Editor’s note: Ask Us is a weekly feature published online Mondays and in print on Tuesdays. We’ll seek to answer your questions about items or trends in Rowan County. Have a question? Email it to askus@salisburypost.com.

SALISBURY — Jake Alexander Boulevard forms something like a semi-circle as it arcs across southwest Salisbury, but a reader asked whether it will ever be extended to make a complete circle around the city.

“Yes,” said Phil Conrad. “It just doesn’t have a date.”

Conrad is director of the Cabarrus-Rowan Urban Metropolitan Planning Organization, the body that oversees regional transportation planning for Cabarrus and Rowan counties.

If and when the road is extended, it will stretch from West Innes Street to U.S. 29, circling north Salisbury and Spencer. Another section would start at Interstate 85 near East Spencer and end at Stokes Ferry Road.

The estimated cost for the project is $76 million, according to Conrad.

The planning agency works with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to create 10-year programs for transportation updates. The State Transportation Improvement Program is released every two years by the DOT.

The transportation program covering the years 2020 through 2029 doesn’t include any extensions of Jake Alexander Boulevard, said Pat Ivey, division engineer for DOT Division 9. Ivey said he is not sure if it will be included in the next plan.

The project has been submitted for consideration by the town of Spencer in the past, although it was not included in the 2018-27 program.

Nonetheless, “it remains a long-term priority for the area,” Conrad said.