Cabarrus Would Give Up Bypass For Wider I-85

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

KANNAPOLIS - To some residents of Cabarrus and southern Rowan counties, finding logic in the state's transportation bureaucracy is as frustrating as 5 o'clock gridlock on I-85.

This much was evident Thursday night when more than four dozen residents and a handful of local politicians spent two hours hashing out the state's plans for road projects in a meeting room in the YMCA in Kannapolis.

Tales of hellish commutes and patchwork roads peppered the public hearing, which was organized by the Cabarrus-South Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization to gather public response to the state's draft Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP.

The draft TIP outlines major road projects across the state through 2006.

Many of the residents on hand Thursday night were outraged to learn that state highway officials could not, or would not, flip-flop projects and juggle funding to fix what many see as a potential crisis: traffic on Interstate 85 through Cabarrus County.

Some residents simply refused to believe that the state would not accept the sacrifice offered up last month by Concord city officials to table the planned Westside Bypass around Concord and Kannapolis in order to hasten the widening of I-85.

One reason Concord desperately wants a wider I-85 is this fall's opening of Concord Mills, a large regional mall just off I-85 in south Concord. Studies indicate the mall could add anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 cars per day to I-85.

Residents at Thursday's meeting couldn't understand why the state would spend an estimated $84.1 million to build a bypass around the two cities while traffic continues to pile up on the four-lane interstate.

Widening 12 miles of I-85 from Exit 43 to Exit 55 at the south end of Concord would cost an estimated $76.7 million, but the project isn't scheduled for construction until 2004. Yet construction begins this summer on the northern leg of the Westside Bypass, a road Concord resident Marilyn Barnhardt said ''ends in the middle of no-wheresville.''

The problem, according to state and local transportation officials at the meeting, is that money for local-level road projects cannot be used to improve an interstate, or vice-versa.

Even if money were freed up for the widening, it would still take two years to plan and design the project, according to Benton Payne, DOT District 10 engineer.

After the meeting, Payne said he wished someone had pointed out that the Cabarrus-South Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization has made I-85 its highest priority for a number of years. Seven of the projects on the draft TIP, three of which remain unfunded, deal with I-85, he said.

Funded projects include $156 million to widen 13 miles of I-85 from U.S. 29 north to Exit 81, with construction scheduled to begin next year. Though currently unfunded, an additional proposed TIP project would carry the widening into Rowan County.

The TIP also includes projects off the interstate such as the Westside Bypass, realigning Earnhardt Boulevard in Kannapolis and widening N.C. 49 from Harrisburg to the Yadkin River.

But none of these projects can be sacrificed to hasten the I-85 widening around Concord Mills.

''It's just not true that if we give up some of these projects we'll free up some money for the widening of I-85,'' Sarah LaBelle, Planning Organization coordinator, explained during an interview before the meeting. ''They're totally different funding sources.''

Concord officials knew this when they passed a resolution last month proposing the postponement of the bypass in order to push up the interstate project, LaBelle said.

Concord's resolution probably was meant as a statement to state highway officials ''that if they were pressed to the wall, they'd be willing to make some sacrifices,'' she said.

''The fact of the matter is the only thing they have to give up is the Westside Bypass,'' LaBelle said.

Kannapolis officials this week passed their own resolution asking the state to push up the interstate widening, but it included an endorsement of the bypass. Some Kannapolis leaders hope the bypass will help recruit major industries to proposed business parks.

Lori Hart, who lives near the proposed Westside Bypass route outside Kannapolis, complained that the city doesn't need an $80-million, four-lane highway through farmland to attract new businesses.

''It will come without it,'' she said.

Even Kenneth Geathers, a Kannapolis City Council member who supports the northern leg of the Westside Bypass, warned that if the state doesn't find a solution soon, traffic on I-85 around Concord Mills and Charlotte Motor Speedway could become reach crisis proportions.

''If you shut down I-85, you shut down Charlotte,'' Geathers said. ''And if you shut down Charlotte, that will shut down North Carolina.''

Geathers serves as chairman of the Planning Organization's Transportation Advisory Committee, which makes road project recommendations to the state.

He reminded the crowd that the bypass was designed to help solve future traffic problems, and he warned that ''if we stop the Westside Bypass right now, it will never get built.''

Cries from the crowd of ''Who cares!'' and ''Good!'' met his remark.

Although Labelle reserved her opinions during the public hearing, she found potential for a solution in the sheer enormity of the problem during the earlier interview.

''Do you really think (the U.S. Department of) Commerce is going to let I-85 get choked, to plug up a major commercial transportation route along the Eastern Seaboard unless Concord gives up their Westside Bypass?'' she asked rhetorically.

Some residents wanted to know why the state is widening I-85 through Rowan County when Cabarrus County is closer to Charlotte. LaBelle and Payne, DOT engineer, said the deteriorated condition of the road surface helped hasten the project in Rowan County.

Landis Mayor Fred Steen, a Transportation Advisory Committee member, theorized that Salisbury Mayor Margaret Kluttz' membership on the state Transportation Board probably helped move ahead the widening in Rowan County, as well.

Residents at the meeting sounded off on a variety of other transportation issues:

- Ed Hill of Concord suggested the state copy Atlanta and restrict commercial truck traffic to just one lane of the interstate. Payne, the DOT engineer, said his department already is examining whether that would be helpful.

Hill also suggested the state raise the speed limit on I-85 to 65 mph in Charlotte. The drop to 55 mph contributes to daily traffic snarls, he said.

- Lamar Barrier, Concord City Council member, suggested the city start a petition to send to Raleigh in support of interstate widening.

- Frank Alexander of Crisco Road said he is sick of poor maintenance. He sad he hasn't seen a repaving project on ''Crisco Patch Road'' in more than 10 years.

Payne said he'd have to ''plead guilty'' to poor maintenance. But Payne blamed the state Legislature for habitually shortchanging the department on road maintenance funds. The DOT is improving in this area, he said.

- Adopting the common transportation theme that ''we can't pave our way out of trouble,'' Bobby Brooks of Stokes Ferry Road in Rowan County outlined a plan to run high-speed passenger trains along the interstate. Jet-propelled trains could run on tracks built in interstate medians, he said.

To illustrate how poorly transportation has improved over the years, Brooks held up his cellular phone as proof that communications technology has met the public need while transportation has lagged behind.

- Bob Dickinson of Concord later added to Brooks' theory. Communication technology has excelled because it's been a private business, he said. Transportation development has been mired in bureaucracy, he said.