News

Killing Balfour casts doubt on need for NC 191 widening, opponents say

John DeGelleke points to a flag marking the right-of-way for N.C. 191 widening.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 19, 2018

While the Balfour Parkway may be dead, the consequences of the successful campaign to kill it live on.

Neighborhood leaders and homeowners who oppose other road projects cite the Balfour Parkway decision as a precedent for dropping other disruptive highway projects. And in the case of the N.C. 191 multi-lane project, homeowners argue that without a four-lane Balfour Parkway, the need for widening the existing road is questionable.
“We thought it was a done deal. We thought we had no choice but with the Balfour gone, it’s not needed anymore,” John DeGelleke, secretary of the Triple Creek Homeowners Association, said recently. Standing at the entrance to the 24-home subdivision, the retired engineer represented the latest example of a citizen activist who has the time and wherewithal to study reams of traffic data and challenge the assumptions that go into transportation planning.
“When the Balfour got eliminated that turned us on to the fact that, Why are we doing this?” he said. “There’s a lot of things that are wrong with the current design.”
The NCDOT already owns 100 feet of right-of-way on N.C. 191 at Triple Creek, which is just south of Rugby Middle School. Under the current design for a four-lane road, the agency would take another 25 feet from Triple Creek property owners, including the backyard of two homes. DeGelleke argues that taking property from the county-owned Johnson Farm across the road is a better option.
“Their argument is it’s historic property over here and we need the road to be straight,” he said. “We’re saying the road curves when it goes to two lanes down here. Why does it have to be straight here, so that you end up taking our property when you don’t have to.”
DeGelleke also questions the traffic projections because now there’s no freeway channeling traffic onto to Haywood Road. The NCDOT has agreed to modify the traffic forecast.
“They’re saying look at a new scenario but change the model in order to take out any impact connecting to the Balfour Parkway has,” he said. But he’s not confident that a new study will cause the state to drop the widening.
“DOT wants to keep going on the project. They say it’s not really going is to make that much difference,” he said.
Commissioner Bill Lapsley said the NCDOT has made revisions he requested for the part of the project in unincorporated Henderson County. From the Mills River border to Mountain Road, it’s a four-lane divided highway.
“I support the plan, as I supported Balfour Parkway,” Lapsley said. “My understanding is the DOT added some traffic (from Balfour Parkway) but the traffic in my mind is the same traffic for the most part that’s coming there now. I think the need is still there.”
DeGelleke also says the current traffic and safety improvement job along a 1.7-mile stretch from Mountain Road to Rugby Road may be enough to address congestion.
“Here they’re doing safety improvements now. See what that does,” he said. “Take a look at the impact of this project before you decide to tear it out.”
Nor are the Triple Creek homeowners convinced that the area will grow as much as the NCDOT projects between now and 2040.
“A lot of what they talk about on the need for more capacity is based on projecting growth,” DeGelleke said. “We had the last house built and Haywood Knolls I guess they would consider built-out. I think that’s kind of pie in the sky, too. I think we have enough justification to ask them to stop and look at what’s going on.”