Skip to main content

NCTA narrows possible alignments on TriEx; but an endangered mussel may change route in Garner

Last week, the North Carolina Turnpike Authority eliminated three of the possible alternative routings for the southeastern extension of the Triangle Expressway.  The elimination of the Yellow, Purple, and Blue options come as a relief to residents of Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina.  However, the dwarf wedge mussel - an endangered species - may alter the TriEx through Garner compared to the widely supported route proposal of 20 years.

Where the Orange Corridor, which has been on the books as the planned routing of the Southern Wake Expressway since the 1990's, crosses Swift Creek is near locations where the endangered mussel has been found.  The second option, known as the Red Corridor, crosses Swift Creek further north and the dwarf wedge mussel has not been known to habitat that section of the creek.

Even though the Orange Corridor has been the "protected corridor" for nearly 20 years, protected meaning that commercial and residential development has been limited on the prospective right of way, federal regulations require that other corridors be studied.

The Red Corridor would run further to the north and have a greater impact on existing homes, businesses, and planned development.  Garner leaders fear that the Red Corridor would cut the town in half.

This isn't the first time that the dwarf red mussel has impacted highways in North Carolina, specifically in the greater Raleigh area.  The US 70 Clayton Bypass was redesigned over Swift Creek and delayed a number of years on mitigation issues for the endangered mussel.  100 foot buffer zones were created to prevent environmental damage from chemical and oil sediment runoff into Swift Creek.

The concern over the Red Corridor and its possible impact on the town prompted Garner officials to hold a town hall meeting this evening in which a capacity crowd was expected.

The NCTA expects a route to be finalized by 2012.

Story Links:
Highway may divide Garner to protect mussels ---Raleigh News & Observer
Expressway route options narrow ---Raleigh News & Observer

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

California State Route 203 the proposed Minaret Summit Highway

California State Route 203 is an approximately nine-mile State Highway located near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Mono County.  California State Route 203 as presently configured begins at US Route 395, passes through Mammoth Lakes and terminates at the Madera County line at Minaret Summit.  What is now California State Route 203 was added to the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 112.  The original Mammoth Lakes State Highway ended at Lake Mary near the site of Old Mammoth and was renumbered to California State Route 203 in 1964.  The modern alignment of the highway to Minaret Summit was adopted during 1967.   The corridor of Minaret Summit and Mammoth Pass have been subject to numerous proposed Trans-Sierra Highways.  The first corridor was proposed over Mammoth Pass following a Southern Pacific Railroad survey in 1901.  In 1931 a corridor between the Minarets Wilderness and High Sierra Peaks Wilderness was reserved by the Forest Service for po