Reconsider northern Urban Loop path
Counterpoint:
By Laura Meagher
Thanks to the excellent reporting of Taft Wireback in the News & Record (May 3 and May 10), residents along the proposed northern section of the Urban Loop know what to expect when the road is built: unrelenting, unabated noise of six lanes of 18-wheelers, cracked foundations, poor planning and confusion.
All neighborhoods along the route of the proposed new section, including Lake Jeanette, the Bluffs, Camden Falls, along Lake Jeanette Road, Cotswold, Regents Park and many others will experience what the Kings Mill and Sedgefield Trails neighborhoods experienced.
Highway officials attempted to abate noise for those neighborhoods by trying to redirect motorists away from the loop after it was built. Redirecting traffic from our neighborhoods after the northern section is built won’t be an option.
The proposed northern section of the loop can only be justified as a “pass-through” for trucks and other traffic moving across the state.
It is true that the road has been planned for many years, but the proposed path should be re-evaluated.
Do trucks really need a third way to bypass Greensboro, through the backyards of this very heavily populated area?
It may seem to be years away, but we know from Sunday’s article that local officials have made the loop a top priority and, if funds become available, the northern section will be built much sooner.
As the News & Record editorial of Sept. 27, 2008, said: “The hard lesson learned: Vigilance begins before the bulldozers arrive. As the Urban Loop progresses, property owners affected by it should stay abreast of plans and possible impact. Relying on assumptions rather than facts, as did some western loop neighbors, could be a costly mistake.”
The writer lives in Greensboro.
Comments (2)
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Highway officials did not try to redirect traffic away from the western loop. Instead they put signs up calling it I40 east and purposely built it in such a way as to lead traffic onto it. Am I the only one who thinks the design of the interchange of I40 and the loop screwy. To go straight you must exit to the right, and to go right you must go straight. They are changing the signs, at taxpayer cost of course, to try to redirect traffic now. They are also repaving a stretch of I40 for what, the third or fourth time. The state has wasted millions building this boondoggle.
Posted on May 15, 2009 1:15 PM
Everyone wants a highway. No one wants one built near them. I bet the writer drives by other's homes every day making typical road noise. There is a term for this sort of behavior that contradicts a person's words.
Posted on May 18, 2009 3:18 PM