Peace Street has been reduced down to one lane of traffic in each direction, at least for this school year.
This is due to road construction on the Peace Street overpass and the Wade Avenue bridge overpassing Capital Boulevard. The road construction is already underway.
Instead of seeing traffic flow smoothly, orange cones are being seen everywhere along Peace Street. There’s only one lane of traffic opened in each direction, which brings more traffic chaos. Traffic lights didn’t take long to get through before, but now it takes a little longer due to only one lane being open and traffic being backed up.
With the Peace Street bridge being over 65 years old, it isn’t getting a good rating. According to North Carolina Department of Transportation, the bridge that overpasses Peace Street currently has a 44.9 sufficiency rating out of a possible 100. The Wade Avenue bridge is over 60 years old and has a low sufficiency rating as well, including a vehicle weight limit.
With all of this road construction happening, buildings are being demolished. More demolition is expected to happen in the near future.
To name a few of the changes that are slated to happen, bike lanes will be added to Peace Street between the end of the ramp, and sidewalks will be widened along Peace Street and most of the surrounding area.
“I do go down Peace Street quite a lot just in general. No delays necessarily getting to class, but I have noticed that they have been doing a lot of work at night,” said senior Ashley Chubbuck. “Around 9 p.m., they put cones in the street and they have been doing a lot of major road construction at night, probably to combat the fact that people are doing a lot of commuting during the day.”
“The biggest trouble I have is finding parking, but I don’t know if that’s related to the road construction or not,” said Chubbuck.
Students may have questions about the Peace Street road construction and wondering if it will have effects on William Peace University.
“There has been no effects to the University to date. There are no long term delays or detours that will affect the school. The marked detours are currently in place and will remain in place through 2018 construction. The University monitors the NCDOT projects and would meet with the city and state officials if an issue would arise,” WPU public safety official, John Cranham stated in an email.
According to NCDOT, Capital Boulevard and Peace Street will be open to traffic from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays to make rush hour traffic flow easier. However, there may be lane restrictions. Road construction is scheduled to take place between midnight and 5 a.m. Weekend road and interchange closures are possible from 9 p.m. Fridays until 6 a.m. Mondays.
The road construction is supposed to last until next Summer, but due to weather conditions such as recent hurricanes, the end to the road construction may not be as soon as everyone would like it to be.