This Week's Column: I-85's Closure
Today begins a month-long migraine for commuters who use Interstate 85 to skirt traffic through Greensboro, aka the city of 1,000 interchanges. Road crews closed the highway to erect two bridges southwest of the city.
Work runs through March 23. In the meantime, expect longer commutes in both directions of Business 85, which some folks call "Death Valley" because of its traffic patterns. Local traffic does, however, have limited access to the closed road.
What does this mean for your travel times? Not too much.
In a "scientific" experiment on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Fast Forward clocked both routes.
* MY HYPOTHESIS
Traveling Business 85 would be like riding the bumper cars at Carowinds amusement park.
Interstate 85, known in some circles as the Urban Loop or Painter Boulevard, would feel like a roller coaster.
* MY METHODS
On Tuesday I'd travel Business 85 north from Vickrey Chapel Road near Jamestown to the merge with Interstate 85 east of Greensboro.
On Wednesday I'd start at the same on-ramp but instead use the Interstate 85 bypass south of the city.
A digital Casio stopwatch timed both drives. The trips would start at 5:30 p.m.
* BUSINESS 85
The Tuesday trip took me 14 minutes and 52 seconds.
Some things to remember. Weather proved especially nice, with clear skies and warm temperatures making my time away from the office well worth it.
It also kept traffic flowing. Somehow I doubt this happens every day.
I traveled a constant 60 mph. This stretch of highway is a work zone with posted speed limits of 55 mph until you cross out of Greensboro's city limits.
Tickets can cost you. Citations run $250 for the penalty plus another $100 or so for court fees. I would not recommend taking Business 85 more than 60 mph, even though this day I was the slowest car on the road.
Nor did I mind the zillions of billboards. Can someone please tell me what the fuss is about out on the new section of road?
* INTERSTATE 85
"Disappointment, party of one. Your table is ready."
Sheesh. This is supposed to be the faster way around Greensboro? The stopwatch showed 13 minutes and 54 seconds by the time I completed my drive.
That's less than a minute quicker than the previous day's excursion along Business 85. I'd expected more.
Mother Nature, however, once again offered her best. I set the cruise control at 70 mph, slightly higher than the posted 65.
One more thing: the Urban Loop needs additional billboards to hide all those subdivisions cropping up adjacent to the highway.
* CONCLUSION
Yeah, yeah. With more traffic on Business 85 because of its counterpart's closure, my times don't mean a whole lot.
Still, it's not like the Urban Loop is the cure-all to travelers' woes. Or maybe it's just me. My home state of Delaware sees traffic five times worse than these highways on a bad day.
Fortunately, the Urban Loop/Interstate 85 should remain closed for no more than a month. Here's hoping it doesn't feel like a year.
I'm open to your feedback. Send e-mails to the address listed at the end of this column.
Five-O's hit 85
Expect twice as many traffic cops on Business 85 over the coming weeks as Greensboro police and Highway Patrol adjust manpower following closure of the Urban Loop.
Greensboro police Capt. Robert Flynt said the department will deploy at least four additional traffic officers to the interstate system through the city.
With road crews shuttering Interstate 85 until March 23, police anticipate greater congestion - and more accidents - through the area known as "Death Valley" on Business 85.
Highway Patrol officials could not be reached for comment. Flynt said, however, that the two agencies are working together on the temporary "redeployment."
"Be cautious and be patient," Flynt asked of motorists. "Realize there is going to be an increased amount of traffic in the area."
In a fortunate twist for Greensboro police, the department's traffic team receives four new traffic officers on Tuesday as part of a grant the agency received last summer.
But have no fear, folks. Your average officer won't be impacted by the changes. The cops reassigned to the interstate system are from the traffic team — not regular patrol, which answer 911 requests.
"The calls for service and citizen patrols in the city should not see a significant difference," Flynt said.
Crooks everywhere just flinched with disappointment.
Directional arrows
Speaking of Interstate 85, here's another question submitted by Jane Dovan of Greensboro, whose first query I answered last week:
"If you go out Murrow Boulevard where it intersects with East Lee Street, or even Tate Street where it intersects with Lee, they have the sign for (Interstate) 85 pointing to the right," she said.
"Well, what if you want to go Business 85, which is down Lee Street to the east? … Going to Burlington, that's the way you want to go."
For that I turned to Patty Eason with the state's Department of Transportation. Traffic engineers direct vehicles to South Elm-Eugene Street because it is the shortest distance from the Murrow/East Lee intersection.
Signs at the Tate/Lee intersection are more complicated because of visual "clutter," she said. If you look, one sign points to the right for Interstate 40, while the other points left to Interstate 85. Eason acknowledged possible confusion.
"From our standpoint, there are many ways to get to the same destination, and you can't sign for all of them, so you try to pick the shortest, most logical route to get you there," she said. "That was the intent at both locations."
Eason said she would ask state traffic engineers and the Greensboro Department of Transportation to maybe take another look at the signs.
As for the city? Spokesman Kevin Elwood seemed pretty receptive to Dovan's comments.
"If there's a request from someone in the community to take a look at a sign for any reason ... the city staff would be happy to do that," he said.
Final thoughts
Attempts at humor sometimes come off the wrong way.
Two weeks ago, at the end of a column about school bus safety, I teased that dogs belong in the back seats of vehicles.
And cats? Um, let's just say they should find seats elsewhere on the car.
Not everyone thought it funny. From Mariam and Bob Langer of Greensboro:
"I was just reading the article that Eric’s written in the paper this morning," Mariam Langer said on a voice-mail message. "It's a great article about the school buses and so forth, but the last comment about the dogs and the cats, I believe that's just not what should have been written in this paper."
In a follow-up conversation, Bob Langer added his own remarks.
"The dog was OK because he was inside," he said, noting the canine reference posed no problem. "It was the cat strapped to the roof!"
Fast Forward runs every Saturday. Got questions you want answered or need to vent about transportation issues? Send 'em my way at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com. Be sure to leave your name and a way for me to get in touch.