CULLOWHEE–In a letter published in this week’s Smoky Mountain News, Jeannette Evans, owner of Cullowhee’s Mad Batter and principal in the area transportation advocacy group Smart Roads, has a look at where the “southern loop” issue stands.
A clip:
A new bypass has enormous potential to drastically change our community’s traffic patterns, economy and landscape. Conversely, all the other projects located in the CTP are designed to improve and/or expand existing roads, thus improving current traffic patterns and preserving our landscape. DOT’s own modeling showed that the 107 Connector would not solve the congestion on N.C. 107 or at the intersection of Asheville Highway. It is primarily these congestion areas that are cited as reasons for building the 107 Connector.
STATEWIDE–A former North Carolina Department of Transportation official from the eastern end of the state was sentenced to over three years in prison yesterday for taking kickbacks from an excavation company.
Dalton Alligood Jr., a former district engineer for the DOT, received 10% in cash from contracts funneled to the company between 2004 and 2006.
Governor Beverly Perdue has stated her intention to be tougher on corruption at the DOT at all levels.
Raleigh News and Observer editorializes on this subject here.
STATEWIDE–The Raleigh News and Observer’s Mark Johnson reports today that the state of North Carolina will pay a half-billion dollars to clean up some 6,500 deteriorating underground storage tanks across the state.
The state maintains a fund to help take care of such tanks, which often hold fuel, leak as they age, and contaminate groundwater. Property owners are taking advantage of the fund in increasing numbers, and the state is looking for ways to mitigate the cost.
Among the possibilities: raising the motor fuel and kerosene inspection tax from 1/4-cent to 7/16-cent per gallon to generate more money for the cleanup fund, requiring commercial tank owners to buy insurance to cover cleanup costs, and requiring noncommercial tank owners to pay 20 percent of cleanup costs up to $5,000.
Jackson County residents became familiar with this problem two-and-a-half years ago, when an old tank alongside US 23/74 east of Sylva leaked and contaminated drinking water in the nearby residential neighborhood in Racking Cove.
The Tuckasegee Water and Sewer Authority eventually ran a line from Sylva to the community to provide clean water.
“People fear roundabouts in America — they’ve been called ‘Circles of Death,’ Vanderbilt says. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”
The geometry of a roundabout eliminates one of the most dangerous moves you can make in driving: a left turn against fast-moving oncoming traffic. Also, since traffic circles involve a lot of other drivers and a driver is not relying on signs and symbols, drivers must make their own decisions and be aware of other traffic.
If that sounds stressful for drivers, Vanderbilt says a little stress might not be a bad thing. “I think they tend to act more cautiously, which is a positive result,” Vanderbilt says.
Here’s the original post:
RALEIGH/STATEWIDE-I lived in Waynesville for a while a little less than a decade ago, and during that time residents were pushing the North Carolina Department of Transportation to build more thoughtfully planned roads.
That was when the first roundabout intersection that I’d seen anywhere near my native state first came up. It’s long since been installed and works well, and another one or two have been added, but at the time, you’d have thought by the uproar that the DOT was asking us all to give up cars and ride kangaroos to work.
Meanwhile, the smart roads folks — myself included — would argue ad nauseam — mostly to people who already agreed with us — that skinny roads don’t cause traffic, bad intersections do, and so intersections that require full stops must by nature be bad intersections. When we were really on our high horses, we’d wonder how people who spent their weekends watching a sequence of hundreds of left turns on some racetrack or another couldn’t handle the prospect of a simple roundabout.
Lift quote from an article in the Raleigh News and Observer:
How a roundabout works:
In place of a red light or a stop sign to hold some drivers while others turn left or drive through the intersection, a roundabout pulls everybody into a circle.
When traffic is heavy, you pause at a yield sign until you can enter the counterclockwise flow. When the circle is clear, drivers on each street can move through the intersection without stopping.
It’s a little slower than moving through a green light — but a lot faster than stopping for a red one. That little slowdown is one reason roundabouts reduce crashes.
Here’s another lift quote from the same article:
North Carolina has built about 60 roundabouts in the past decade — not counting all the little ones in subdivisions and shopping centers, says Jim H. Dunlop, DOT state congestion management engineer. He said we could see 600 more in the next 10 years.
SYLVA–Last year, when automobile gas prices were through the roof, CSX railroad began running obvious ads, making a point the industry could’ve been making all along: it makes more sense to pull a couple of hundred trailers with two or three engines than a couple of hundred trailers with a couple of hundred engines.
Well, no kidding. That’s true no matter how pricey gas becomes.
CSX’s tagline – “our trains can move a ton of freight 436 miles on a single gallon of fuel” – has become a fighting slogan for the entire industry lately, as the prevailing economic and environmental winds begin to signal a railroad renaissance.
Financier Warren Buffet’s purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad recently drove the point home. Said Adam Hochberg on National Public Radio: “Buffett’s $44 billion acquisition, via his company Berkshire Hathaway, is one of a number of signs that freight railroads are in resurgence. While they may have been thought of as passé in the 1960s and 1970s, they’re now playing a vital role in the transportation system.”
Lobbyists for the asphalt and trucking companies, who for so long thought railroads were kaput, still make the argument that logistically, trucks work better.
“You can’t back a freight train up to the Harris Teeter,” one industry rep told Business North Carolina not long ago.
But some industry analysts believe that almost any regulations created to fight emissions will favor railroads, and that logistical issues with moving goods on the local level are easily overcome – in fact, are already overcome in some cases by the use of containers that can then be moved to flatbed trucks.
Closer to home, the topic reminds me of a sidewalk conversation I had in Sylva when gas was at it’s peak. “Before long,” my friend told me, “we’ll be able to ride a train to Asheville.”
I’m not sure I’m buying that – the cost of the necessary trestle work between Sylva and Waynesville alone would raise even Buffet’s eyebrows – but it is safe to assume that freight trains (which are allowed to run on ricketier tracks than passenger trains) aren’t going anywhere soon, even from our area.
A representative from Norfolk Southern Railway told me as much not long ago, saying that the line between Asheville and Sylva, which Norfolk Southern owns, is a money maker. The expansion of Jackson Paper Manufacturing in Sylva can only help.
As for true passenger rail, though, most of its advances will be focused on the cities.
Still, mountain residents can catch Amtrak in Toccoa Falls, GA, or Greenville, SC and ride the Southern Crescent southwest toward New Orleans or northeast toward Washington, through the Piedmont and to all points beyond.
Proponents of the long-fought-for return of passenger rail to Asheville are still at it, so that Amtrak spur — which would run up the mountain from the Piedmont — is still a possibility. (The two links in the previous sentence are from the Asheville Citizen-Times, here’s a Twitter report from MountainXpress from a recent Asheville Rail Corridor meeting).
And plans for the long-considered magnetic levitation train between Atlanta and Chattanooga and perhaps on to Nashville just got an infusion of federal cash. Maglev trains, used widely in Japan and Europe, achieve speeds of some 300 mph, mainly by not touching the ground.
REGIONAL--I’d seen a few references to this video during the past few days, but didn’t give it much attention until Gulahiyi posted it.
As it so happens, a Tennessee news crew was filming at the site of a small rockslide along the Ocoee river gorge when a Department of Transportation geologist showed up, listened to the ground for a minute or two, then suggested maybe everybody ought to move back a little. That was when a much larger chunk of the mountain came down, and the news crew caught it on tape.
The story reminded me of a time when I was (much) younger, and was doing some construction work in a fairly deep, hand dug ditch. Improperly braced, no doubt. We were doing our thing when we noticed that the walls of the ditch had begun to move — not to slide, but to sort of vibrate, or ripple in the oddest way. It fell in behind us as we raced out.
REGIONAL–It’s no secret that in North Carolina, with its appointed and influential Department of Transportation Board, road construction is heavily politicized. That’s a foregone conclusion in the “good roads state“.
And one of the crown jewels of politicized road-building is I-40 west, which, just under half a century ago, was routed through particularly inhospitable country at the behest of well-connected state and regional leaders. A series of enormous rock slides has been the legacy.
When the slide-prone gorge route was first proposed, leaders from Madison County and the Asheville area had pushed for another route, one that would have sent I-40 through the French Broad River Valley in Madison, close to where U.S. 25/70 runs now.
“Lots of people these days will say highway decisions are all politics — well, hell yes, they are,” said Jody Kuhne, a state engineering geologist with the N.C. Department of Transportation.
“Back at that time, Haywood County had a large paper mill, major railroad access and other industry, and Madison County just didn’t have that, except some in Hot Springs. So, sure, they out-politicked Madison. The road went where the action was.”
MURPHY–The U.S. Forest Service announced today that it will close the Upper Tellico Off-Highway Vehicle trail system because of serious erosion problems.
The 39-mile trail system 10 miles west of Murphy is a popular destination for off-roaders, and when various environmental groups complained in 2007 of the damage caused by trucks and other vehicles, intense and sometimes acrimonious debate arose.
A snippet from today’s Asheville Citizen-Times:
The agency first began looking at runoff problems in the area after several environmental groups threatened to sue the agency in July 2007, alleging the Forest Service violated laws by failing to prevent mud from eroded trails from polluting streams. Since then, there has been intense debate between four-wheel-drive advocates and environmental groups over how to manage the area, and the Forest Service has temporarily closed some trails in the area.
CULLOWHEE-Organizers and supporters of Jackson County’s ambitious greenways project celebrated a milestone October 5, when the county board of commissioners voted to purchase a 1.4-acre plot of land near Cullowhee for $39,580.
The plot is the first purchased by the county to augment an existing sewage right-of-way that follows the Tuckasegee River between Cullowhee and Sylva. Organizers envision the Cullowhee-to-Sylva segment as a core element of a larger plan to hook individual greenways segments together to create an alternate transportation system for the county.
Commissioners tabled action on the purchase of an piece of property adjacent to the one they purchased.
County greenways project manager Emily Elders says the purchase is significant.
“It’s the first property purchased specifically for greenways in Jackson County after nearly ten years of hard work by our volunteers,” she said. “Hopefully, with future donated conservation easements, other successful negotiations and grant funding, we’ll be able to put a project on the ground soon that will demonstrate the wellness, transportation and recreation benefits of greenways for the whole county.”
Three newspapers are covering Jackson County’s greenways progress: the Smoky Mountain News, The Sylva Herald and the Cashiers Crossroads Chronicle.
The Chronicle is primarily concerned with the several Cashiers-area elements of the greenways plan, so it didn’t weigh in on Monday’s vote, but the Herald and News both did. Bibeka Shrestha’s story for the News emphasized the commissioner’s decision not to purchase the adjacent property, noting that if they had, the first mile of the 4.5 mile stretch would’ve been in county hands. The Herald, which has recently taken county commissioners to task for what it considers profligate spending on county payroll and the Dillsboro Dam fight, emphasized the property’s price tag.
The raw numbers from the Department of Transportation read like this:
… the program resulted in 690,114 dealer transactions submitted requesting a total of $2.877 billion in rebates. At the end of the program Toyota accounted for 19.4 % of sales, followed by General Motors with 17.6 %, Ford with 14.4 %, Honda with 13.0 %, and Nissan with 8.7%. The Department of Transportation also reported that the average fuel efficiency of trade-ins was 15.8 mpg, compared to 24.9 mpg for the new cars purchased to replace them, translating to a 58% fuel efficiency improvement.
Larry Hinton, general manager of Andy Shaw Ford in Sylva, said that for his dealership the program was a success.
“Not only did it drive new-car shopper traffic”, Hinton says, “we were able to convert many more customers who didn’t qualify for the “clunker” program into a pre-owned vehicle. In terms of unit volume and revenue [we were] up about 30% over a “normal” month [during the month that cash for clunkers was in effect].”
Hinton said that some criticisms of the program’s administration was valid — Andy Shaw had trouble with online filing of the necessary paperwork just like many dealers did — but that the DoT made accommodations to see that dealers had time to file.
“Now I just wonder when I’ll get paid,” Hinton said.
Ever since the launch of the Yellow Bike Project in late August, a new bike culture has quickly sprung up around campus at Western Carolina University.
The student-led initiative, which makes a fleet of fixed-up bikes available to anyone who wants to get around campus, has worked well under an honor system.
Chris Holden, co-president of the WCU Cycling Club, said he and the other organizers had anticipated that some of the bikes would go missing, but said he hadn’t seen any bikes leave campus so far. Moreover, students seem to be respectful toward their borrowed rides.
Such programs are popular and diverse world-wide. In general, a fleet of bicycles is made available within a certain geographic area. If you need one, you ride it. Then you park it in a designated rack, and the next person who needs it takes it from there.
REGIONAL–A draft list of road-building priorities for the southern mountains, released last week, placed a Cashiers crossroads roundabout at the very top, but also included several projects designed to relieve congestion around Sylva.
The 25-project list, compiled by the Southwestern Rural Planning Organization’s Technical Coordinating Committee, plays a significant role in helping prioritize state road building efforts. It has been released for comment, and can be viewed at this address: http://www.regiona.org/rpo.htm
Planning officials hope to replace the heavily-traveled stoplight intersection of NC 107 and US 64 in southern Jackson County with a sizeable roundabout. The roundabout solution was much discussed during the 2008 Mountain Landscapes Initiative as part of a larger, cohesive plan for development around the center of the popular, unincorporated village of Cashiers.
Sylva-area projects on the list are additional improvements to Cope Creek Rd., which connects NC 107 with US 23/74; improvement of NC 107 south from its southern intersection with “old 107″ to its intersection with NC 281 at Tuckasegee, and further consideration of the much-discussed “southern loop” — half of which would connect NC 107 south to US 23/74, effectively allowing Western Carolina University traffic to bypass Sylva.
Missing the list, but also being considered, are these Jackson County projects (among others):
• Improvements to NC 107 from its intersection with Business 23 (Kel-Save) to near Lovedale Rd. (Ingles Area). “Improve the current 5-lane divided facility to divided boulevard facility with median from US 23 Business to south of Lovedale Road. Intersections would also be improved during this upgrade.”
• Improvements to Business 23 from Harris Regional Hospital to its intersection with NC 107 (Kel-Save). “Widen Asheville Highway from a 2-lane facility to a 4-lane divided boulevard facility with a median from NC 107 to US 23.”
SYLVA–Jackson County’s unique greenway effort has been around for a decade or so, and has been becalmed at times.
But not lately.
Elders, with daughter Mason
A combination of public sentiment and local government support has pushed the greenways effort, now spearheaded by the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department, to new levels.
On August 17 the Jackson County Board of Commissioners gave their unanimous approval to the greenways master plan. The plan itself is a significant accomplishment, but the commissioners’ buy-in was, too.
“I feel that we have never had quite so much momentum and support for greenways in Jackson County”, says Emily Elders, Greenways Project Manager. “The commissioners’ endorsement and the continued participation and public support are encouraging as we begin to tackle the projects we listed in the master plan.”
Funding and rights-of-way don’t come easy in the greenways business, but as Elders begins checking the smaller projects off the list, the larger vision of local greenways advocates could take shape. These smaller projects will eventually grow together to fit into a larger transportation system for the county, says Elders.
“Greenways projects are often self-contained; more like recreation spots,” Elders says. “Many of ours will serve those purposes, too, but ultimately they’ll all begin to connect to help us solve larger transportation problems.”
Among the current projects are a few in the Cashiers/Glenville area, as well as a Dillsboro-to-Sylva connector that has been a thorn in the side of residents for years. Residents still envision a greenway connector between the towns, but a geographical bottleneck has made a joint effort with the NC Department of Transportation to build a sidewalk alongside Business 23 the only practical solution. The project is funded, but organizers are still negotiating with two property owners who refuse right-of-way.
“There’s no other approach except to begin negotiations, treat everyone fairly and respectfully, and hope for the best,” says Elders. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a section on the ground soon, and that will go a long way towards helping ease many people’s concerns about beautification, privacy, safety, and property values.”
STATEWIDE-It’s been a century or so since North Carolina was in the toll road business.
But various influences, including growing public sentiment for user-based taxation, and an apparent state government desire to divest itself of some road-building responsibility, is changing that.
But officials with the N.C. Turnpike Authority say they have no projects planned for the mountains, reports Mark Barrett at the Asheville Citizen-Times.
An excerpt:
The project “marks a new era in transportation in North Carolina,” [State Transportation Secretary Gene] Conti said in a statement last month. “With dwindling transportation revenues and more fuel-efficient vehicles, the state needed another tool in its toolbox to deliver megaprojects like the Triangle Expressway. By the community choosing to toll the expressway, we will be able to deliver this project decades sooner.”
Like many states, North Carolina has been looking for different ways to finance highway construction as the cost of projects has outstripped revenue from the gas tax.
Joyner said the state and nation may eventually replace or supplement gas taxes with technology that allows government to track vehicle movements and charge motorists for miles driven on any public road.
REGIONAL–Drive to Atlanta much? Me either, anymore.
But the one constant in that two-and-a-half jaunt is change, and that change isn’t going away anytime soon.
The Georgia Department of Transportation recently told an open house crowd of some 250 people at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School about its plans to widen US 441 to four lanes from Clayton to the North Carolina line, south of Franklin. It’s a 7.5 mile stretch, and the road work will cost about $110 million.
The route is a major connector between the Atlanta area and the Smokies.
Here’s an excerpt from a story in the Highlands Highlander:
The plans include creating a four-lane highway to the North Carolina state line with a 20-foot raised median. Pope said the original plans included a 20-foot raised median through Dillard, but that has been changed to a 6-foot median. She added that the goal was to “minimize the impact on businesses.”
HIGHLANDS–Few people grow up in this neck of the woods without becoming familiar with Dry Falls.
The waterfall, between Highlands and Franklin on US 64, is close enough to the road to allow access for everyone from the least adventurous tourist to the most rambunctious elementary school bus-full, so, at some point, most all of us get there.
Access to the falls has been closed, though, for almost two years, as a contractor for the Forest Service has worked on improving the facilities. But Dry Falls will soon reopen.
The project began late September of 2007 and was scheduled to be yearlong contract. Originally the designs included a parking lot across Highway 64 with a walkway spanning over the road, but a lack of funding put those plans on hold.
“There’s no funding for that at the moment but its still a possibility,” said Mike [Wilkins], Nantahala District Ranger. “Our next priority is to fix the trail down to the falls. We worry about people tripping and falling if they’re not careful.”
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale A. Ditmanson has announced that an 18 month-long project to repave 6.5 miles of thePark’s Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) is set to begin on March 16.
Newfound Gap Road serves as the primary visitor access to many of the Park’s most popular trailheads and scenic overlooks and is a heavily-traveled north-south artery between the tourist hubs of Cherokee, NC, and Gatlinburg, TN. The section to be resurfaced extends from the Collins Creek Picnic Area intersection south to the Park’s boundary with Cherokee, NC.
The work will be performed under a $9,922,175 contract with APAC Atlantic, Inc., and will be funded and administered by the Federal Highway Administration’s Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division. Completion of the work is expected by September 1, 2010.
Superintendent Ditmanson said, “In negotiating this contract we made every effort to minimize the disruption to visitor access to Park attractions and to our gateway communities. The contract incorporates a variety of work restrictions that are tailored to avoid lane closures during the busiest periods.”
“However,” Ditmanson said, “Given that paving work cannot be done in the coldest months, we could not avoid some traffic delays and still get the work done within a reasonable time frame. Up until June 15 lane-closures can take place around the clock during the week, but will not be allowed between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on weekends, holidays, or during Easter Week (April 10 through April 19). Weekends are defined as noon on Friday through 8:00 a.m. on Monday.”
From June 15 through August 15 no closures will be permitted at all between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.”
“We repaved the first ten miles of Newfound Gap Road in 2006 and 2007 using this same set of restrictions and found that inconvenience and complaints were very minimal,” Ditmanson concluded.
From August 16, 2009 through June 15, 2010, daytime lane closures will again be allowed except on weekends, and holidays. No work of any kind will be permitted during the month of October, on the day after Thanksgiving, or from December 23 through January 2. During periods when single lane closures are allowed the contractor may close up to four areas at a time but delays at each closure may not exceed 10 minutes at each location.
The Park has set up a new toll-free recording to provide current information on the status of any lane closures: 1-888-355-1849.
Information on unplanned or emergency road closures in the Smokies are always available at (865) 436-1200, ext. 631 (in Tennessee), or (828) 497-1909.
This section of road was last repaved in 1983 and is badly deteriorated. In addition to removal and replacement of old pavement, the contract includes widening and realignment of the road at the entrance to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
STATEWIDE/NATIONAL–McClatchy newspapers reports that support is rising in congress for a automobile mileage tax to help support the country’s highway infrastructure. The current federal gas tax is not indexed to inflation, hasn’t been raised in 15 years and is decreasingly profitable as people drive less.
The new program would tax motorists based on the number of miles they drive each year.
Here’s an excerpt from McClatchy (you can read the whole piece here):
… the proposal is raising privacy concerns — particularly if GPS devices were to monitor mileage — and opponents say that the last thing people need is a new tax, particularly in a recession. Some critics, moreover, fear that it would have a disproportionate impact in states such as California, which has longer-than-average commutes.
This type of usage tax has long been popular with environmentalists, and their arguments aren’t bad ones.
Still, there’s an element of cynicism here. After World War II the federal government went to bat in a major way for automakers, tire makers and the oil industry. Among the results was the interstate highway system, the systematic elimination of various forms of public transportation, and a generation of urban planning that catered strictly to the automobile.
The result is an environment in which its often difficult not to drive, and in which to live a “walkable” lifestyle is often an expensive prospect. In broadly general terms, town centers that offer opportunities for public transportation aren’t cheap places to live.
As is too often the case, the folks who are left with few options but to drive a long way to work would be most burdened by this tax, and they’ll be the ones least able to afford it.
HIGHLANDS–Few people grow up in this neck of the woods without becoming familiar with 