Skip to main content

Triangle Expressway Updates...Full Speed Ahead

With all the funding from a variety of sources in place, the North Carolina Turnpike Authority yesterday officially awarded the construction contracts of the 18.8 mile Triangle Expressway. If, and that's a big if, all goes well we will see the entire highway open to traffic in 2012.

Wilson, NC based S.T. Wooten Corp will build the 3.4 miles of the Triangle Parkway at a cost of $137.5 million. This will build the toll road from NC 147 in RTP to NC 540 at Davis Drive. The project will also include a toll plaza on NC 540.

Two companies - Archer Western Contractors of Atlanta and Granite Construction of Watsonville, CA - combined to create Raleigh/Durham Roadbuilders to extend NC 540 from its current end 12.6 miles south to the NC 55 Bypass in Holly Springs. That contract is worth $446.5 million.

2.8 miles of currently open - and free - NC 540 from Davis Drive to NC 55 near Apex will be incorporated into the toll road.

Surveying is to begin this week - and an official ground breaking ceremony will be held on August 12th.

Story Links:
Turnpike board starts spending for toll road ---Raleigh News & Observer
Turnpike Authority awards contracts for state toll road ---WRAL-TV

Commentary:
So it begins, after nearly two years of teasing, construction of North Carolina's first toll road is set to begin. The road will be opened in two segments; and depending on which news story you read, the road will be completed in its entirety by 2012 or 2013. Of course, if the NCTA is anything like the NCDOT it will most likely be delayed.

Here at the blog, we have three members of our team within ear shot of this project - myself, Brian LeBlanc, and Bob Malme. All three of us will be covering different parts of this project - from construction progress and delays - discovering what the TOLL NC Highway shields will look like - to any political obstacles that will inevitably get in the way.

Hopefully one or all three of us will be at the groundbreaking on August 12th and we'll be here to file a report.

Comments

Bob Malme said…
I'll plan to be there for the groundbreaking (given that this is a toll road, will there be an entrance fee?). If any divvying up of the project coverage would work, I'm happy to take on the Triangle Parkway segment since it's closest to me.

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the s...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

The Dead Man's Curve of Interstate 90 and Innerbelt Freeway in Cleveland

"Dead Man's Curve" refers to the transition ramp Interstate 90 takes between Cleveland Memorial Shoreway onto the Innerbelt Freeway in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  Said curve includes a sharp transition between the two freeways which is known for a high rate of accidents.  Currently the curve (not officially named) has a 35 MPH advisory speed and numerous safety features intended to mitigate crashes.  When the Interstate System was first conceived during 1956, Interstate 90 was intended to use the entirety Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and connect to the Northwest Freeway through Lakewood.  The Innerbelt Freeway was initially planned as the northernmost segment of Interstate 71.  The extension of Cleveland Memorial Shoreway west of Edgewater Park was never constructed which led to Interstate 90 being routed through the Innerbelt Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Cleveland's Innerbelt Freeway and Deadman's Curve The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signe...