There’s a reason West Catawba backups have been worse lately
Dec. 22. By Dave Vieser. If it seems like traffic congestion on West Catawba Avenue has been worse lately, you’re right — and it’s not just because of heavier holiday traffic.
“The contractor building the convenience store on (West) Catawba near the Nantz Road intersection damaged one of the traffic signal detection loops at the Nantz Road light while working in the area,” said Tyler Beardsley, Cornelius public works director. “We notified the DOT earlier this month. DOT and the signals contractor are working to get this repaired as soon as possible.”
For motorists attempting to travel through Cornelius or reach local businesses during the holiday season, the fix can’t come soon enough. The damaged loops mean the signal does not function properly or respond to the number of vehicles attempting to turn onto Nantz Road. That has resulted in long delays, especially for southbound traffic on West Catawba, at times backing up as far as Bethel Church Road.
The damaged signal is not the only reason traffic has been congested on Catawba Avenue in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a contractor working on the Junker apartment project installed bollards between lanes on West Catawba on a Saturday, closing one lane at a time. Bollards are short, sturdy posts — often made of metal, concrete, plastic or wood — used to control or direct traffic.
“These bollards were a requirement of the Junker apartments to make one of the driveways right-in, right-out,” Beardsley said. “However, the town was not notified of this work. If we had been, we would have encouraged night work and pushed out a notification to our citizens.”
Town officials said they are hopeful the traffic signal at Nantz Road will be repaired soon.
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Can’t wait for the traffic congestion when Junker apartments actually get leased and we add hundreds of more vehicles in that area.
And let’s not forget the Sunset Cove Event Venue that the Griffins are trying to get passed by the town. That venue is proposed for Nantz Road and will add another couple of hundred cars and trucks!
How much more can West Catawba take without widening?? And even with that, it can’t support this many more motorists for daily travel. We are already sitting on Jetton for 45 minutes just to get to the light to turn onto Catawba. It’s a disaster.
Why not have a police officer (s) man that intersection until repaired.
There has often been a police officer, in a marked car, in the Marina parking lot (west side of Catawba next to Nantz) for several weeks. Have never seen anyone stoped by the police – even when they run a red light at that intersection or block the intersection. Not sure what the police are actually doing there.
The left turn sensor from Nantz onto W Catawba also seems to be non-functioning. The net effect is that movement on Catawba is being needlessly stopped.
Thank you for the info
Why don’t we have police directing traffic then at these broken lights during high traffic times? Seems like the town should find a solution short-term until NCDOT fixes the problem long-term.
Excellent idea!!!!! It has been broken for several weeks and the town is gridlock daily.
This has had the town in gridlock daily for several weeks now. Maybe unplug the light until it can be repaired. Inconvenience the few on Nance Rd rather than screw up the entire town daily and indefinitely. And like another suggested, have police direct traffic during extremely high traffic times of day.
Someone has to be able to do something. The town should be calling daily until it’s fixed. It is ridiculous that they seem to be just sitting around waiting for a fix while a “quick” trip to the store includes an hour of traffic time to go 2-3 miles.
Not to mention the absolute insane growth in the area that no one wanted.
Stop Business growth until roadways can handle increases traffic.
Widen W. Catawba???
Ticket drivers who block intersections!