| Apex will need four new traffic
signals to keep order on N.C. 55 at the north end of town this
fall. But not before then, the state Department of
Transportation says.
This ordinary decree has become a hot issue since one of
the four DOT-approved stoplights was installed last fall, a
year ahead of the DOT-approved schedule. Neighborhood
residents and town officials expected to see the new signal
turned on right away, but they forgot one thing.
They forgot to say, "DOT, may I?"
Beaver Creek Commons will be the biggest shopping center in
town when it opens in October or November on N.C. 55. Anchored
with Lowe's and Super Target stores, it will generate enough
new traffic to justify stoplights on a highway where, the DOT
says, stoplights are not warranted now.
Actually, DOT engineers acknowledge that this stretch of
highway can get pretty busy at times and that making a left
turn onto N.C. 55 can be a dicey maneuver. This problem
worsened last year at the entrance to the 600-home Haddon Hall
neighborhood east of N.C. 55, after Beaver Creek construction
changed traffic patterns and funneled more cars into that
intersection each day.
Residents of subdivisions with several hundred homes west
of N.C. 55 used to enter the highway via Hyacinth Way until it
was closed last year. Now their highway outlet is a new Beaver
Creek entrance road opposite the Haddon Hall entrance.
As they head to school or work each morning, watching for
an opening in N.C. 55 traffic, they face drivers emerging from
Haddon Hall who are trying to do the same thing. Low hills
limit visibility in both directions.
"You don't know whether you're going to get hit when you
come out of there," said Arthur F. Clemm, who lives west of
N.C. 55.
"It's a booger to get out of there, coming from either
direction," agreed Bruce A. Radford, the Apex town manager.
"You just draw up and take your best opportunity." Turning on
the new stoplight there would eliminate this hazard, he said.
The DOT adheres to a national book of traffic signal
standards to determine when and where stoplights are
warranted. When the town of Apex surveyed traffic at the
Haddon Hall intersection in December, it didn't count enough
cars to meet the standard.
Until shoppers start driving to Beaver Creek, DOT says, it
would be wrong to install a new stoplight -- or even to
activate one the developer installed prematurely.
"We've got a lot of concerns about turning on unwarranted
signals," said Joey R. Hopkins, the DOT operations engineer
for Wake and six other counties. "You could cause more
problems than you're trying to solve. It could cause undue
delay on the main road."
Residents are lobbying for a change of heart.
"I just find it amazing that they refuse to listen to the
risk that we feel exists out there, and they hide behind the
results of that traffic survey," said Sharon B. Rhyne, vice
president of the Haddon Hall Homeowners Association.
Hopkins said the DOT must do a balancing act while it
awaits results of another traffic survey.
"I'm not saying it's safe out there now, because of the
sheer volume of traffic," Hopkins said. "It's hard to turn
left out of a driveway on that stretch of 55, much less out of
a subdivision.
"We want to make it safe for everybody. We want to make
sure we're not just stopping traffic on 55. The last thing we
want to do is get anybody hurt out there." |
