Widening of Hwy 55 near US 1

[Beermat]

Originally Posted by HarryBean

Good picture but I was up that way on Sunday. If you look on the OTHER side of the road, I think you'll see something that looks much more like a highway. If you are on that road coming from 55, just as you pass the newer section of Cameron Pond on your right, you'll see a wide section of trees cleared directly behind the houses. It is wide and straight and my first thought even before reading this thread today was that it was 540. The picture posted looks narrower and more like the start of as subdivision. (I noticed that too driving by on Sunday)

yes your absolutely right - and I should have taken a picture from that location as well. It's just strange that no one seems to know what the construction is considering the scale of the work being undertaken. I searched the 540 web site and googled various descriptions and still not any clearer

[orulz]

I assume you mean the part of NC55 (Williams St) through town where it narrows to 2 or 3 lanes. The main reason that this has not already been widened is because of how expensive and complicated it would be to build a wider railroad bridge. Railroad bridges are always more expensive than highway bridges due to things like drainage for the porous ballast, extra weight that must be supported (the ballast itself, plus the fact that standard freight cars weigh 286,000 pounds while semis weigh only 80,000), and the fact that railroads need very gradual grades (basically 1% or less).

Anyway, I remember reading through Apex's comprehensive plan or transportation plan or something a few years back (a hobby of mine, whee) and they essentially consider that railroad bridge to be a permanent constraint on the width of NC55 through town. As other posters have said, they're pretty much banking on 540 diverting traffic off of 55.

Now, 540 will certainly be enough to keep the existing 4- and 5- lane sections of 55 from choking up, but I have to wonder if it will do the job here, particularly at the intersection of Salem and Williams, which can be particularly awful. One possible solution I thought of (remember this is my hobby, whee) would be to do something like Raleigh did with Dawson and McDowell: rebuild Wrenn and Moore as one way streets to carry 55 North, and let Williams carry 55 South. Digging Moore under the tracks might be easier than raising and widening the existing railroad bridge, and taking additional right of way from the businesses along Williams. The impact on Apex Middle would probably kill this idea today, but it would have seemed like a great solution if Apex had a traffic problem in the 1970s.