Skip to main content

More NCDOT Miscommunication?

If you click the title you will be taken to an article written a few days ago (August 26) about efforts to redevelop Main Street through downtown High Point. The main point of the article is that when the street is no longer designated as US 311 Business, the city and local development groups can take control of the road and move ahead on efforts to revitalize the corridor. Most of the efforts currently involve slowing traffic down through reducing speed limits, possibly narrowing the road from 4 lanes to 2 with wider sidewalks and medians, plus other traffic calming measures which all believe will help stimulate the local economy.

The story is based on one big assumption though, that NCDOT hasn't given back Main Street to local control. But, in fact it has. Last November NCDOT submitted an application to remove the US 311 Business designation from Main Street to AASHTO's US Route Numbering committee. They approved the application. According to the NCDOT application, upon AASHTO approval, the street designation would 'be reclassified from a US Route to a Secondary Route' (SR). So by the beginning of this year, Main Street was in fact locally controlled.

Why didn't the reporter or the groups and city officials interviewed know about this? Perhaps NCDOT didn't inform them of the approval of the application? Though anyone could look up the decision online. Perhaps it's just because NCDOT has not removed all the Business 311 signs and everyone assumed as long as the signs are up it's still a US route. One of High Point's traffic camera's (Number 34) still shows a Business 311 sign at the corner of Main and Lexington Avenue. My trip through the corridor last spring also saw several other Business US 311 signs six months after the AASHTO approval.

I e-mailed the reporter with this information and told him he was free to pass it along to all the groups quoted in the article. It will be interesting to see if any blame is placed on the local NCDOT district office for making all the groups wait on presenting plans, when they didn't have to (or embarrassing them publicly). The local district has to know about the change because they put up new signs on US 311 South at Main Street after the old ones had been taken down by a tornado. The signs no longer list Business 311, just Main Street. My piece of advice: assumption is the mother of all screw-ups, this particularly applies when NCDOT is involved.

Comments

Larry G said…
so.... why is this a problem....anyhow?

is there some downside to this that would have been known had NCDOT told everyone?

I guess I'm not "getting it"
Bob Malme said…
No downside. I was just commenting on the apparent ignorance on the part of public and private groups in W-S over the status of Business 311. That they were having an important enough meeting for a reporter to attend over what to do when 311 Business is decommissioned, when it already was decommissioned a year ago. I will monitor the paper to see if there is a follow-up article and see how the oversight is explained.

Popular posts from this blog

US Route 101 in Benbow, Garberville and Redway

The communities of Benbow, Garberville and Redway can all be found along US Route 101 within southern Humboldt County.  The former surface alignment of US Route 101 in Garberville and Redway once crossed the Garberville Bluffs along what is now Redwood Drive via a corridor constructed as part of the Redwood Highway during the 1910s.  US Route 101 through Benbow, Garberville and Redway was modernized by 1935.  US Route 101 would eventually be upgraded to freeway standards in Benbow, Garberville and Redway by extension of the Redwood Freeway during 1966-68.  As the cover photo the original grade of US Route 101 and the Redwood Highway can be seen at the Garberville Bluffs during 1934.  US Route 101 can be seen in the communities of Benbow, Garberville and Redway on the 1935 Division of Highways Map of Humboldt County .   The history of US Route 101 in Benbow, Garberville and Redway Benbow, Garberville and Redway lie on the banks of the South Fork Eel River of southern Humboldt County.  D

Highways in and around Old Sacramento; US 40, US 99W, CA 16, CA 24, CA 70, CA 99, CA 275, and more

This past weekend I was visiting the City of Sacramento for a wedding.  That being the case I decided to head out on a morning run through Old Sacramento, Jibboom Street Bridge, I Street Bridge, Tower Bridge, and path of US Route 40/US Route 99W towards the California State Capitol.  My goal was to retrace the paths of the various highways that once traversed the Old Sacramento area. This blog is part of the larger Gribblenation US Route 99 Page.  For more information pertaining to the other various segments of US Route 99 and it's three-digit child routes check out the link the below. Gribblenation US Route 99 Page The old highway alignments of Sacramento The City of Sacramento lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and American River in Sacramento Valley.  Sacramento Valley was discovered by Spanish Explorer Gabriel Moraga in 1808.  Moraga referred to the fertile Sacramento Valley akin to a "Blessed Sacrament."  By 1839 John Sutter Sr. settled in Mexican held

Old Stage Road in Tulare County and Kern County

Old Stage Road is an approximately 30-mile rural highway comprised of Tulare County Mountain Road 1, Kern County Mountain Road 447 and Tulare County Mountain Road 109.  Old Stage originates at Jack Ranch Road near Posey and ends at the outskirts of Porterville at Deer Creek.  Old Stage Road notably is comprised of two 19th Century stage routes.  From White Mountain Road northwest to Fountain Springs, Old Stage Road overlays Thomas Baker's 1860s era stage road to Linn Valley (now Glennville) and the Kern River Gold Rush Claims.  From Fountain Springs to Deer Creek, Old Stage Road is comprised of the 1853 Stockton-Los Angeles Road. Featured as the blog cover is the northward descent on Old Stage Road along Arrastre Creek to the town site of White River.  What became White River was settled along a spur of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road as "Dog Town" when gold was discovered nearby.  By 1856 the community had been renamed Tailholt.  A stage road from Tailholt to Linn Valley w