News

RTA members and partners,

In this week’s briefing, we celebrate an important victory for our shared, ongoing efforts to advance the Capital Freeway in northern Wake County, and highlight a new interchange design that opens this week in the heart of the Triangle.

Capital Freeway acceleration achieves an advocacy milestone

As we have noted in several prior weekly briefings, RTA has endorsed the accelerated transformation of Capital Blvd. to a multimodal freeway from I-540 to the Wake/Franklin Co. line via toll revenue, potentially with a reduced toll rate during peak periods. This project remains our highest freeway priority, and is our organization’s top rapid implementation priority in the region, across all modes of travel. We highlighted the project earlier this month during our quarterly RTA Leadership Team meeting as well as during our northeastern caucus meeting.

This week, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) voted to elevate the concept of accelerating the freeway via dedicated toll revenue by formally seeking public input this spring. I spoke of our organization’s support of accelerating the project during public comment at this week’s CAMPO meeting, as well as via media outreach this week to ABC-11 and the Triangle Business Journal; you can also view prior RTA outreach on behalf of the regional business community to the Raleigh News&Observer and CBS 17.

We will be making a focused effort to show broad support from RTA members for this essential project acceleration during the early spring time period, up to and including the May 21 CAMPO executive board meeting. Look for subsequent member communications on this effort and how you and your associates can engage. Meanwhile you can view last week’s blog for more information about the project. Of course, please reach out to me or RTA membership operations coordinator Jacob Rigg anytime.

Crossing over to faster travel — new Airport Boulevard interchange design to open

This weekend, the reconstruction of the Airport Boulevard interchange with I-40 will enter its final design pattern, when NCDOT reroutes Airport Boulevard traffic to a “diverging diamond” interchange pattern. At this location — similar to the existing interchanges at I-440 and Western Boulevard, and I-40 and NC 42 — the two directions of travel along Airport will cross over themselves at-grade on either side of the freeway.

The crossover design might seem unusual at first glance:  one might reasonably ask what the point is of making the non-freeway through movement cross over itself and back again. The answer is that doing so creates a series of “two phase” signals (i.e., you go, then I go, such that movements take turns) which can reduce delay, improve safety and simplify travel. If you want to turn left onto the I-40 freeway you will go through one directional crossover signal, find yourself on the “wrong” side of the road, but then realize you can immediately turn left, without any opposing traffic to contend with. Here is the NCDOT webpage on this type of interchange design.

See this week’s blog for more information about the project at Airport Boulevard, including a “hidden” benefit for eastbound I-40 travelers heading to I-540. If you travel through the interchange starting this coming week, please let me know your thoughts. Kudos from the regional business community to NCDOT for investing in our mobility infrastructure to keep us moving.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA executive director