Orange County NC Website
Minimum Problem Statements – Highway – 3 <br />commuters using Efland-Cedar Grove Road to access I-40/I-85 and avoidance of a major capacity <br />contraction and safety hazard using a combination of local streets approximately 1.25 miles west. Any <br />change to the interchange would consider the accommodation of bicycle travel along US 70. <br /> <br />US 501 (North Roxboro Road) (North Duke Street (US 501) to Sandlewood Drive <br />(SR 1698) <br /> <br />US 501 (North Roxboro Road) needs additional capacity between the US 501 (North Duke Street)/ US <br />501 Business (North Roxboro Street) split and Sandlewood Drive (SR 1698) due to projected future <br />congestion and to improve mobility. A 6-lane divided roadway is proposed for the current 5 -lane <br />section from North Duke Street to Milton Road (SR 1456). A median should be added from Milton Road <br />to Sandlewood Drive. Providing a divided roadway in this segment will improve mobility and effectively <br />creates a divided cross-section from I-85 to Person County in the north. <br /> <br />North Roxboro Road is the major thoroughfare that connects I-85 and central Durham with northern <br />Durham County and the city of Roxboro. It is the most important commuter route in northern Durham <br />County and currently experiences significant traffic delays at intersections such as Latta Road/Infinity <br />Road. Retail, commercial, schools, libraries and other service locations for northern Durham residents <br />are clustered along this thoroughfare. It is in the North Carolina truck network and in some cases twin <br />and 53-foot trucks are permitted. Most of the area in the vicinity of this roadway segment is within the <br />water and sewer service area of the city of Durham and expected to experience moderate residential <br />growth in the future. <br /> <br />The current LOS D capacity is 36,600 vehicles per day (vpd), and daily traffic counts range from 32,000 <br />vpd near the Eno River to 21,000 vpd near Sandlewood Drive. There has been no measureable increase <br />in daily traffic counts from 2003 through 2013. However, 2040 traffic forecasts have daily volumes <br />increasing to as high as 48,000 vpd, which would result in volumes that are 30% over capacity, i.e., <br />volume-to-capacity ratio (v/c) of 1.3. Capacity increases on North Duke Street and the extension of <br />North Alston Avenue to North Roxboro Street/Old Oxford Road (SR 1004) would likely attract more trips <br />to this segment of North Roxboro Road. <br /> <br />It should be noted that the Omega Road intersection is a potentially hazardous intersection as indicated <br />in the 2014 NC Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) report, i.e., it exceeds the warrant for <br />frontal impact crashes. In addition, the Eno River bridge is functionally obsolete, which means that it <br />was not constructed to the standards that are currently used. <br /> <br />Although this project was not funded in the FY 2016-2025 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), it <br />did receive a moderate score in the NCDOT prioritization process (SPOT P3.0) and therefore might score <br />well enough in the next prioritization cycle to be funded in the TIP. A funded project, TIP# U-5516, is to <br />provide intersection improvements to the Latta Road/Infinity Road intersection with US 501, which is just <br />north of Omega Road.