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Attachment 3 8 <br />ORANGE COUNTY UNIFIED TRANSPORTATION BOARD <br />COMMENTS REGARDING THE <br />DRAFT 2009 -2015 TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM <br />The Orange Unified Transportation Board (OUTBoard) is concerned that cuts. in <br />appropriated federal transportation funds to North Carolina coupled with the rapid <br />increase in construction costs have reduced funding sources for bicycle and pedestrian <br />projects in order to prevent further delay of highway projects. The OUTBoard supports <br />greater funding for alternative modes for transportation, particularly for improvements <br />that make bicycling safer on County roads. <br />The OUTBoard would also like to submit comment regarding three projects in particular: <br />TIP Proiect E-4980 pedestrian bridge on Orange Grove Road over 1-40: The North <br />Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) should proceed without delay to <br />execute a feasibility study for this project. A feasibility study for this project was <br />included as "scheduled" in the 2007-2013 TIP but to date, there has been no time <br />indicated as to when the feasibility study will be funded. The existing bridge over <br />1-40 is too narrow to accommodate a pedestrian walkway. The Orange County <br />Priority List for the 2009-2015 TIP lists this project as its number 1 priority, which is <br />the same priority Orange County gave this project in its Priority Lists for the 2006- <br />2012 TIP and 2007-2013 TIP. In 2006, there were 131 students at Grady Brown <br />Elementary and Cedar Ridge High School that lived east of the 1-40 overpass within <br />a one-mile drive of the schools and there were 238 students that lived within a one- <br />mile radius east of 1-40. Grady Brown Elementary School administration noted in a <br />letter of support for a Safe Routes to School Action Plan Service Award application <br />that there are 225 students living within two miles of the school. Enrollment to botho-- <br />schools from this area is expected to increase as recently built residential <br />developments on Oakdale Drive and Orange Grove Road become fully settled. <br />Also, many residents living in this vicinity on the west side of 1-40 walk or bicycle <br />along Orange Grove Road to access commercial areas on South Churton Street, <br />which are a little over 1.25 miles and 1.5 miles from Orange Grove Road west of the <br />bridge over 1-40. <br />2. The NCDOT Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation consider funding for <br />paved shoulders along Dairyland Road to accommodate bicycle traffic from Union <br />Grove Church Road (SR 1111) to Orange Grove Road (SR 1006). This area <br />experiences high levels of bicycle traffic from Carrboro and Chapel Hill to rural <br />routes. This route is a portion of the number 3 priority listed in Orange County's <br />Priority List for the 2009-2015 TIP for projects outside the MAB. The entire project <br />would connect the urbanized areas of Carrboro and Chapel Hill to Efland and <br />Mebane via Dairyland Road, Orange Grove Road, and Buckhorn Road. The portion <br />from Union Grove Church Road to Orange Grove Road is part of a loop that, along <br />with Old NC 86, has been designated as a North Carolina Scenic Corridor. NCDOT, <br />through the Moving Ahead Program and the Resurfacing Program has included <br />provisions for 2-ft. paved shoulders on Orange Grove Road that will improve. <br />conditions for bicyclists on that road. (Moving Ahead provided 2-ft. paved shoulders <br />on SR 1006 from Old NC 86 to SR 1199, Tree Farm Rd.; 2008 Resurfacing <br />Program will provide 2-ft. shoulders along SR 1006 from SR 1199 to SR 1102,