Planner: Fixing Raleigh's Capital Boulevard requires 'bold' ideas
Triangle Business Journal, December 18, 2017
Capital Boulevard – one of Raleigh’s busiest streets – could be a gateway to Raleigh, says Regional Transportation Alliance Executive Director Joe Milazzo.
But that “could” is contingent on major change, as the road, which sees 75,000 vehicles each day, is plagued with frustrated commuters, honking horns and darting pedestrians. While Capital Boulevard isn’t listed among RTA’s top priorities for 2018, it is among the top pain points Milazzo hears from business executives in Raleigh.
“We’re hardly the first group to mention dissatisfaction with the current state of Capital Boulevard,” Milazzo said last week after the 2017 State of Mobility event in Cary. “It’s not clear what will happen, but what is clear is Capital Boulevard isn’t working for anyone right now.”
City planners have done some work on the route, announcing plans to transition the road north of I-540 into a freeway and enacting a major bridge replacement project in the stretch that hits downtown Raleigh.
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A chunk largely off their radar, however, has been the congested, stoplight-ridden asphalt strip between I-540 and I-440.
That changes in 2018.
Kenneth Bowers, director of planning with the city of Raleigh, says a request for qualifications has been released to solicit consultants to help craft a bold new plan for the roadway.
“The study is really going to look at some more potentially radical changes to the corridor … instead of just widening the road and making incremental improvements – that's not a functional solution," he says, noting that it's also among Raleigh's busiest bus routes. “If we want to encourage ridership on the system, we have to accommodate crossings … [Capital Boulevard] is not a very enjoyable place to be a pedestrian.”
But the longer the walk signal, "the longer I am holding up cars on Capital Boulevard trying to get somewhere."
His team is hoping for bold solutions, from creative buffers to pedestrian bridges to concepts that have yet to be introduced into the conversation.
“Are there other bigger infrastructure moves that could make more efficient use of the right of way, to increase that capacity and also generate more value for adjacent land users?” he says.
Bowers stresses that it’s early. No budget has been outlined for improvements, and responses to the RFQ aren’t expected until January. If all goes well, the $400,000 corridor study could start in the spring. He expects it to take "at least" 18 months to complete.
“The short story is, we don’t know what the solution is,” he says. “But our meaningful solution is going to require us to look at a lot of options that are going to mean some significant future changes to the corridor … We need to start bold and then go with what’s feasible and cost effective”
He expects the city to work with Capital Metropolitan Planning Organization on potential funding strategies.
In the meantime, physical changes on the other two sections of Capital Boulevard are underway in terms of bridge replacements and parallel access roads. One of the major barriers to progress has been the road’s physical location on a flood plane. Already, the city has had success in removing some of the flood-prone structures from the corridor.
“If you have gone up to where the motels and stuff used to be, you’ll see a lot of progress,” he says. “The last and hardest chunk is the middle.”