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MEMORANDUM <br /> TO: Orange County Board of County Commissioners <br /> FROM: Slade McCalip, Transportation Planner <br /> DATE: January 17, 1995 <br /> -SUBJECT: Additional Information on Agenda Item X-B: Status of 1-85 <br /> Exit 172 Closure. <br /> COPIES: Marvin Collins, Planning Director <br /> Gene Bell, Planner III <br /> As of today Exit 172 has been closed and a group of private <br /> citizens have organized as the Exit 172 Corporation. The Exit 172 <br /> Corporation has met with NCDOT officials and their NC General <br /> Assembly Delegates to discuss keeping Exit 172 open. Also <br /> discussed by NCDOT was accelerating the completion of the I-85\Eno <br /> Drive interchange (see attached Corridor Public Hearing Map) , the <br /> extension of NC 751 (see attached Functional Design Plan) and <br /> widening US 70 to three lanes from NC 751 to Cole Mill Road. For <br /> other alternatives discussed see the attached I-85/US 70 Study <br /> Alternatives Matrix. <br /> Mr. Garland Garrett, NCDOT Deputy Secretary - Highways, has stated <br /> that if the DCHC MPO approved the acceleration (i.e. , included this <br /> project in the 1996-2002 TIP Regional Priority List) of the I- <br /> 85\Eno Drive interchange with the extension of NC 751, that <br /> construction could begin as early as 1997 and could be completed in <br /> approximately five years. <br /> The Exit 172 Corporation had requested that a restraining order be <br /> issued in Federal Court to keep Exit 172 open, but Magistrate <br /> Wallace Dixon ruled in favor of NC DOT and allowed the exit to be <br /> closed. The Exit 172 Corporation has appealed this decision and is <br /> currently waiting for the results of that appeal. The Exit 172 <br /> Corporation is also supposed to meet with Governor Hunt within a <br /> week to ten days to discuss this matter. <br /> Mr. J.C. Porterhouse, President of the Exit 172 Corporation, has <br /> stated today that the Corporation does not want Exit 172 closed and <br /> that it also does not want NC 751 extended or the Eno Drive <br /> interchange with 1-85 built. <br /> For more information concerning the Northwest\Northeast Loop (Eno <br /> Drive) Draft EIS please see the attached invitation to a special <br /> presentation by NCDOT for elected officials on January 30, 1995. <br />