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And why does Morrisville make the speed limit 35mph. TORTURE
If this is in reference to the 54/Morrisville Carpenter intersection it was required due to the railroad crossing arms.
Further down M-C it is because about 5 years ago a child darted in front of a car that was already slowing to a stop due to the school bus that's was coming and had it's lights on. In spite of going slowly, the car was not able to stop and the child was killed. Eventually the speed limit was lowered there.
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Originally Posted by local2rtp
I might have read somewhere that NC 54 - McCrimmon Pkwy will be a mass transit center. Probably many years away but I can't see how not doubling McCrimmon Pkwy to two lanes throughout isn't an option.
As mentioned further up, the long term and now hopeful much nearer term plans are to grade separate McCrimmon and the railroad track, when there is a bridge there, the road will be widened. The town of Morrisville is also in the right of way and design process of extending McCrimmon from the 54 intersection to Evans road. It will be two lanes with a median at first and as development occurs will be widened to 4.
That whole intersection is a mess and a right lane isn't going to fix all of it. Not aligning Perimeter Park and McCrimmon is almost criminal negligence on the part of Morrisville. Then they make it worse by having in just a short ways between the two. You've got complete a-hole drivers who get over in the oncoming turn lane (into PP) because they don't want to wait until they get up to where the turn lane for McCrimmon starts.
At one time, a traffic circle might have been a good solution at this intersection, keeping traffic flowing all the time and avoiding the backups because of so many people turning left. I suppose that is impossible now with the fire station and sheetz, if it would have been possible at all due to the tracks.
I am appalled at notions "rail road owns the land", so it is not easy...People are suffering! gasoline is wasted, people's time is wasted, the rail road company is also run by people who will understand the problem, i think we need to start a online petition or something so the Morrisville Administrators will "REALIZE" that there is a problem and we need a speedy solution instead of waiting for 5-10-15 years!
Not aligning Perimeter Park and McCrimmon is almost criminal negligence on the part of Morrisville. Then they make it worse by having in just a short ways between the two.
Things should get a lot better when they extend McCrimmon through Perimeter Park to connect with Evans.
I am appalled at notions "rail road owns the land", so it is not easy...People are suffering! gasoline is wasted, people's time is wasted, the rail road company is also run by people who will understand the problem, i think we need to start a online petition or something so the Morrisville Administrators will "REALIZE" that there is a problem and we need a speedy solution instead of waiting for 5-10-15 years!
You are welcome to contact the town of Morrisville, local Norfolk Southern management, the North Carolina Railroad, and NCDOT to try. Regarding getting a lane added, I wouldn't be too optimistic. Railroads and their lawyers aren't very good at "understanding" anything that compromises their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, which involves vigorously defending their property against encroachments. More lanes at grade crossings mean more potential for terrible accidents to happen.
Even if you can manage to broker a deal among all parties, to temporarily widen the crossing until the bridge is built, legal negotiations and studies are bound to take a pretty long time. At that point it will be just wasted money since the bridge will be just a couple years away. And if we get crossing improvements in the short term, it might even inadvertently cause the ultimate solution of a bridge to become a lower priority.
However, it would be a great idea to try to push for the bridge to get built as soon as possible. Since this is a NCDOT project, you should contact your representatives in the legislature.and this would be a great time to do so since the final draft of the priority list is currently being worked on.
Another warning, as well; things will get worse here before they get better. Church street will be closed, but Hopson Road won't be widened near its intersection with NC54. Morrisville Parkway will be temporarily closed for 6 months towards the end of 2015. So this is basically a disaster brewing. If you really want something to push for short term, push for getting Hopson widened all the way to NC 54 (Project ID# U-4719D).
The only answer is to get the bridge prioritized. Two more passenger trains will be added to that line by 2020. It wouldn't surprise me if another 2 are added by 2030. Meanwhile the population of Morrisville will continue to grow. It's only a matter of time until people are killed at that crossing, and adding a lane doesn't reduce that probability (in fact, adding a lane probably increases it).
Besides, arguing with the railroad is a waste of time and energy. It will get you nothing. There is no leverage on Norfolk Southern and they couldn't care less what you or 1000 of your neighbors think.
That whole intersection is a mess and a right lane isn't going to fix all of it. Not aligning Perimeter Park and McCrimmon is almost criminal negligence on the part of Morrisville. Then they make it worse by having in just a short ways between the two. You've got complete a-hole drivers who get over in the oncoming turn lane (into PP) because they don't want to wait until they get up to where the turn lane for McCrimmon starts.
At one time, a traffic circle might have been a good solution at this intersection, keeping traffic flowing all the time and avoiding the backups because of so many people turning left. I suppose that is impossible now with the fire station and sheetz, if it would have been possible at all due to the tracks.
That is why they are running the McCrimmon Extension. It will create an intersection with Perimeter Park right in the middle of the park.
A far as not aligning it, McCrimmon (which used to be Koppers Rd) has been there like 50 plus years. Perimeter park was built in the 1980s. The developer only owned the land that they owned so they could not just run Perimeter across other people's land.
Here as a map showing the road. Not the best, but you can see the dark blue dotted line for McCrimmon. It will intersect with Perimeter Park, Airport (actually that stretch of road is there now), Southport Dr and then come out across from Evans rd on Aviation.
Also, keep in mind that Morrisville is a relatively small town and has traffic from all over converging on it during the day, so there is way more traffic than there are taxpayers to pay for road improvements. Also, the vast majority of the major to medium roads in Morrisville are state owned. Since for many years, NCDOT sent all the Wake (and Mecklenberg) tax money down east to run 4 lane roads everywhere, Wake Co is woefully behind on DOT financed road construction. Morrisville paid to widen the M-C 54 intersection even though that is a state road, but that was 3-4 million, the town cannot reasonably afford to spend 40 plus million to widen 54. Luckily, the new formulas seem to be favoring some of the roads in congested areas again, so if the DOT sticks with it, we will see some improvements in the next 5-10 years. Morrisville is also actively looking at and has used various other funding sources like grants to try to put band aids on as much as possible, but most of the grants are really only adequate enough to do small spot projects or are restricted to things like pedestrian improvements.
That intersection is always bad. I avoid it 100% of the time unless I am going to Sheetz, and I only go there on the weekends.
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Originally Posted by JQ Public
And why does Morrisville make the speed limit 35mph. TORTURE
As if that makes a difference. Most psychopaths drive 10-15 MPH over the speed limit anyway. I get tailgated every time I drive through Morrisville and even attempt to obey the speed limit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orulz
Another warning, as well; things will get worse here before they get better. Church street will be closed, but Hopson Road won't be widened near its intersection with NC54. Morrisville Parkway will be temporarily closed for 6 months towards the end of 2015. So this is basically a disaster brewing. If you really want something to push for short term, push for getting Hopson widened all the way to NC 54 (Project ID# U-4719D).
They are (well, if they ever get around to it) adding some additional turn lane storage capacity at the intersection of Morrisville-Carpenter and Town Hall dr so that when the cars detour onto M-C it will not be as bad.
They also added storage at Weston and 54 and atDavis and Morrisville parkway added left turn storage from Davis to Morrisville and put the right most lane on westbound Morrisville back to right turn only so the comparatively fewer straight people did not block it up. Not a magic solution, but the changes are both helping existing problems and will help when the detour is in effect.
The hope was the M-C THD work would be done by now but they had a few delays.
Also, lately McCrimmon has been worse occasionally due to the track work ongoing. One morning they moved a piece of equipment across at like 7:25, if they had just done it at 7 it would have been way less impact on traffic and that was the one day put of ten I actually go there on the morning.
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