Local officials

push for N.C. 105

improvements
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is exploring traffic changes to N.C. 105 after pressure from town of Boone and Watauga County leaders.

The transportation department drafted safety improvements after both local governments asked for a closer look at the four-and-five-lane section in west Boone.

The interest arose largely from a fatal traffic accident last November and the idea for improvements has gained momentum despite tight highway funding.

Dean Ledbetter, traffic engineer with the DOT’s 11th Highway Division, responded in a February letter to safety concerns expressed by the Boone Town Council. Ledbetter wrote the speed limit on N.C. 105 had been reduced from 45 to 35 miles per hour, but that the installation of a traffic signal at the N.C. 105-Poplar Hill Drive intersection was unwarranted.

In December, the Boone Town Council adopted a resolution requesting immediate reduction of the speed limit on N.C. 105 from 45 to 35 mph between the 105 Bypass and Poplar Hill Road; that left turn lanes be added at intersections on the four-lane portion; that a traffic light be added for safe access to and from Poplar Hill Drive and coordinated with the county’s resolution for a traffic light at Poplar Grove Road; and that crosswalks be added and maintained at all major state-maintained intersections, including U.S. 421 and N.C. 194, U.S. 421 and New Market Boulevard, and U.S. 421 and N.C. 105.

A key to the improvements is the future of a road on Appalachian State University property that would connect Bodenheimer Drive, Homespun Hills Road and Poplar Grove Road. Jim Deal, chairman of both the Watauga County commissioners and ASU’s Board of trustees, said Monday no decision had been made on the connector. The engineering plan calls the connector a “concept design only.”

The other proposed improvements were outlined in a series of aerial images that show limited turn lanes at N.C. 105 intersections with Poplar Hill Road, N.C. 105 Bypass, University Highlands and Poplar Grove Road South, Dogwood Road and Poplar Grove, with a signal light proposed for Homespun Hills.

Ledbetter said much of the middle or fifth lane would be filled in as either a concrete or grass median, which would increase traffic flow by reducing the number of merging vehicles. “There will be some widening at locations where there are breaks for U-turns,” Ledbetter said, with the goal being to require motorists to make U-turns to backtrack in some places rather than making left turns across traffic.

“We look at accident history and the fact that we know that a five-lane roadway statewide has a higher accident rate than other types of roadways,” Ledbetter said.

“We’d certainly expect to see some reduction in accident numbers. There would also be an increase in the roadway’s ability to carry traffic. You minimize the number of movements because you reduce the friction; you don’t have as many people entering turn lanes, which helps traffic flow.”

The intersection with Poplar Hill Road would be blocked to eliminate left turns across traffic in the four-lane section. It’s the site of last year’s crash that killed Andrew Russell Newell, 22, and injured three others. Juan Manuel Juarez Reyes, 24, is charged with second-degree murder and other counts after allegedly rear-ending the Newells’ vehicle while drunk.

The county commissioners have requested NCDOT hold a public meeting on the proposals. Ledbetter said the plan was preliminary and the NCDOT was awaiting feedback from the Boone Town Council.

“We’re still waiting for comments for the town of Boone as well, so at this point, I don’t know what the next step will be,” Ledbetter said. “I don’t know how this would be funded. Right now, what we generated was just to start the discussion.”