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The traffic on McCrimmon Parkway towards 54 during the morning 8-9 is horrible. Same thing in the evening from 540 west -exit 69 onto 54 towards McCrimmon Parkway. I am seeing a separate right lane from McCrimmon to Church st, a similar right turn from McCrimmon to 54 would be very helpful to ease the traffic.
Is anything being done or we need to start some kind of a campaign to have the town/DOT realize how bad it is ?
Unfortunately the right turn lane from McCrimmon to Church ends too soon; it should be extended all the way to 54. That stretch is brutal, and not just form 8-9. It's just as bad at other times. And they just keep building, building, building over there. No room on the road for cars, Cedar Fork El is capped. It's not good.
The core of the problem is the railroad crossing. Norfolk Southern gets absolute say over whether any new lanes can be added at the crossing. The state and town have already asked, and the railroad's answer is no.
Those of you who may remember, a few years ago, the congestion at the intersection of Morrisville Carpenter & NC54 near the railroad was even worse than McCrimmon is today. It was very, very difficult to get Norfolk Southern to allow an additional lane to be added. Closing the crossing at Barbee Road was the cost. And now, neither Cary nor Morrisville has any railroad crossings left that they would be willing to sacrifice in order to build improvements at McCrimmon.
So there is no quick or easy solution.
So, the plan is to replace the railroad crossing with a bridge. This is a state project. Under the old NCDOT prioritization model, this was forecasted to start construction sometime between 2020 and 2030.
However, under the new system, our regional transportation planning organization CAMPO ranked this as the 5th highest local priority out of a list of hundreds of projects. This all but guarantees that it will be accellerated. But how much this will speed the schedule is anybody's guess, and these projects do take a long time - engineering, agreements with the railroad, environmental impact studies, property acquisition (possibly including eminent domain proceedings), followed by what will necessarily be a long, phased construction period. I would expect the whole process to take 3-4 years at the absolute minimum, and 5-6 years might be more realistic.
Your best bet for now? Just avoid the area around 54 and McCrimmon McCrimmon at rush hour as much as possible.
I have been wondering, who gets the credit for the 4 lanes being removed for the Morrisville Parkway grade separation? I have asked several people but can never get an answer.
That should allow 2 lanes to be added somewhere in Cary or Morrisville.
I dont think there was any agreement written in advance for this crossing. There wasn't any agreement for Church Street or Hopson either for that matter. They are just eliminating the crossings.
There is already a plan to build a bridge there at McCrimmon, even if it is in the distant future, so I doubt they would go through the trouble to add a lane now anyway.
As orulz mentioned, that addition required them to close Barbee Road on 54 in order to get the additional lane (they take 2 away for 1 new lane). The negotiations took considerable time.
The railroad actually controls 200 feet (100 feet each way of the center of the corridor) and that is one of the reasons why widening 54 through Morrisville is not a piece of cake.
Personally, I think it is ridiculous that the railroad has that much power and I wish Morrisville or Cary would try to push the issue, but that is the way it stands now.
I don't understand how complicated it is to put a right lane in a rail road intersection...they did it at Morrisville carpenter road and NC 54
The railroad owns the land. It was also there first, since about 1850. There was no Morrisville until Jeremiah Morris donated some land to the North Carolina Railroad company in 1852 exchange for them building a depot. Railroads are also regulated at the federal level under the interstate commerce clause of the constitution which ensures that states and municipalities have basically no power over them.
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.
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