News

Public meeting July 18 on Kanuga Road improvements

By Nancy Waclawek, Published: July 11, 2017

The N.C. Department of Transportation will have a public meeting July 18 regarding proposed improvements to Kanuga Road in Henderson County.

The proposal includes upgrades on Kanuga between Little River Road and Church Street to improve safety and increase traffic efficiency.

It calls for widening current nine-foot wide lanes to 11 feet through the entire corridor plus the addition of a four-foot paved shoulder to accommodate bicycles. It also includes turn lanes at the intersection of Kanuga and Erkwood Drive/State Street, and five-foot wide sidewalks with curb and gutter north of Erkwood Drive/State Street. The other major proposed addition is a center turn lane north of Hebron Road.

The meeting will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 18 at Hendersonville’s Operational Center at 305 Williams Street. Interested citizens may attend the meeting at any time because no formal presentation will be made.

NCDOT representatives will be available to answer questions and listen to comments during the evening. Written comments may be submitted Tuesday night as well as by phone, email, or mail by July 28.Comments received will be taken into consideration as the project develops. Project information and materials can be viewed as they become available online at http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/publicmeetings.

Contact Division Project Manager Steve Williams, Division Planning Engineer at 253 Webster Road, Sylva, NC 28779 or sjwilliams at ncdot.gov or (828) 586-2141 for more information.

NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who wish to participate in this meeting. Anyone requiring special services should contact Tony Gallagher, Human Environment Section, at magallagher@ncdot.gov or (919) 707-6069 as early as possible so that arrangements can be made.

Kanuga Road has been the site of three fatal accidents since December, which this spring, triggered a cooperative speeding crackdown by the State Highway Patrol, Hendersonville Police and the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office.

Hendersonville Police Department data show more than 40 accidents with property damage and two with personal injury from March 2016 to March 2017 on the part of Kanuga Road inside the city limits.

The State Highway Patrol, the lead agency on the three fatal collisions, investigated 49 crashes in 2016 and 50 crashes in 2015 on Kanuga Road.