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NCDOT presents revised Kanuga plan Oct. 30

N.C. Department of Transportation officials have revised plans for a proposed project on a Henderson County corridor in order to reduce the impact from original plans while still reducing congestion and improving safety.

 

Transportation officials from Division 14 — which covers the 10 western most counties — shared the revised design plans to improve Kanuga Road between Little River Road and Church Street with local officials after they asked NCDOT to revise initial plans presented in the summer of 2017.

“Local officials saw that we made significant changes to reduce the footprint of the project,” Division 14 Project Engineer Jonathan Woodard said. “They agreed that we should present the new design.”

“It is a critical project to improve safety due to the crashes happening now and the increase of traffic in the coming years.”

The new design will be presented at a public meeting from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the City of Hendersonville Operational Center, 305 Williams St.

Kanuga Road does not current meet standards for a two-lane road, and the crash rate is 74 percent higher than the state average for similar roads.

The new preliminary design reduces the necessary right-of-way acquisition by about half by requiring 25 feet instead of 50 feet from the centerline. The new plans — which are far from final — will still accommodate the current traffic of 11,000 vehicles per day and the anticipated 14,000 vehicles in 2040.

Additional alterations include the following:

-- Widening the existing travel lanes to 11-feet wide;
-- Adding two-foot paved shoulders along the entire project;
-- Building 14-foot shared lanes within city limits to accommodate bicycles;
-- Installing turn lanes at the intersection with Erkwood Drive/State Street, London Road and Crooked Creek Road;
-- Adding five-foot sidewalks with curb and gutter north of the Erkwood Drive/State Street intersection; and
-- Creating intermittent retaining walls and expressway gutters to reduce impacts.

Maps and other information are available on the NCDOT public meetings website.

The public may attend at any time, as no formal presentation will be made. NCDOT representatives will be available to answer questions and receive comments. The comments will be taken into consideration as work on the project develops.

Contact Woodard at 253 Webster Road, Sylva, NC 28779 or jwoodard@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 workshop. Anyone requiring special services should contact Tony Gallagher, Environmental Analysis Unit, at 1598 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1598, or 919-707-6069 or magallagher@ncdot.gov as early as possible so that arrangements can be made.

Persons who do not speak English and who have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English may receive interp