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V. THE RECOMMENDED PLAN <br /> Existing Thoroughfare Plans <br /> The Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro Urban Area covers most of Durham County and <br /> eastern Orange County. Because the study area has been enlarged, many more <br /> thoroughfares are included than in the Durham 1980 and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro <br /> 1984 plans combined. Even with the new facilities as shown, weaknesses will still <br /> exist in the transportation system that can only be alleviated with widening of <br /> existing roads. The most important goal of thoroughfare planning and this report <br /> is not the details of widening or widths of roads; it is to protect existing and <br /> future corridors. The Recommended Plan is shown in Figure 5.1 (at the back of <br /> this report. An enlargement of the southwest portion of the Recommended Plan is <br /> shown in Figure 5.2. Similar, enlargements for the Southeast portion (Figure 5.3), <br /> the Northeast portion (Figure 5.4) and Northwest portion (Figure 5.5) are also <br /> provided. <br /> The Recommended Plan for the Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro Urban Area includes the <br /> existing Thoroughfare Plans for the individual cities with some minor revisions. <br /> Some of these changes have happened because as development has taken place, the <br /> thoroughfare designs have been revised to better accommodate the land use. Other <br /> changes have resulted because travel patterns may not have developed as pre- <br /> dicted, or the. population shifted, or various other reasons. The following is a <br /> description of some of the changes. <br /> Changes To Current Durham Thoroughfare Plan <br /> Alston Avenue Extension: <br /> Alston Avenue Extension (north of I-85) was realigned to bring the extension <br /> into Midland Terrace, which leads to Dearborn Road and then to Old Oxford <br /> Road to create another north/south radial from the central city to Treyburn. <br /> Ellis Road: <br /> A new interchange is proposed to connect Ellis Road to the Durham freeway, <br /> providing access to property on the north side of the Research Triangle <br /> Park. Ellis Road would be extended eastward, utilizing some of existing <br /> Angier Avenue (in Bethesda), across US 70 (with another new interchange) to <br /> connect with Leesville Road. This improvement would relieve the existing <br /> US 70/Mineral Springs Road/Miami Boulevard intersection which is anticipated <br /> to be heavily overloaded, while providing better travel service between <br /> southern Durham and northern Wake County. <br /> 5.1 <br />