Commute times up 55 to I40 :) (Cary, Chapel Hill: travel, work, homes)

[Indigoblue]

Assuming anyone on the board is familiar with that route...
How long would it take to commute from Holly Springs, Apex, Cary, or Morrisville, up 55 to I40? The vast majority of the homes that look promising in our price range are along 55
Thank you in advance

[NewUser]

I don't live down in Holly Springs, Apex, or Cary. I live in Morrisville. However, since I do plan to live farther south/south east, I have driven that route a few times, just to get an idea of the traffic.

What I normally do is leave my office (Davis @ Development Drive in RTP) at 4:30pm on a week day, and see how far south I can get in 30 minutes. Leave at 5pm and your commute time will increase exponentially.

My first problem is with Davis drive. Since this road backs up for 5-10 minutes at Morrisville Carpenter, I always take 55 south. To get there, I take Development drive and Kit Creek west. Going south on 55 is fairly easy now since they widened the road to 4 lanes + a center turn lane.

The next bottle-neck that I hit is in Apex. Highway 55 through Apex goes under a train bridge. This bridge was built many years ago and would be undoubtably be very expensive to widen. So, 55 shrinks from 4 lanes down to 2. There are also a few traffic lights right in a row. Also, Apex is fairly industrial near Highway 1 and there are always lots of tractor trailer trucks on the road, turning in and out of businesses, etc.

If you will be living on the east side of Holly Springs, my advice would be to jump off 55 right before you get to Apex, get on Ten Ten, and then go south on Kildaire Farm road. If you live on the west side of Holly Springs, I'd similarly avoid 55 in Apex by going west on Route 64 and picking up a variety of side streets to get south (e.g., Kelly, Old Holly Springs-Apex Rd, etc).

To give you an idea of commute times, I can leave my office at 4:30pm and get to the intersection of Kildaire Farm and Holly Springs Rd in 30 minutes. That's taking the Development -> 55 -> 64 -> Salem -> Center -> Ten Ten -> Kildaire Farm route.

Hope that helps.

[jgmarie]

Originally Posted by Indigoblue

Assuming anyone on the board is familiar with that route...
How long would it take to commute from Holly Springs, Apex, Cary, or Morrisville, up 55 to I40? The vast majority of the homes that look promising in our price range are along 55
Thank you in advance

If you stay north of 64, your commute time should take 15-20 min.(maybe less if you are up by Morrisville?) depending where you are at off 55. 55 north of 64 runs fairly well, since it's 4 lanes.

South of 64 towards downtown Apex & Holly Springs during rush hour...not good!

[Indigoblue]

Thank you both I think given that info that I'm going to nix Holly Springs altogether. Sounds like Apex might still be ok if he were to branch out on 64 or Jenks - Kelly (or be N of 64).

Noone knows of future plans to widen 55 through and past Apex?

[cary native]

I think i remember the mayor of Apex saying that they had no intentions of widening 55 through Apex because they would incur the expense of replacing the railroad bridge themselves. It's a shame because 55 now other than that area flows pretty good.
Your next chance of better routes to work will be 540 around the south side.

[hurricanedavid]

But just for reference sake, I can get from 55 & 40 area to downtown Holly Springs in 28 minutes.... if it is not during rush hour. During rush hours, you can expect that to take about 45-50 mins.

[WangoTango]

I commute from HS to Chapel Hill daily and it usually takes from 40-45 mins each way regardless of the time of day. However, I avoid 55 like the plaque unless I am traveling VERY early in the AM, before the morning rush. I Never take it in the afternoon after say, 4:30 PM. The section of 55 between 64 and Holly Springs would easily double the commute time.
I can't imagine that Apex's mayor is still holding to his previous statements about widening the bridge. Its is only going to get worse and it looks like the only relief will be I540 which is still years away if at all. I am not sure how they would accomplish it, but I can't believe there isn't any pressure on him to fix the problem.

[Dire Wolf]

When I was living in Apex they had started work on a "Peakway" loop. Only a small section was open then. Perhaps that will provide some relief getting through/around Apex.

The portion of 55 to the North of 64 is very good now. I only regularly hit the section from Morrisville-Carpenter to TW Alexander, but it is always fast moving in mornings (after 9 anyway, I'm a late sleeper). And in the PM is still acceptable. It can slow down at the peak of rush hour with NC540 merging on and then hitting a couple of lights, but that never takes more than 10 minutes to get through.

[dhwilkin]

Does it make a difference if you take 55-bypass instead of 55, or is that what everyone is referring to already?

[durhammom]

Hi!

I'm not sure how long you plan to live where you are looking but you may want to keep in mind that 55 is flowing fairly well now because the widening project has just recently been completed. However there is a ton of development happening just west of 55 and this will likely add traffic to 55. I suspect that as time goes on, traffic lights will need to be added to 55 (or at least the cycle times for the cross streets will need to be lengthend) and that will also slow the traffic. So you probably want to buy somewhere now with a commute that is somewhat shorter than what you consider tolerable with the expectation that it will lengthen over time.