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Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2011
DOT: We won't build red route
But agency will still study the route, angering Garner
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closeState transportation officials say they'd rather kill a planned turnpike than build it on the so-called "red route" through the middle of Garner. But they will continue evaluating the unpopular path to compare it to the "orange route," a widely preferred option that would pass south of town.
"We have no intention of building the red route as drawn," Jim Trogdon, chief operating officer of the N.C. Department of Transportation, told Garner officials in a letter last week. And if federal regulators decide it is the only route they will allow, Trogdon wrote, the DOT will not build the turnpike.
But Trogdon stopped short of making that an ironclad promise, and his letter did not calm Garner's opposition to the red route.
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Garner officials on Thursday unveiled six new routes they want the N.C. Turnpike Authority to study instead of the hated red route. Turnpike engineers said the new options affect more wetlands and streams than the red route, so they aren't feasible. But Garner leaders think the routes are preferable to one that runs through nearly a thousand homes and businesses.
Here are their options:
The blue-hatched route starts west of Lake Wheeler Road and Optimist Farm Road. It dips south, crossing U.S. 401 north of Hilltop Road, connecting to the discarded blue route just north of N.C. 42.
The green-hatched route follows the blue-hatched route until it crosses Lake Wheeler Road, then veers east to connect with the orange route east of Old Stage Road.
The brown-hatched route follows the Turnpike Authority's discarded purple route to U.S. 401 outside of Fuquay-Varina, then dips farther south to follow N.C. 42. It would connect to an orange-hatched route that comes out at the Interstate 40/U.S. 70 bypass interchange. Or it could connect to a grey-hatched route that crosses I-40 south of the bypass interchange.
The turquoise-hatched route follows the discarded blue route until it passes Rock Service Station Road, then connects to the brown-hatched route at Jordan Road.
"It wasn't worth the paper it was written on," Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said Friday. "I don't think anybody can promise anything right now."
N.C. Turnpike Authority officials met for two hours Thursday with the Garner Town Council, residents and business leaders.
Williams says he wasn't impressed with their stance on the red route. "There's not a whole lot of respect for the Turnpike Authority anymore," he said. "They've been inconsistent in what they've told me, and they've been inconsistent in what they're telling other people."
The orange route for the Triangle Expressway through southern Wake County would pass through sensitive wetlands that are home to an endangered mussel. Federal regulators said last month they might kill the turnpike unless the state provides a detailed comparison with an alternative route that would cause less wetland damage.
The additional study will keep the red route in play at least through the end of 2011, with a draft environmental impact statement expected by June 2012, said the Turnpike Authority's DeWitt.
At Thursday's meeting, Garner residents expressed frustration with the plan to spend about $500,000 studying the red route. "It seems like they're just throwing money away," Williams said.
But Scott McClendon, assistant regulatory chief in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Wilmington District, said regulators haven't drawn any conclusions about where the road should be built, and the study is needed.
"For us to drop those alternatives at this point in the game and leave us with essentially one alternative, we would not be doing our due diligence," McClendon said.
Still, Garner leaders worry that economic development and home sales in the town might stop until the study's completion next year.
"This does not end the game for us but merely extends the study period to June 2012 at the earliest," Garner Town Manager Hardin Watkins said.
Garner officials say the lingering uncertainty threatens to scare off an unidentified employer who is considering a $9 million investment in the Greenfield South business park, with the prospect of 225 new jobs. The business park lies in the red route path.
"Given the schedule they're on, they've got to do something quickly," Williams said.
Having lobbied the Turnpike Authority extensively in recent months, Garner leaders are now turning their attention to state and federal elected officials.
The town has formed committees of residents to lobby Wake County's General Assembly delegation to help, and another committee will seek assistance from congressional representatives. They figure the politicians can push through the red tape that requires study of the red route.
"If there's any progress made dealing with the EPA and the Corps of Engineers, there's going to have to be some pressure from the federal elected officials," Williams said.
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