I-240 Widening redux (Asheville, Greenville, Henderson: houses, neighborhoods, construction) - The Mountain Region including Asheville - City-Data Forum

NC_Paddler · 09-12-2011, 08:32 AM

Perdue plan to fund I-240 widening in West Asheville | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

newbie22 · 09-12-2011, 03:03 PM

Maybe he just wants to speed up the eliminating of thoose neighborhoods in west asheville???

MovingOver2 · 09-12-2011, 08:02 PM

She may or may not want that exactly, but wow, 8 lanes!?! That's hard to imagine. Is the population growth expected to rise that much by 2020? Anyone with any stats?

gigimac · 09-15-2011, 08:24 AM

I agree, eight lanes has been the sticking point on the DOT design originally offered, in addition how that many lanes would wipe out neighborhoods. I cannot imagine living in a home I paid for after 30 years, thinking that's where I was a'gonna be till I died, and have some traffic people throw me out. They had better be ready to pay those folks plenty of cash for their homes so they can get one like it elsewhere that is even better, and since housing prices shot up in the last decade, that's a lot of money.

Our council and other organizations came up with several alternatives, many wanting just three lanes, not four, and also rerouting it so as not to disturb neighborhoods too much. The ONLY place in Asheville we have four lanes is that section of I-40 near the West Asheville Exit 44, which I have RARELY seen anyone using that fourth lane even where the exit is! It is an AWFUL stretch and we don't need it. This is not an eight-lane community, but since it IS true I-26 is busy in the south part of town, three lanes should cure it, and in fact I think DOT re-analyzed the situation and agreed.

So, there are alternatives to eight lanes and to where it was originally designed to go, and last I heard DOT was considering two of them. Anybody know what the latest is? I haven't picked up a Mt Xpress regularly in a long time, nor do I go to their online site very often. GG

Carolina Knight · 09-18-2011, 09:02 PM

The issue of the western stretch of I-240 being 6 or 8 lanes has been the last hurdle of improving the corridor.

I-26 is going to be six lanes from Broadway Street to the US-25 split (Exit 54) in Henderson County. Add the heavy volume I-240 has to serve the northern side of Asheville, two additional lanes from I-40 to the US-19/US-23 northern split, one in each direction, is necessary to serve local traffic.

I do not see how all this negatively affects West Asheville. I see improvements to better access West Asheville and opportunities for revitalization once better access is reality.

cowboy_wilhelm · 09-21-2011, 08:15 PM

The 6 lanes vs. 8 lanes debate has been going on for a good decade.

Prior to the completion of I-26 through Madison County in 2003, NCDOT estimated that traffic volumes on I-240/I-26 through West Asheville would increase by x amount, warranting 8 travel lanes. After the new section was open for a few years, traffic did not increase as projected. West Asheville residents began arguing against eight lanes in favor of six to lessen the impact of the widened roadway, since they believed eight was not needed.

The conclusion by NCDOT was that traffic projections still warranted eight lanes, the right-of-way needed for six lanes is essentially the same as for eight lanes, and the project cost would not be decreased substantially. (This is all from my memory, mind you). Asheville City Council sided with NCDOT's decision for eight lanes, and everyone moved on.

The next argument was about the new crossing of the French Broad River. This included where the bridge would cross and connect to U.S. 19-23 north of the current interchange, the impact of a new roadway on the west side of the river, whether or not I-240 would remain on the current Smoky Park Bridges, a proposal for a double-deck bridge, additional bridges for I-240, whether I-26 would go over or under Patton Ave, etc. I'm not sure what the most current option NCDOT is looking at, but they have listened to public sentiment and adjusted their design and given alternatives.

Sometime in the past, someone also said the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange southwest of downtown needed to be upgraded in conjunction with this project. This includes adding ramps for access from I-40 west to I-240 east, and I-240 west to I-40 east. This section has high construction costs and little benefit.

All of these sections combined have driven the cost of the project to $400-600 million.

The project has been scored low due to the high cost and low cost/benefit ratio. NCDOT has taken a new approach to large loop projects and are now scoring sections of projects separately. This has resulted in the I-240 widening being re-funded for this decade. The entire project was delayed past 2020 last year. Right-of-way acquisition had previously been scheduled to begin as soon as next year.

I am still hoping that funding for the I-26 bridge can be secured somehow, since it is a missing link in the freeway and not part of the loop. I also won't be surprised if NCDOT doesn't end up going with six lanes instead of eight. They're trying to save every penny they can right now.

Carolina Knight · 09-21-2011, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cowboy_wilhelm

I am still hoping that funding for the I-26 bridge can be secured somehow, since it is a missing link in the freeway and not part of the loop. I also won't be surprised if NCDOT doesn't end up going with six lanes instead of eight. They're trying to save every penny they can right now.

It is cheaper to widen to 8 lanes than to widen it to 6 the first time, then come back to add the final 2 lanes. From the major road projects I have seen, it is best to do it right the first time.

ShipOfFools42 · 09-22-2011, 08:49 PM

And just why in the hell would having EIGHT friggin lanes be "doing it right"? Eight lanes belongs in somewhere like Baltimore, NOT a city like Asheville.

Six lanes would be more than plenty. Those people living in South Asheville need to just deal with the traffic (and there are other, better ways to get down there, by the way) or move to somewhere with less traffic. How ridiculous. They should be spending this money making I-26 a decent, uninterrupted highway, not widening a perfectly fine road.

Carolina Knight · 09-22-2011, 10:38 PM

ShipOfFools42, please explain how a four-lane interstate highway constructed in the 1950s is a perfectly fine road when it leads Buncombe County in car count and motor vehicle accidents and needs to become a decent, uninterrupted highway. Keep in mind several roads in South Asheville are congested with local traffic, and semi-tractors and other commercial vehicles are restricted from using those roads.

Ever been to Greenville, South Carolina? I-85 was widened to 6 lanes county wide over a span of 15 years. Guess what? Traffic volume has increased. Plans are underway to widen 24 miles of I-85 to 8 lanes in Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

The State of North Carolina's Department of Transportation is spending money to make I-26 a perfectly fine road and decent, uninterrupted highway in one. It is called widening the road.

NCDOT: I-26 Connector, Asheville, NC

Asheville is growing. Car count is going up. We have to deal with it.

ShipOfFools42 · 09-23-2011, 01:41 AM

Your problem is that you look at everything in tunnel vision. You see only one solution: widening the road, and widening it as much as possible. I think that's a careless way to approach something that will affect as many people as this will. And that's not just the people who live in the houses along the corridor, that's those of us who live around here and would have to deal with there being an eight lane highway in our city. I, for one, don't like the idea of driving on a road like that on a regular basis. I lived in a big city for a long time, and I have NO desire to see Asheville go that route. It's already getting out of control; you don't HAVE to accommodate the hordes of people wanting to move to Asheville. Surely you must realize not everyone is a fan of reckless urbanization.