Skip to main content

Remember the ill-fated Garden Parkway? It has now "evolved" to the Catawba Crossings

Image
By

Years ago, when we were a little more newsier at this site, one of the projects I followed for a while in North Carolina was the Garden Parkway.  The Parkway was a toll road project aimed at providing traffic relief to Interstate 85 and US 321 west of Charlotte.  It had been kicked around for a few decades, along with other names, before being revived with the creation of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority in 2002.  

For about a decade, the proposed highway met a lot of local and environmental opposition.  The proposed highway died a quiet death - although postcards were mailed out - in 2016.

Yet, like many projects here and elsewhere, someone else comes along, dusts off the old plans, modifies things a bit, and gives it a new name.  Now, the Garden Parkway, the successor of the Gaston East-West Connector, has been reborn again as the new Catawba Crossings project.  And it has evolved into a shorter, leaner, and toll-free version.

The proposed routing of the Catawba Crossings Project. (Catawba Crossings)

The new version is only six miles versus the previously proposed 22-mile length.  It is a boulevard design with a maximum of 45 miles per hour compared to the full-freeway 65 mph predecessor.   It'll run from Interstate 485 at West Boulevard (Exit 6) just south of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport then run west over the Catawba River and South Fork River into Gaston County before terminating at NC 279/South New Hope Road about five miles south of Belmont.

The project is currently in the public comment period followed by a feasibility study that should be completed later in 2022.  If it can get approval from local governmental planning organizations, the project would become eligible for future funding within NCDOT's structure.  One possible scenario is that the highway could open in 2038.  However, specifics towards costs and a timeline are vague at the present time.

The project also will face similar opposition and environmental hurdles as its predecessors did.  The Southern Environmental Law Center has already voiced its opposition to the project.  Local opposition 15 years ago focused heavily on the tolls and viability of such a project. Current concerns are focused on the nearby area's ability to handle additional traffic.  This includes requesting that NC 279 and other nearby roads be widened to four lanes.

I've added the project to my google news alerts - and try to keep following it.  It's a long way before anything happens.  Besides, I have been telling the others that I wanted some good newsier topics to follow.

Sources:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New River Gorge National Park & Preserve - Thurmond

By
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is best known for whitewater rafting and other forms of adventure tourism.  Yet, found in the hollows and isolated valleys are quiet farms and former coal mining towns.  Well off the beaten path and isolated from much of its surroundings, Thurmond provides a unique view into Central West Virginia's industrial past. Thurmond began as a railroad town in the late 1800s.  Sparked by the arrival of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and the local coal industry, Thurmond quickly grew into a sizeable transportation and coal center.  When it incorporated as a town in 1903, Thurmond was a full-fledged community - home to two banks, two hotels, and many other services and stores. A CSX freight train passes the old coaling tower in Thurmond.  It was here that many steam locomotives would refill and refuel. Thurmond was home to a C&O railyard which serviced the numerous steam engines passing through the narrow valley.  Thu...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tale of Tollhouse Road, western California State Route 168 and failed Piute Pass Highway

By
Western California State Route 168 is entirely located in Fresno County and is linked historically to the Tollhouse Road corridor.   Tollhouse Road is one of the oldest highways in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County. The corridor presently begins in at Clovis Avenue in downtown Clovis and extends northeast to Huntington Lake. In 1866 the Woods Brothers established mining claims on Pine Ridge. In 1867 Fresno County would grant the brothers a toll franchise to construct a roadway to the desirable logging areas atop Pine Ridge and near Dinkey Creek. The Woods would establish a tollhouse at the start of their franchise road and lumber mill. The lumber mill attracted settlers which led to the establishment of the mountain town of Tollhouse. Fresno County would purchase the Tollhouse Road in 1878 and make it a public highway. The county would remove the tolls and incorporate the corridor into the existing county road network. Prior to the establishment of Clovis in 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old Dunlap Road (former California State Route 180 in Yokuts Valley)

By
When California State Route 180 was commissioned in August 1934 the alignment in took in Sierra Nevada range was very different than from today.  The original highway alignment from Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) to east Grant Grove (then part of General Grant National Park) originally followed what is now Ruth Hill Road, Dunlap Road, Pinehurst Road (modern California State Route 245), Dark Canyon Road (partially now Forest Road 14S45).  After funding fell through for the planned Kings Canyon Road the was corridor eventually picked up as a 30-mile-long cooperative project between the Division of Highways and Federal Government.  Much of current alignment of California State Route 180 bypassing Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) and Dunlap was complete by 1941.  The post-1941 alignment of California State Route 180 in Squaw Valley was shifted onto what was once Dunlap Road in Squaw Valley.  This alignment itself was later bypassed by modern California State Route...
Post a Comment
Read more