As young boys, brothers Jack and Junior Cauble could play ball in the middle of U.S. 70 for 10 to 15 minutes before having to make way for an oncoming vehicle.
Today, some 20,000 cars whiz by this same spot in the road daily, and Jack Cauble sounds exasperated as he talks on the front sidewalk of his home.
“It’s going to be a death trap,” Cauble tells a highway engineer on the telephone. “It’s going to be horrendous, trying to negotiate a U-turn.”
The Cauble brothers live side by side on their family’s land. They have seen the old road widened twice in their lifetimes, and now the N.C. Department of Transportation is widening U.S. 70 again in five different construction phases between Salisbury and Statesville.
The brothers don’t begrudge progress — they accept that they’ll lose road frontage to the next widening. But they balk at the DOT’s plan for a four-lane road divided by a median.
For safety, convenience and sheer common sense, Jack Cauble says, they prefer a five-lane road, with the center lane being used for turns. A median will cost lives, commerce and tax dollars, he contends.
Hundreds of their neighbors, scores of businesses and many churches on U.S. 70 apparently agree with the Caubles, judging from petitions, letters and telephone calls made in recent weeks. The focus centers on the 3.5-mile section of Statesville Boulevard (U.S. 70) from the Salisbury Mall area to Kepley Road.
With a median, the stretch will include spots for 13 U-turns, if new traffic signals at Majolica Road, Enon Church Road and Hurley School Road are counted.
Residents such as 79-year-old Louise Goodson believe a median will make even going to church on Sunday mornings a dangerous proposition.
Getting to St. Matthews Episcopal Church will be easy enough — it’s on the same side of Statesville Boulevard as Goodson’s home is. But returning home after church will force Goodson to turn right out of the church parking lot, make a U-turn to head in the opposite direction, drive past her home and make another U-turn to get back to her driveway.
“I just won’t be going to church very often,” Goodson says.
Business owners along Statesville Boulevard say a median presents an obstacle for delivery trucks, tractor-trailers and customers. Cauble counts 113 businesses entering Statesville Boulevard along the stretch closest to Salisbury.
“I assure you, we cannot put into words our objections to a median in front of our business,” says Lynda Burns, who operates Salisbury Venetian Blind Mfg. Co. with her husband, Larry. “This is true for 99.9 percent of the residents and businesses concerned.”
The Department of Transportation has begun obtaining right of way on the 3.5-mile section from the mall to Kepley Road, with construction scheduled to start in the fall of 2002. For much of the section, the existing road is three lanes, with the center lane being used for left turns in both directions.
Opponents to the median are now directing their voices to Salisbury City Council, whom they judge as the only people who really support a median other than N.C. Transportation Board member Margaret Kluttz and the DOT itself.
Salisbury City Council supported a median in both a resolution approved before the final highway design and at a public hearing July 20, 1999, at West Rowan High School. At that time, the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce also endorsed a grass median for the entire widening project between Salisbury and Statesville.
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners strongly opposed a median on the more commercial end of U.S. 70 — the stretch from the mall to Kepley Road. It favored five lanes with a center turn lane.
Virtually all the citizens who spoke at the 1999 public hearing also were against a median-divided highway, while DOT representatives said they were looking for a consistent design from one end of the project to the other. They settled on the median.
On June 5 at City Hall, Salisbury City Council has invited DOT representatives to review the Section E (Salisbury Mall to Kepley Road) improvements for U.S. 70 .
The DOT also plans to have a public workshop to talk about the median design, proposed crossover locations and access concerns.
A date has not been set for that workshop.
In a letter to the Post, which will be published Monday, N.C. DOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett responds to the opposition his department has heard, but he stands by the recommendation for a median. He says safety remains the primary consideration and that safety benefits of a median-divided highway far outweigh the five-lane alternative preferred by others.
DOT studies from 1997 to 2000 show that the total accident rate on five-lane roads ranged from two to six times higher than median-divided sections, Tippett says. He also cites supporting studies from other states.
Supporters of a median say it reduces the potential for all types of collisions, including head-on collisions of cars moving at each other in a center turn lane.
Tippett says a median reduces driver confusion and limits the number of conflicting maneuvers, reduces headlight glare and provides a safe refuge for pedestrians who need to cross the road. As for U-turns, Tippett says U.S. 70 will have properly designed crossovers.
Kluttz, a former Salisbury mayor, says she believes in her heart — after asking many questions and doing a lot of research — that a median design offers the safest highway for Statesville Boulevard.
Kluttz says questions from citizens and businesses along Statesville Boulevard have been beneficial, prompting DOT engineers to return to the plans and make sure they’re providing adequate crossovers for U-turns.
From an appearance and land development side, a median-divided U.S. 70 also addresses issues that “Salisbury and Rowan County have said they want to be about,” Kluttz adds.
City Engineer Dan Mikkelson says five-lane roads become less and less safe as traffic volume increases. He predicts development along Statesville Boulevard would accelerate greatly with a five-lane road, challenging the road’s capacity within 10 years or less.
Jack Cauble, supported strongly in his efforts by Salisbury developer Leo Wallace, has almost made his opposition to the median a full-time job. As have others, Cauble has personally contacted city councilmen, corresponded with Kluttz and Tippett and been on the telephone with DOT engineers.
“There’s no way a median is going to make that highway any safer,” Cauble says.
The biggest automobile that will be able to make a U-turn safely will be a Chevrolet Suburban with a 130-inch wheel base, Cauble says. Neither a Ford Excursion nor some pickup trucks with extended beds will be able to make the U-Turn without stopping and backing up on their swings in the opposite direction, according to Cauble.
But he worries more about the drivers of smaller vehicles who simply make a misjudgment on their U-turn, as high-speeding traffic comes toward them.
“They’re going to be T-boned in the side, and there’s going to be death and destruction,” Cauble says, also predicting rear-end collisions.
Realtor Margaret Kirby says she worries about her mother and other elderly drivers having to make more turns and drive farther to their destinations because of a median-divided Statesville Boulevard.
If it is a safety issue, Kirby adds, why wasn’t a median approved for Jake Alexander Boulevard, and why did the state and city back off the proposed median in front of the Holiday Inn and all the car dealers?
The smaller residential and business property owners say their opposition should carry the same weight.
The construction of a median and — if it’s grass, the regular maintenance — will cost the state millions of dollars extra, Cauble says.
“I’m not going out on the median and picking it up, I’ll clue you,” adds Louise Goodson.
Mary Penley has been one of many people circulating petitions against the median. They have appeared at places such as Hendrix Barbecue, St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Optometric Eye Care Center and Rowan Animal Clinic.
Penley says she especially worries about school buses and emergency vehicles being forced to negotiate U-turns on U.S. 70. Delivery trucks also are too large to make the U-turns and, she asks, how will new manufactured housing ever be delivered to the Fleetwood Home Center at 3835 Statesville Blvd.?
“No one can convince me,” Larry Burns of Salisbury Venetian Blind said in a letter to Kluttz, “that it’s safer for my customers and 18-wheelers delivering my products to make U-turns to get into my business than it would be to turn in from a continuous turn lane.”
Burns added that a median might be attractive, but the majority of residents and businesses want “a functional road that is safe as well as convenient for the taxpayers most involved.
Gail Moore, office manager for Rowan Animal Clinic, says clients seem to be 100 percent against a Statesville Boulevard median. “It’s just a headache,” she says.
Jack Cauble notes that on the Statesville end of U.S. 70, the DOT has widened the road to five lanes, with a center turn lane and no hint of traffic island or a median.
He also noted the same kind of median-less construction on N.C. 150 from N.C. 115 to Williamson Road — a 5-mile stretch that has about 28,000 cars a day.
“If it’s good enough for them, why do we have to be different?” Cauble asks.
Many of the opponents believe the city, in its support for a median, has put appearance above safety and convenience. They also characterize the median as a “pet project” of Transportation Board member Kluttz.
Cauble questions why the city’s support for a median should carry so much weight with the DOT. He contends that 84 percent of the 3.5-mile segment in question lies outside the city limits.
With much of the existing Statesville Boulevard already widened near the mall, only two-tenths of a mile within the city limits actually has to be widened, Cauble adds.
Kirby, the local Realtor, says it seems like a minority wants to rule.
“The only people who are for this thing are the five city councilmen,” she says.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com
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