Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009

Mourning Dove project nears completion

Neighbors differ on whether work will calm traffic

Workers are finishing up construction this week on more than a dozen medians or curb extensions on Mourning Dove Road.

But residents in the Summerfield North neighborhood aren't done debating whether the project really will slow down traffic or just cause more headaches and accidents.

"We're thrilled with it," said Beth Robertson, president of the Summerfield North Wycombe Homeowners Association. Robertson lives on Mourning Dove off Six Forks Road.

"It's excessive," said Elizabeth Blackwell, who moved onto a cul-de-sac off Mourning Dove about 17 years ago. "Even if I thought we needed something, this is not it."

Supporters say the $58,000 project will slow down traffic and stop motorists who use the road as a cut through. Critics say the project seeks to solve a problem that never existed and fear that the road is too narrow, making it unsafe to manuever through.

The project is part of the city's 5-year-old traffic-calming program, in which officials evaluate streets where residents have complained about speeding. When the original list was approved in 2004, Mourning Dove was No. 4 and it has remained near the top of the list.

But the city has been slow to complete the projects. So far, three projects -- on Ashe Avenue, Plaza Place and Eagle Trace --- are done and typically include medians and curb extensions, also called bumpouts. Both require motorists to slow down and drive around them.

A public hearing is set for Aug. 4 before the City Council to consider a scaled-back plan for Anderson Drive. The Council also is considering a new neighborhood traffic management program, which officials say will help to speed up completion of some projects. Approval could come this summer.

Eric Lamb, manager of the city's transportation services division, said the completed projects have been successful. Traffic has slowed down on average between 3 and 8 mph on Ashe, Plaza and Eagle Trace, he said.

Some residents have long complained about speeding along Mourning Dove. Many motorists use the road as a shortcut between Six Forks and Falls of Neuse or Strickland roads.

Residents easily secured enough petition signatures for the city to move forward.

"Just as I went door-to-door, somebody would come out with a story about how they've been clamoring about speeding traffic for years and years and years," Robertson said. "I heard stories of kids getting hit on bicycles."

But other residents say they don't have the same complaints.

"We didn't see any kind of problem," said Katherine Strader, who has lived on Mourning Dove for about nine years.

Blackwell said whatever problem existed on Mourning Dove was solved years ago when a group of rowdy teens moved away from the neighborhood, Raleigh widened Strickland Road and Interstate 540 opened.

"The problem had sort of taken care of itself to a large degree," she said.

Concerns cropped up last fall when crews marked lines on the road so residents could see where the curb extensions and medians would be, said Tami Hollingsworth, president of the Summerfield North Neighborhood Association. Residents worried that they were too big, that fire trucks or school buses couldn't get around them and that some of the devices were too close to the crest of small hills along the road, she said.

"We coordinated these projects with the fire department and we're not aware of any issues of a fire truck not getting through there adequately," Lamb said.

Signs will remind motorists about the narrowing of the street, he said. Construction should be complete in the next week or two.

Several residents spoke out for and against the project at a public hearing in November. The council unanimously approved the project two weeks later.

"The bottom line is you can't make everybody happy, and I think you just have to go with the majority rule," Hollingsworth said.

"We feel the majority of the neighborhood is excited. We want to be a neighborhood street again. We want the volume of cars reduced. We want the cut-through traffic deferred to Newton Road or Strickland Road."

Blackwell is hoping for some money courtesy of the city to throw a neighborhood party.

"I think they've trashed my property values and I would like them to approve a neighborhood sledgehammer party so we can get rid of them," she said. "We can get rid of them with no problem."