the northern part of the Metro area (Concord, Mooresville?  (And why is Salisbury getting an 8 lane highway??)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The state's strategic goal is to have 85 6-8 lanes the eastern part of Durham county, to the western part of gaston county.

Salisbury NEEDED widening long before cabarrus because that road was the most dangerous section of the freeway. From what i understand that stretch was one of the oldest sections that hadn't been upgraded. Through most of davidson county north through guilford, 85 had gotten a new 6 lane high speed 85, but the part through rowan continued to have bridges with no shoulders, and almost no median. It was almost like it was straight from the 50s, when people would drive boats through there an 45 - 55 mph... Now there are massive semis and suv rushing through there at 65-70mph. it needed upgrading for safety reasons, so they are widening it to the 8+ lanes that are now in Meck and planned for Cabarrus.

Also, cabarrus's section has been delayed because local priorities favored the westside bypass for kannapolis and concord. But i believe widening to nc 73 is on the plans for this decade.

I can't wait for rowan and davidson to be completely 8 lanes, because that section is FAR more dangerous and congested most of the time than through cabarrus. I'm annoyed that the design-build project planned for the davidson cty section (including the hold-your-breath bridges) got delayed. the rest is under construction, so that missing section would have completed the upgrade of 85 the whole way between china grove and durham. (no drug trade comments).

When that happens, cabarrus will be the bottleneck enough to get them to increase the priority through there. There is enough room in the median through cabarrus, that it could easily be a design-build project, like NE meck. the only sticking point will be where all the bridges cross for the roads that connect concord and kannapolis.

[cooperdawg]

Every city in America is grappling with this, but the solution is not more lanes, it's more connectivity. Portions of New Urbanism is based on this philosophy. All that new lanes does is allow rezoning to denser development and then in five years, guess what, you need to widen them again. This is why mass transit is important, especially up to the lake as eventually you can't widen the highway anymore and your stuck with a population spiraling out of control.

Right now there is only one or two ways to get there from here in many places, the solution is not a bigger road, but more of them. The city is trying to phase out cul-de-sacs in the city limits and discouraging them with new development to promote the idea of connectivity. The idea is to build a network of roads that provides mutiple ways to get from one place to another and eases the strain of the highways.

In an ideal city, the local traffic will be able to utilize a road netwrok over a highway as a means of transportation leaving the highway for travelers passing through the region. When America decided to become dependent on highway driving as a means of getting around where you live, they made a fatal flaw in terms of controlling development and generating tons of traffic. Granted, some cities are so big that highway connectivity is a neccesity, but some cities rely on it too much as a crutch rather than an alternative. I-77 from Huntersville to Uptown is one of the biggest crutches you'll see.

[SmellyCat]

Right now there is only one or two ways to get there from here in many places, the solution is not a bigger road, but more of them.  The city is trying to phase out cul-de-sacs in the city limits and discouraging them with new development to promote the idea of connectivity.  The idea is to build a network of roads that provides mutiple ways to get from one place to another and eases the strain of the highways.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

NIMBYs are likely to shoot these types of proposals down. At least in the more affluent neighborhoods.

[cooperdawg]

Unfortunately you are correct. But, we shouldn't have to hear the rich beotch about highway traffic if that's their attitude. I'll turn a deaf ear.

[dubone]

did the nimby stuff apply to what i said? I'm referring to 3-4 lanes pet direction as is already the case in gaston, meck, parts of rowan, most of davidson, guilford, alamance, orange, and durham. I think it is a certainty that the bottlenecks in rowan, cabarrus and davidson counties will be widening in the next decade. I was justifying why salisbury got their widening before others.

[Raintree21]

Yeah, it's funny how the interstates, like I-85 does mulitple hour glass designs from Charlotte to Durham and beyond, going from 8 lanes (4 each side) to 4 lanes to 6 lanes to 4 lanes to 8 lanes.

[Noneck_08]

Why didn't they go ahead and widen 85 when they built the new bypass around Lexington and High Point. Once Bus 85/52 merges with the new 85 south of Lexington it just drops off to 2 lanes and is really rough. You bump and grind the whole way untill you get to Salisbury were the construction up there is even worse. The are repaving some of it between Lexington and the yadikin river bridge and its really just making a big mess.

[dubone]

money money money. i'm guess it is for the same reasons the planned expansion will be delayed again ... it costs quite a bit to cross the river. the bypass north of lexington is because the old 85 through there is in worse shape, it has many non-separated intersections, too. I think the plan was always to bypass that section when the money was there, but that never included rowan county, because it was too pricey to cross the river, and the road was good enough as an interstate back then.

Just like now, the people who get the best first, end up having the worst in the long run, because the ones who waited got the better standards and design. Just like 485 through south charlotte.

i always cracked up about how the speed limit increased as the road narrowed, and how the road narrowed as you got to the city. ...