Potential Commuter Rail for Raleigh (Durham, Cary: university, costs, budget)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I think they should focus on completing 540 and keep on building the 3rd belt-line, the I640, instead of this railway cutting through Greater Raleigh. It doesn't make too much sense to me.
Nothing with the rail has anything to do with completing 540 and they serve totally different areas.
completing 540 and keep on building the 3rd belt-line, the I640
No idea what you mean by a third beltline. Will never happen. Hasn't been floated by anyone at NCDOT as far as I know. In 20-25 years you might see an I-85 bypass of Durham like Butner-Hillsborough. Otherwise I expect only incremental projects such as conversion of US 1 north of Wake Forest to freeway, improvement of NC 50 and 98, improvement of NC 96 Youngsville-Zebulon, and improvement of NC 87/US 501/US 64 in Chatham County. Each new loop is successively longer (two times Pi times R) and quickly outruns the available funding.
^ 640 is my dream hwy expanding Raleigh to the whole triangle.
We don't need that level of crazy sprawl. We should invest in better public transit with smart development along its corridors before throwing even more money at another belt around this area. Besides, numbering schemes would dictate that it would most likely be 840 if that ever happened, as 540 was supposed to be renamed 640 at its completion (before the renaming idea was thrown away).
That'll likely never happen. The cost would be exorbitant and would just lead to perpetual more roads. If we get to that level of sprawl and have yet to invest in a better public transit system to better connect all the metro areas, we've failed as a region.
It doesn't make sense. We could use some additional connector pieces as the area continues to grow, but geographic constraints like Jordan/Falls lakes make a whole other loop pretty unnecessary. Believe it would also be by far the longest beltline in the country with an astronomical price tag.
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