More congestion coming to Triangle roads, with or without Apple
WRAL-TV, June 6, 2018
Traffic planners are bracing for another half million people in the Triangle and more than 100,000 new jobs in the next decade, even without Apple plunking a major campus down in the middle of the region.
"The business community will take this challenge any day," said Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, which is preparing for that growth.
Apple is reportedly considering an investment of $1.5 billion to $2 billion in North Carolina, including a Triangle campus that would have between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs.
"Whether you have 5,000 jobs or 500 jobs, locally grown or coming into the market, the region is well situated for growth," Milazzo said.
Milazzo points to Triangle highway improvement projects already in the pipeline, from completing the N.C. Highway 540 loop in Wake County to connecting N.C. Highway 147 and U.S. Highway 70 east of Durham to plans to transform sections of Capital Boulevard, Glenwood Avenue and U.S. Highway 64 into free-flowing expressways.
"If we continue to grow and we stop making investments, that would not be a good thing," Milazzo said.