Orange County NC Website
275 Andy Henry said that he would estimate that it is 20 to 30 million dollars per mile to widen an interstate highway. <br />276 <br />277 Gary Saunders said that the first widening is 4 miles for the managed lanes, Exit 270 and 266 (15 -501 to 86). This <br />278 was later corrected to Exit 266 to 259, 7 miles. <br />279 <br />280 Andy Henry said that for 4 miles, and if the widening is priced at $30 million, it would be about $7 -8 million per mile, <br />281 which is less than he thought it would cost. The subject area has no interchanges. <br />282 <br />283 Gary Saunders said that there is one bridge on that stretch. <br />284 <br />285 Andy Henry said that from 15 -501 to NC 86 goes from 4 to 6 lanes. <br />286 <br />287 Heidi Perry said that she thought the discussion was about managed lanes. <br />288 <br />289 Andy Henry replied that the managed lane plans will not be in the upcoming plans. The number of interchanges <br />290 increases the price for widening. The managed lanes area is a more rural area and will not be as costly. Sunrise Rd. <br />291 and Erwin Rd., one of the areas to be widened, go over 1 -40 and the bridges will have to be improved. <br />292 <br />293 Heidi Perry asked about how Mr. Henry picks parts of alternatives for each plan. <br />294 <br />295 Andy Henry answered that the alternatives are not mutually exclusive. Many of the projects are the same, like a <br />296 project he called "moderate" which used the 2040 MTP and another project called "highway." He added highway <br />297 projects to the 2040 MTP, e.g. widening 1 -85. The transportation network for each of these alternatives is likely going <br />298 to be the same. <br />299 <br />300 Heidi Perry remembered a project that was much heavier on transit. <br />301 <br />302 Andy Henry replied that the project that was heavier on transit had an extension of light rail to Carrboro and extended <br />303 the commuter rail from west Durham to Mebane /Burlington. In this project, there was a 15 minute headway for the <br />304 bus frequency. <br />305 <br />306 Heidi Perry asked why this would not be in a plan presented for a vote. She said that at a recent meeting, the MPO <br />307 group was given 4 fiscal budgets to look at and there was a conservative, moderate and two optimistic budgets. The <br />308 MPO wanted to focus only on optimistic budgets. Who gets to decide if transit is going to be the priority? <br />309 <br />310 Andy Henry said that the MPO decides if the major routes will come down headways or if all routes are done on 15 <br />311 minute headways. The question is, is there a budget to do this and is there payback? Transit -heavy alternatives have <br />312 a lot of transit service hours in them and mode share tops -out at a certain point, no one else is taking transit, even <br />313 though bus service is up high. <br />314 <br />315 Heidi Perry asked if it was the case that the budget could not be used for incentives for people not to drive, or <br />316 leveraged with a public - private partnership. <br />317 <br />318 Andy Henry said that some of the budget is used in this way. He said the aforementioned projects are classified as <br />319 more minor in comparison to widening of highways. There is a budget for long range planning for travel demand <br />320 management, a program coordinated by Triangle J Council of Governments and contributed to by local MPOs, <br />321 NCDOT, and GoTriangle helps coordination with businesses and other partners. Additionally, there is a budget for <br />322 transit system management inclusive of improvements on intersections; and a budget for intelligent transportation <br />323 systems for smart traffic signals and such. <br />324 <br />325 Alex Castro said that he noticed the absence in the presentation on the advancement of technology. Automotive <br />326 technology can be controlled. Major cities have high occupancy wherein use of the road is a privilege. A transponder <br />327 could lock your vehicle to go at the same speed. His point is that this technology is coming (Austin - Dallas is trying <br />328 this out). The idea that "what we plan may not be what we build" should be taken into account, like the widening of <br />10 <br />