Waxhaw-Indian Trail Road now closed

Not really breaking news for those of you who've driven through town recently, but Waxhaw-Indian Trail Road out of Waxhaw is now closed through mid-November.

Union County Weekly has the blurb that spawned this blurb.

Traffic light question answered

A long time ago, I asked my first in a small series of vexing questions about Waxhaw.

I've always considered this a vexing Waxhaw question if there ever was one, but can anyone explain why there's no left turning light to turn onto Broome Street from 75?

Well, I finally got an answer and it's simply this: because NC DOT says we don't need one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, NC DOT recently did a count to determine if the need for a dedicated left turn light for eastbound traffic was needed. I ended my post with what essentially was a gloomy predictions of the results, which turned out to pretty accurate.

Sean Epperson of NC DOT emailed to say that after performing the traffic count on September 22, they have concluded that a dedicated left turning light for eastbound traffic into the 16/75 intersection is not warranted. Per their calculations, the time that the eastbound traffic would save would get shoved onto north and southbound traffic, thus making the point moot as far as NC DOT is concerned.

One positive change for eastbound traffic is that the 6' x 6' inductive loop will be replaced with a 6' x 25' loop. (For more information on how this works, see here.) During the count, some instances of eastbound traffic through the intersection were not detected by the already existing smaller 6' x 6' loop, so installing a larger 6' x 25' loop should resolve that issue. This work has not yet been scheduled.

While monitoring traffic that day, Sean also made some changes to the timing of the traffic light in an effort to further improve the efficiency of the signal. So hopefully the combination of these changes will minimize delays for eastbound traffic through the intersection. We'll have to wait and see.

Train arms malfunctioning says Dorothy

In a follow-up to my early request for info, I bring you an update from last Sunday's Waxhaw Exchange from the unlinkable Dorothy Maloney. (Her piece is in here for those interested.) Here's the tidbit:

Waxhaw residents experienced a bit of inconvenience on Saturday and Sunday with the railroad gates on Providence Road out of service. It is amazing how something like having to travel one block south to cross the tracks can cause a slight traffic jam.

So we can conclude I'm a lucky man since my beautiful wife's prediction in that post was accurate.

I think we can also conclude that if Dorothy and I continue to tag-team big local stories like this, we will get to the bottom of them.

16/75 intersection blocked the other day

Last Saturday and Sunday evenings, the Waxhaw police had the main intersection of 16/75 shut down at the railroad tracks.

My wife surmised faulty railroad arms because of this, which seems as good as any other guess. It didn't appear to be related to any kind of construction work, at least as far as we could tell.

Regardless, traffic to and from Broome Street was diverted onto Church Street, causing relatively minor delays, at least based on standards set by Waxhaw's recent road construction.

Anyone know what the problem was?

Railroad crossing arm broken Monday?

I heard one of the railroad crossing arms at Broome & Hwy 75 was broken Monday morning. It was described to my wife as being "broken in half."

Anyone know anything about this? The only way I could imagine this getting broken is if a vehicle hit one trying to sneak through.

Fire in Waxhaw

My wife saw on the news this morning that there's a fire at a karate studio in Waxhaw and that Broome Street is currently closed.

The news report did not specify which karate studio was on fire, but she suspected it was the Waxhaw Universal Karate studio downtown.

If I get any further details, I'll update after I get to work.

UPDATE 8.37am: The town's Twitter feed has an update with no specific details.

There is a fire in the area between Intersection 16/75 and Blythe Mill Road. Take alternate traffic routes. Will update you as learn.

UPDATE 8.45am: Lori verified (via Facebook update) that the fire took place at Waxhaw Universal Karate and also at the adjacent convenience store.

Construction traffic in Waxhaw

In between baseball games on Saturday, we made the decision to stop at McDonald's to grab some lunch. This, unfortunately, allowed me to experience the lengthy traffic delays that have become a staple of Waxhaw since construction began.

My wife has gotten trapped in them numerous times (including this afternoon) and I've seen the numerous Facebook complaints, but perhaps you've got to be stuck waiting to really experience not moving an inch in traffic for 20+ minutes.

I imagine I'm one of the last in Waxhaw to be stuck in construction, but from my layman's perspective, it just seems like the traffic was very poorly managed by the construction crews. We sat for close to 20 minutes waiting for the other direction of travel to clear, which surely backed up traffic all the way from CVS to the railroad tracks.

To me, the strangest thing about the construction is that neither my wife nor I thought Providence Street/Broome Street was all that bad to begin with. (At least based on Pennsylvania standards.) For the life of me, at this point, I can barely recall any potholes of significance in that stretch.

On another note, I never saw so many sign holders; stationing one at every business' entrance seems like overkill. Maybe we should be thankful that they're removing the entrance to the Waxhaw Child Development Center because the state would've been on the hook to pay yet another sign holder.

Railroad ties were being picked this afternoon

On my way home work today, I saw them collecting the railroad ties that have served as a constant reminder (eyesore?) from this summer's derailment.

I'll see tomorrow morning if they got them all (and perhaps as an added bonus, removed the dumpster that's been a staple beside the tracks since the accident).

Waxhaw Child Development Center getting shafted

I'd been waiting for the ball to drop on this for a couple weeks now. Per a WBTV article:

WAXHAW, NC (WBTV) - Parents and grandparents whose children attend a local daycare say road construction is putting kids in danger.

They feel closing the entrance at Waxhaw Child Development Center on Providence Road will hamper the flow of traffic, especially for emergency vehicles.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to remove the entrance to the Waxhaw Child Development Center at this point. It's been there for how many years with no problems.

I can't think of a benefit of removing it. Am I missing something?

The wheels are in motion...

...regarding a potential left turning light for eastbound 75 traffic.

Scott Cole, a Division Traffic Engineer, at NC DOT has let me know they've recently scheduled counts and field observations of the traffic at the 16/75 intersection. The purpose: to see if a protected left turn lane (a left turning light without a turning lane) will benefit the overall movement of traffic at this intersection.

Per Scott, NC DOT generally recommends a turning lane if a left turning light is to be installed. A protected left turn oftentimes increases the congestion and delay at an an intersection. But he mentioned that a left turning lane is not necessarily a requirement as there have been occasions where a protected left turn was installed without adding a new turning lane.

Which is good because the town of Waxhaw is obviously protective of its small town charm. I suspect the odds of the town agreeing to wipe out enough downtown parking spaces to accommodate a left turning lane are slim to none.

Scott said the whole process would take a couple of weeks. When I get an update on the results, I'll be sure to post them here.

Anyone have any predictions as to the ultimate conclusion? If so, share them in the comments. I was originally thinking that Waxhaw would be one of the lucky exclusions to the suggested left turning lane, but now I'm wavering. I'm not sure if this is an example of me being realistic, pessimistic, or just preparing for the worst.

Decorative concrete stamping at half the price

In a previous post, I pointed to an article by Sherri Phengchard that placed a $32k price tag on the decorative concrete stamping that occurred on the intersection of 16/75.

According to an email from Town Planner Greg Mahar, the town just received the actual bill and it was for approximately half the figure quoted by Sherri - $16368.

He also helped clear up a confusing soft quote in Sherri's piece as well. She had written the following:

The $32,000 is the last investment in the Hwy.16 and 75 project, Mahar said.

To me, this strongly suggests that the town had previous contributions to this project. Greg clarified however that there were no previous contributions to this project other than general maintenance, such as landscaping.

So whatever your thoughts on the necessity of spending money on decorative concrete stamping, it's sure better to have it done at half the price.

Clarification on traffic light

I emailed the town and Greg Mahar, the town's director of planning and community development, clarified the status of a potential turning light at 16/75 and some of the issues involved in getting one installed. Greg's response is valuable in explaining the situation, so with his permission, I am including it here.

When the planning for the intersection was occurring there was discussion of installing a dedicated left turn lane for traffic turning onto NC-16 with a turning arrow for eastbound traffic on NC-75 heading to Monroe. In order to accomplish that there was going to have to be a removal of parking along the store fronts of NC-75 on both sides of the road for the DOT requirements to be met. The Mayor & some Board of Commissioner members and some in the community did not want to lose the parking along the street and after working up a budget there wasn’t enough money to construct the turn lane without losing the parking spaces.

I then made contact with NCDOT traffic division and asked for them to look at that intersection to put in a light cycle that will allow the eastbound NC-75 traffic to have a green light w/ arrow for a period of time that will allow the eastbound traffic to move while holding the westbound NC-75 traffic in a stop condition. DOT is concerned that situation will cause further delays for the intersection as a whole but have agreed to look at the intersection after construction is complete to consider the request. Once that review is complete they will issue a finding as to the impact of the request on the intersection as a whole. We will continue to work with NC DOT on solutions to help make the traffic move as smoothly as possible.

So at this point, the town is waiting on a DOT review to see how the intersection will be impacted by adding a turning light without a turning lane.

On another note, I don't see how anyone would think a dedicated left-turn lane could have been squeezed in there without removing downtown parking. There's only so much space.

A turning light, on the other hand, requires no additional space to install. As for concerns that it will clog up other parts of that intersection, I'm not sure if DOT is more worried about westbound 75 traffic or southbound 16 traffic. I would suspect the latter.

Ask a question, get an answer

The question came in this post from August 7th where I wrote:

Who pays for decorative concrete stamping and painting anyways? I can't imagine DOT spending the extra money for a purely cosmetic change. Could it be the town?

This answer comes in the form of an article six days later courtesy of Sherri Phengchard of The Enquirer-Journal/Waxhaw Exchange fame. Who can say if this blogger's natural inquisitiveness planted the seed for this article?

From Sherri:

The Waxhaw Board of Commissioners had a special meeting Aug. 4 to approve $32,000 for crosswalk enhancements for the intersection of Highways 16 and 75. The crosswalks were completed this week.

“Aesthetically, it is more pleasing for downtown. It is more decorative than white lines. It is a pattern stamped into the asphalt to look like bricks, and it’s painted red,” Greg Mahar, Waxhaw’s director of planning and community development, said.

Read the whole piece for additional comments from Town Manager Mike McLaurin and commissioner Joyce Blythe.

I'll leave it up to you to decide if it was worth $32000 of town money to stamp and spray paint concrete at the 16/75 intersection.

The horror! The horror!

The town stated on their Facebook page that there will be no left turning light at the newly refurbished intersection of 16/75.

After checking with NCDOT we have been advised there will not be a dedicated turn arrow at the intersection.

I can't understand this decision and thus am understandably vexed.

I'll post any interesting details I learn. As of now, I'm not sure if DOT has total say on the installation of a left turning light or if the town has input as well.

Well, construction isn't completely over

Just an update on an earlier post in which I declared construction was over at the 16/75 intersection.

But I resolve to be as accurate as I can be, so consider this my mea culpa.

The intersection was open but some work was still underway as of mid-day Saturday. Today, for example, decorative concrete stamping and painting was taking place, limiting traffic turning onto Hwy 75. (Who pays for decorative concrete stamping and painting anyways? I can't imagine DOT spending the extra money for a purely cosmetic change. Could it be the town?)

And while there was no promise it'd be added during this round of work, there is still no left turning light onto Broome Street. I held out hope that common sense would prevail and it would be added.

In other news, ten bags of drainage gravel were not enough for my morning project, so I was able to travel across the new intersection not once, but twice.

Construction over! Construction over! Construction over!

The headline says it all. Construction at 16/75 is now over and from what my wife tells me, it's now a nice smooth ride over the tracks.

So hopefully things start to pick up for local businesses now that the construction is completed.

Single moms town-wide are probably celebrating. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Hwy 75 looks to stay closed today

Hwy 75 was still closed when I headed into the office, but also noticed a handful of construction workers and trucks.

I suspect they're gearing up to get some kind of work done today there.

UPDATE 3.30pm: The town's twitter feed confirms my earlier soothsaying abilities.

Hwy 75 should open Monday morning. Railcars being removed now. Town will update website, facebook, and twitter with a more accurate time.

The town estimates that removing the rail cars will take approximately 5 days. Given that time length, I'm guessing they will begin the scrapping of the rail cars on-site to make them easier to transport given that time period.

Hwy 75 closed once again

Per the town's twitter feed:

Hwy 75 is temporarily being closed due to the possiblity of approaching high winds on the stressed trees. Will post when reopened.

I drove by the rail cars on my way to work today and got to see them for the first time.

It was quite a sight to see the wrecked gray rail cars laying alongside the tracks and propped up against trees. I think the general dreariness of Monday morning would've made it quite a photograph had I been within reach of a camera.

Maybe tomorrow morning.

UPDATE 11.15pm: Hwy 75 still closed. At this point, I'd just bank on it being closed tomorrow morning.

Rumor has it an enterprising yet strangely handsome blogger was able to take some pictures of the wreckage this evening and got away with none the wiser. Rumor also has it his wife got shooed away from checking out the wreckage later that evening by a local police officer.

Hwy 75 open

At least for the most part.

Per the town's latest Twitter post:

Highway 75 Reopened. Some railcars still not removed, do not stop along the area. Extra patrols will be in place to keep traffic moving.

And the mayor provided some clarification via Facebook:

Highway 75 has reopened! Some of the railcars have not been removed so please do not stop along that area. Police will provide extra patrols to keep cars moving. The railcars will be removed in the near future and that will require temporary closure of the highway. Hopefully, we'll get a schedule from CSX tomorrow on the remaining work.

Waxhaw lucked out?

A friend of mine heard this from one of the police officers manning the roadblocks near the derailment: while there were no hazardous materials on the cars that derailed, there were multiple cars containing acid and ammonia on the train.

If true, I think it's safe to say that we lucked out.

I submitted a request for clarification on this to CSX, so if I hear back from them, I'll update accordingly.