1330 St. Mary's

[DPK]

N&O has the story on this project:

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1096878.html

I drive by this every day on the way to campus and have wanted to get a picture for a while, but my camera recently died on me. There's a construction billboard out front that has a final rendering of it if someone wants to swing by and snag a picture.

Project is being done by The Lewis Group:

http://www.thelewisgroup.biz

[ERG]

N&O has the story on this project:

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1096878.html

I drive by this every day on the way to campus and have wanted to get a picture for a while, but my camera recently died on me. There's a construction billboard out front that has a final rendering of it if someone wants to swing by and snag a picture.

Project is being done by The Lewis Group:

http://www.thelewisgroup.biz

[pack-man]

the next question is , how much longer will the old decaying REX hospital be there. That piece of land is a gem in its location.

[DPK]

the next question is , how much longer will the old decaying REX hospital be there. That piece of land is a gem in its location.

[dmccall]

I was born there, so it should be a national monument. BTW, March 2 should be a national holiday, too.

[cthayes75]

Knock old Rex and the credit union down and realign/fix the devils curve that is Wade Avenue right there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;t=h&z=18

[DPK]

Can we get rid of all the stoplights on Wade all the way out to 440 as well and make it a true highway?

[urbanesq]

^^^^^

"Upgrading" Wade to highway status would be awful! Yes, Wade is a less-than-ideal traffic mover, but it was also cut through some fairly nice neighborhoods. Roadways like Wade should be seams knitting neighborhoods together, not cutting them apart.

I agree that the Old Rex and SECU land (and the ESC for that matter) could be better utilized. I suspect that the mixed use trend started on the Oberlin side of the road will eventually creep across the street.

As to the 1330 project, I think it looks like a good one.

[DPK]

Well not necessarily a highway by modern senses, but I think it'd be cool to make Wade into a Boulevard. Add a center island all the way down it, fix the 2000 pot holes in it, plant trees and grass down the center. This would probably make people go slower down that road too as it would seem less like an interstate and more like a residential street.

Throw some crosswalks in the mix to tie things together and it'd be perfect.

[Jones_]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it either Jones or RaleighRob that stated on this forum somewhere that Wade was originally supposed to be a kind of highway?

[orulz]

Curious... does this plan you talk about predate the Beltline? A lot of those projects (Wade, Capital, and Western Blvd) date from the early to mid 1950s, which is indeed pre-beltline. However, it was my understanding that Oberlin and the Ferndell Connector were more from the 1970s.

[Jones_]

Curious... does this plan you talk about predate the Beltline? A lot of those projects (Wade, Capital, and Western Blvd) date from the early to mid 1950s, which is indeed pre-beltline. However, it was my understanding that Oberlin and the Ferndell Connector were more from the 1970s.

[orulz]

Well, the Pullen bridge over Western dates from the 1950s, so therefore I kind of assumed that Western itself dated from the 1950s as well. Just that it was a 2-lane road back then. Pullen's bridge over Western shows up all the time on NCDOT's list of structurally and functionally deficient bridges.

[JeffC]

Wade is a perfect example of road design itself serving as a traffic calming device...if Wade were straightened between Oberlin and St. Marys, motorists would motor down it like the home stretch of Indianapolis motor speedway (sort of like Glenwood between Oberlin and the Circle, which generates complaints from residents all the time about how fast people go through there). I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but I like the effect.

[dmccall]

I think that one of Greensboro's big pluses is its numerous Wade-like throughfares. I wish that Raleigh would invest more in its roads, designing them correctly. Intersections like Atlantic/Millbrook, Millbrook/Six Forks, Spring Forest/Falls of Neuse are the problem with North Raleigh. Those intersections should have been designed as overpasses with either SPUI or diamond designs. Oberlin/Wade and Glenwood/Wade are fantastic and while one can't safely go 50mph on Wade, they can travel a couple of miles a LOT faster than our neighbors in North Raleigh because of the absence of traffic signals. This is one key reason ITB continues to be the most sought-after place in Raleigh to live.

[Jones_]

Well, the Pullen bridge over Western dates from the 1950s, so therefore I kind of assumed that Western itself dated from the 1950s as well. Just that it was a 2-lane road back then. Pullen's bridge over Western shows up all the time on NCDOT's list of structurally and functionally deficient bridges.

[Subway Scoundrel]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it either Jones or RaleighRob that stated on this forum somewhere that Wade was originally supposed to be a kind of highway?