Monday, June 22, 2009

Morrisville-Carpenter Rd/NC 54 Intersection OPEN!


After weeks of heavy construction, drivers are now able to take advantage of the improvements made to the intersection of Morrisville Carpenter Road and NC 54 (Chapel Hill Road). The detour has been removed and the intersection is now open!

To permit an additional turn lane from Morrisville-Carpenter Rd to NC 54, the Railroad relocated its crossing gates. Also completed are right turn lanes from NC 54 to Aviation Pkwy & from NC 54 to Morrisville-Carpenter Rd. Click here to see map of the changes. Above photo credit: NBC-17

The intersection of the three roads (NC 54, Morrisville-Carpenter Rd & Aviation Pkwy) combine to create one of the most heavily traveled in the Triangle. Although these are State roads, the improvements were made by the Town because of the importance to Morrisville and the region. The project is the result of a lengthy collaboration between the North Carolina Railroad, Norfolk Southern Railroad, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the Town of Cary, and the Town of Morrisville. These improvements will allow motorists to move more quickly through this major intersection.

In order to get the additional lane over the railroad tracks, the Town had to give up the two lanes crossing the tracks at Barbee Road. The Barbee Road crossing is required to be closed within six moths.

2 comments:

Lee said...

I still wonder why they will not allow right run on red from MC to 54. With the new configuration, there is plenty of space for a car or two across the tracks and the lights already cycle so as the gates come down the light is green in that direction so any cars between the gate and light can move.

Also, I thought they were going to eliminate the ability of people from Page and Church to try to cross over and get in line at the light with a median. Was this not the whole reason cited for building Street E or whatever it was called, to allow these people to not have to cross there. It will lead to even more backups as people will just stop to let them in across 2 or 3 lanes of traffic now.

This widening is nice and helps, but it could have been so much better if they were even close to what was actually voted on oh so many years back in the bond issue.

Morrisville Town Manager said...

Left turns from Church and Page Streets (and crossovers) onto Morrisville Carpenter Road will be eliminated when medians are installed on Church Street. Once the medians are installed there will be a need for a street routing permitting Church Street traffic to conveniently reach a left turn opportunity onto Morrisville Carpenter Road. Jeremiah Street will permit Church Street traffic to crossover to Town Hall Drive to reach a left turn opportunity at Morrisville Carpenter Road.

Jeremiah Street is currently accessable.

The medians were not included in the MC/54 project because the town did not have the funding available to extend the project westward to beyond Church Street. Additional right-of-way is needed and of couse the widening would have also required additional funding. The decision was to make the best improvement possible within the available funding and to prepare for the next phase (not scheduled at this time).

The next phase will include roadway widening and installing medians on Morrisville Carpenter Road.

"No Right Turn on Red" at MC to 54 is based on criteria concerning vehicle operators being able to observe crossing traffic on 54 from the stop bar on MC Road. This criteria is enforced by the NCDOT and in this case their Rail Division and the North Carolina Rail Road Company. Morrisville designed the project and these two agencies had to review and approve the design.