Groundbreaking expected in April; average speed 25 mph
DIANNE WHITACRE
You only have to drive down South Boulevard to know that construction
is about to start on the light-rail line.
Buildings have been demolished and crews are installing bigger water
lines. The road has been marked with orange, blue and yellow spray paint
to pinpoint other pipes and lines.
Here are some questions and answers I heard from business owners and
residents at two community meetings last week.
Q. When will work start?
The contract to provide $193 million in federal money should go to
Congress next month for a 60-day review. The official groundbreaking
should follow in April.
Q. Where will construction workers park?
They will be shuttled to construction sites from parking lots at the
demolished skating rink on Old Pineville Road and the old theater near
Scaleybark. The large vacant properties also will be used as staging areas
for construction firms until they are needed as park-and-ride lots.
Q. How fast will the trains go?
They'll travel up to 55 mph. But the average speed, including stops at
the 15 stations, will be about 25 mph. The trip from Interstate 485 to
uptown will take about 24 minutes.
Q. How many parking spaces are there?
CATS will have parking at seven stations, with a total of about 3,300
spaces. There are no parking lots uptown or at the South End. They'll be
at Scaleybark, Woodlawn, Tyvola, Archdale, Arrowood, Sharon Road West and
I-485 stations.
Q. What is the fare?
It will match fares on local bus routes. By late 2007, that should be
about $1.30. Ticket machines at each station will take coins and bills.
CATS says it could not afford more sophisticated machines that take credit
and debit cards.
One thing more. The trains won't go bumpa, bumpa, bumpa like others.
Light rail will run on a continuously welded rail. That means the South
Boulevard line will have only four rails, each of them 9.6 miles long.
TIDBIT
Crashes at intersections exceed 33%
More than one-third of the nation's collisions occur at or near an
intersection. One out of every four fatal crashes occur at intersections.
Hooray! The road map book is here!
Dr. Traffic lives and dies by road maps and is rejoicing that the 4th
Edition of ADC's map book is now available.New stuff: Completed and coming
sections of I-485 and the location of the future South Boulevard
light-rail stations.
Alexanderana to close on Feb. 7
The state says it will start work this spring on adding a center turn
lane to busy N.C. 115 near North Mecklenburg High School. The new lane
will run from Hambright Road to Alexanderana Road. Don't forget, the state
will soon demolish the Alexanderana bridge over I-77 so it can complete
building the interchange between I-77 and I-485. That means Alexanderana
is closed to through traffic on Feb. 7, between U.S. 21 and Mount
Holly-Huntersville Road.
ASK THE DOCTOR
Browne, Asbury realignment in spring
Q. What's the latest on the plans to realign Browne Road and
Asbury Chapel Road at Eastfield Road? Jim Price, Huntersville Work
starts this spring to create a standard four-legged intersection. Browne
and Asbury Chapel now have separate T-intersections with Eastfield, about
800 feet apart. The state will fix that by turning Browne into a
cul-de-sac just short of Eastfield and shift Hunters Down Road and Asbury
Chapel slightly so they line up at Eastfield. A traffic signal is coming,
too. -- DR. TRAFFIC
Mallard Creek Church work delayed
Q. When will the new lanes on Mallard Creek Church Road open?
C.S. Coleman
Not until the weather warms up. Asphalt will crumble if it's put down in
cold weather, so paving won't resume until about March 15, says Jeff
D'Arruda, a state engineer. The work should have been completed last July
but is running late because of weather and construction material problems.
-- DR. TRAFFIC
