AG 1992 12 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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development is an issue that will soon be facing the community. Minor roads within the area, that is roadways which do not traverse the entire County but instead serve only a small part, are Poplar Tent, Weddington, Derita, Pitts School, Crisco, Old Charlotte, Roberta, Zion Church and Odell School, to name some of the most prominent. These roads, termed aerials, are all two- lane roads serving as connectors for residents to the larger roadways which not only traverse the County but continue on regionally. Residents are beginning to find these roads more crowded and slower as residential traffic both increases and industrial/manufacturing traffic from those sites without 1-85 or U.S. 29 access use road space. A map showing ADT (Average Daily Traffic) Counts for the Western Area is shown on Map 6. ADTs are computed by the NC Department of Transportation and are a measure of the volume of vehicles traveling a road during a 24 hour period. Some area roads are already at or near their design capacity. The following figure (Figure 2) shows the current traffic counts for some area roads and those counts compared to design capacity for the roads. One road, N.C. 49 is already experiencing traffic above the volume for which it was designed. Five other road segments also have traffic levels at or above 50% of their design capacity indicating that resident complaints about road congestion are well founded. Projecting traffic counts to the year 2020, practically all of these road segments will be used above design capacity. N.C. 49 is the only road on this list that is scheduled for improvrement, although the State's road planning schedule (the Transportation Improvement Plan) only extends from the present to the year 2000. Three road segments on the list will be experiencing almost twice the traffic for which they were designed (as shown in Figure 2). These roads, Interstate 85 and Poplar Tent Road, are amonog those that may need to be studied immediately to determine possible so/u'fions. FIGURE 2: WESTERN AREA ROADS - CAPACITY, TRAFFIC COUNTS AND PERCENT CAPACITY ROAD ROAD DESIGN 1990 PERCENT PROJECTED PERCENT SEGMENT CAPACITY ADT CAPACITY 2020 ADT CAPACITY (1990) (2020) Meck. Co. o Mile Post 5 54000 37800 70% 106000 196o,% Mile Post 5 - N.C. 73 54000 37300 69% 104000 193% U.S. 29 Meck. Co. - U.S. 601 50000 15500 31% 42900 86% N.C. 49 Harrisburg - Concord 13000 14600 ]12% 58300 448% N.C. 73 Meck. Co. - Ode]l Sch. 13000 4300 33% 10600 82% Odel] Sch. - 1-85 12500 5800 46% 14000 112% Morehead Rd Harrsiburg - U.S. 29 12000 4500 38% 13100 109% Poplar Tent Rd Intl. Dr. - Urban Bdy 11000 Urban lkty - Pi~s Sc.h. 8500 Pitts Sch. - Ivey Cline 12500 Ivey Cline - Cox Mill 10500 9100 83% 21000 191% 5100 60% 12000 ]41% 6400 51% 15800 t26% 5000 48% 11500 110% Od'ell Sch. Rd Windy. Poplar Tent 8500 3700 44% 9200 108% Harris Rd Meck Co. - Poplar Tent 12000 Poplar Tent - Odell Sch. 9000 500 4% 1600 13% 500 6% 1600 18% Source: N.C. Department of Transportation On the horizon is the proposed Westside Bypass, a state road running north/south on the western sides of both 'Kannapolis and Concord. Discussed more fully on page .. the Westside Bypass will likely run roughly through the center of the planning area. Currently, there are several different possible routes or "alignments" it may follow. The approximate alignment, laying over Crisco Road to the north and running roughly parallel Coddle Creek to the west until intersection with Highway 29 North is shown on the Future Land Use Map appearing on page . As with most road projects, the Westside Bypass has been the subject of great scrutiny and public debate. Tentatively, right-of-way acquisition, that is the purchase of land, is to begin in 1992 and ]993, with construction slated to begin in 1994. WESTERN AREA PLAN DRAFT4 PAGE6