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Public favors median for Horse Pen Creek Road

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

(Updated 10:57 am)

By Jason Hardin
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — Grass and trees have trumped asphalt — a lane’s worth, at least — in the design for a major road project in northwest Greensboro.

The estimated $28 million widening of Horse Pen Creek Road calls for a four-lane road with a landscaped median, much like the recent remaking of Friendly Avenue.

City officials also had been considering a five-lane version with no median.

The decision came after a majority of public comments favored a median.

City transportation officials presented the plans to the road’s neighbors Tuesday at a public meeting. As they peered down at aerial photographs showing plans for the road, many of the more than 160 people who attended said they liked what they saw.

“I’d rather see the grass than five lanes of asphalt,” said John Watkins, who lives in the area.

The five-lane roads also seem to encourage traffic to go too fast, he said.

“When you’re on a road that’s five lanes wide, you feel like you’re on I-40,” Watkins said.

The current two-lane road carries a heavy traffic load, with up to nearly 19,000 cars using it each day — a number projected to keep rising.

In addition to widening the 3.4-mile stretch between New Garden Road and Battleground Avenue, the project as now envisioned would include bike lanes and sidewalks.

Adam Fischer, director of the city transportation department, said a combination of safety and appearance strengthens the case for the median.

That option carries a higher cost, likely a few million dollars more than the five-lane road. But cost isn’t always the sole consideration, Fischer said.

“If you’re building something to last ... you want to build it right,” he said.

Not everyone is thrilled with the plans.

Donna Yaniglos, who lives in the area, said she doesn’t think it needs four lanes. She would prefer a two- or three-lane road with roundabouts rather than traffic lights.

“I think it would slow the traffic down,” she said.

But others like the project as envisioned.

Traffic has reached horrendous levels, some residents say, where making left turns onto or off Horse Pen Creek Road can be difficult.

Donald Ellis first moved there a 25 years ago, when it was a quiet corner of the county.

He likes the presence of banks and restaurants and grocery stores nearby, but the traffic is rough.

“This is an absolute must,” Ellis said about the project. “The morning traffic and the afternoon traffic is just brutal.”

For some residents, the main issue is that they’re ready for the work — which is already funded and which is expected to be completed in 2017 — to begin.

Resident Katie Baier said she’s ready for relief.

“That’s a long way off,” she said.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Photo Caption: Image provided by the city of Greensboro

PROPOSED ROAD CHANGE

The estimated $26 million road project will widen Horse Pen Creek, which is projected to carry about 24,000 cars a day by 2035. The wider road will ease congestion on Battleground Avenue and improve the safety of Horse Pen Creek. Residents Tuesday night preferred the landscaped median option.

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Newzerboy

September 23, 2009 - 8:15 am EDT

Why is it going to take so much time to get this complete? And, if it's not scheduled to be complete by 2017, how are you going to pay for the adjusted price tag? We see it in our schools all the time. We pass a bond for projects based on a given price tag, the system delays action for years and so each project doubles in price. We end up with brand new schools that are over-crowded in the first year, only half the projects we were promised, and educators complaining about needing more money. If there's a need (and it's obvious there's a need), if there's a plan to build the road (also obvious) then why wait until 2017 to complete it?

Capt. Spaulding

September 23, 2009 - 9:42 am EDT

This writer obviously didn't talk to the 50 or so of us in the neighborhood that will be cut off from making left turns from Waynoka and will be forced to make dangerous u-turns to gain access to New Garden Road, we were there at the meeting last night.
Neither did the writer mention that the engineers from the city came unprepared with no traffic volume figures for Waynoka, Plantation, Langdon or the other roads in our sub-division.
The city Engineers were smug about their plan and showed a complete lack of understanding of the morning traffic patterns along southern Horse Pen Creek Road, saying we could turn right and then make a dangerous u-turn to travel south on Horse Pen Creek Road.
At one point they looked surprised when asked how a fire truck would access homes off of Waynoka, they said I guess they can go around the block - and additional .9 miles through a congested residential area - at least a 2-3 minute delay - nice attitude, from somebody whose salary we pay, guess it’s not their house that could burn down from a several minute delay.

rooster8786

September 23, 2009 - 1:40 pm EDT

As one of the "public" who has to pay for this project, a taxpayer, I want to kn ow when our "leaders" are going to realize that aesthetics cannot continually trump functionality. As one who lived with the Friendly Avenue project for months, and still does, I say the hell with a pretty grass median with trees. My street is now blocked from a left turn as I head west so I now have to make a dangerous u-turn. Additionally, the left turn lanes are too short and cars back-up into the traffic flow lanes and slow down dangerously in the traffic flow lanes. We won't even talk about not only the added initial expense to make this road "pretty" but what about the maintenance of the median as an ongoing expense? I need a new car and would love a Mercedes, unfortunately, I can only afford a Chevrolet. When will the leaders of Greensboro understand this same concept???? Make Horsepen Creek the 5 lane thoroughfare it should be and save the taxpayers money.