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Improvements on U.S. 52


eddard

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As i was reading the article, the shoulder MUST NOT be stripped for a travel lane! I would rather see the highway continue as it is than the shoulder being re-stripped. Shoulders are to be there for emergencies, not for lane use. If US 52 becomes shoudler-less through Winston-Salem, it will do little to improve the current situation handling the 50K cars a day burden. God forbid a car breaks down, an accident occurs or somebody is in NEED for an ambulance, HOW ARE emergency vehicles suppose to get to the scene of an accident with no shoulder? Please NCDOT, do not sacrafice the shoulder over safety!

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As i was reading the article, the shoulder MUST NOT be stripped for a travel lane! I would rather see the highway continue as it is than the shoulder being re-stripped. Shoulders are to be there for emergencies, not for lane use. If US 52 becomes shoudler-less through Winston-Salem, it will do little to improve the current situation handling the 50K cars a day burden. God forbid a car breaks down, an accident occurs or somebody is in NEED for an ambulance, HOW ARE emergency vehicles suppose to get to the scene of an accident with no shoulder? Please NCDOT, do not sacrafice the shoulder over safety!

Yeah. They could just add in an extra lane and rebuild the shoulder. It is a prime safety concern. But I hardly ever ride on 52 so I don't know how it's built over in W-S.

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This road MUST be improved and Quickly. With the heavy development North of Winston-Salem and now the faster pace of growth on the southside along with Davidson Co. increased reliance on Forsyth to provide jobs; this road is getting travelled more and more. We need an additional lane, better on/off ramps, better drainage, and lighting. I haven't reviewed the DOT's plans for the road but will soon. I also think long term plans for 73/74 will help this road greatly. Too many accidents and deaths occur on this road each year, SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am sure the improvements are needed but theres SOMETHING that needs attention (as mentioned in the other US 52 post). Paragraphs italized are from the W/S journal.

Converting parts of the highway's shoulder into auxiliary travel lanes. Curbing along those sections would be altered to let people pull off the highway onto the grass if needed

Bad idea! I would rather see the highway 4 lanes with a right shoulder than 6 lanes without a shoulder. Safety should come first!

More than 70,000 vehicles use the downtown portion of U.S. 52 daily.......The congestion on U.S. 52 through downtown leads to about 250 wrecks and four fatalities a year.

If theres no shoulder, how will ambulances reach to the scene quickly? We may see fewer wrecks with additional lanes but fatalities will most likely increase. As the last paragraph noted that cars can move over to the grass if needed, every second counts on rescue time to save lives! It will take longer for an ambulance to get through with many cars suddenly moving over to the grass.

"Standards have changed and traffic has increased."

Removing the shoulder is reducing standards for a highway!

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At least something is happening on this stretch of highway after a long period of neglect. Also, the phrase "eventually to interstate standards," seems to confirm or further indicate that the assigning of I 285 recently completed is only to that stretch of U.S 52 from I 85 to its junction with I 40. DOT had indicated that it would "eventually" be extended north to the junction with I 74, but I guess this confirms that will be much latter.

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  • 2 years later...

The goals is to now have the Third/Fourth/Fifth Street interchange closed and the Liberty Street one will remain. Wasn't this supposed to be closed when they eventually get around to widening 52?

Us52Improvements.jpg

The NCDOT will be holding a open house and hearing March 10 at Kennedy Learning Center at 4:30 PM for improvements to US 52 from Interstate 40 to NC 65 in Rural Hall. Proposed improvements include using highway shoulders for travel lanes from Business 40 to US 311; closing ramps on US 52 at Stadium Drive, Third Street and Fifth Street; improving the Akron Drive interchange; and adding more traffic cameras, signs and signals.

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Because for some reason that W-S business and political leaders really need to address, W-S is not treated as being in the same category transportationaly speaking as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Durham. Even Fayetteville is now more important than W-S. It would be laughable, if it wern't so serious!.

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Because for some reason that W-S business and political leaders really need to address, W-S is not treated as being in the same category transportationaly speaking as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Durham. Even Fayetteville is now more important than W-S. It would be laughable, if it wern't so serious!.
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NCDOT is short on funds for urban projects all over the state. WS is about to get a big old chunk of that money for the Green 40 rebuild (though not for another 5 or 6 years.) Anyway, this is not some conspiracy to give Winston-Salem the shaft, but a symptom of a statewide problem. So take off your tinfoil hat and write your legislators to get the equity formulas revised.
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Yes, this isn't a secret plan to prevent Winston-Salem from growing or getting the funds for transportation projects around the city. Due to the price of oil and rising costs of construction materials, the NCDOT cannot fund as many projects as it used to. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm heavily ticked that bypasses around Fayetteville and Ahoskie are considered a higher priority than the W-S Beltway that has been on the books since the '60s, but that's politics as usual, not a conspiracy theory.
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Exactly, this particular project is perhaps a result of the budget problem, but in fact I was referring to the endless delays on W-S's Beltway while Charlotte's, Greensboro's and Raleigh's were built, and more recently the incredible and flagrant action on I 295 in Fayetteville, which clearly is favoritism, and as was mentioned the extension of I 140 in Wilmington. It would have taken very little (pocket change) to have brought US 52 from Mount Airy to where the Beltway is to be built to standard as I 74 years ago, not to mention very little expenditure to go ahead and sign US 52 from I 85 to I 40 as I 285, but there are endless delays on every project in W-S while others in the State seem to be funded.

This US 52 project should have trumped many others Statewide years ago, and in fact there were discussions on this because US 52 in W-S is so substandard for the current traffic, and has been for years. It's so bad, it simply cannot be ignored by anyone any longer. It should have been made six lanes and signed as an Interstate at least 10 years ago.

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  • 1 month later...

There have been a lot of reasons for the US 52 delays. A big factor in the city not getting much money for US 52 improvements is the loop. Years ago, all the state's largest cities had outer loops planned and funding was established to pay for them in the late 80s. Problem is, it took much longer to build them than expected, and the money is running out, and now there are too many mouths to feed. Also, Winston's loop was delayed, I believe, by a lawsuit that held up the project for quite a few years. Just to show Winston's not alone, Durham's loop was opposed vigorously by the residents there and advocates for protecting the Eno River. Now the loop will not be built.

One possible past for Winston would have been to forget about planning for a freeway loop, and focus on moderization of the existing highway network like old 40, and 52, the two arterial freeways, and complement that with a streetcar or enhanced transit service. When we look back years from now, the loop system might be looked at as one big 25-year distraction from designing a transportation system that moves people, complements urban land use, and focuses infrastructure investments in a strategic way.

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