West Catawba widening may be delayed 3 years
Oct. 11. By Dave Vieser. West Catawba widening from Jetton Road to Sam Furr may not be completed until 2029, delaying the completion of the $52 million project by another three years.
It means motorists will continue to endure single-lane travel in each direction for another six to seven years.
What happened?
Right-of-way acquisitions and utility relocations are delaying the project, Deputy Town Manager Wayne Herron said.
The NCDOT estimates it will take 18 months to complete all the right-of-way acquisitions needed for utility relocation, followed by about two years for the utility relocation work.
Herron
The NCDOT has shifted the date it receives and opens bids for the project construction from 2024 to 2026, Herron said.
With an estimated two to three years for construction, this places the project’s completion in the 2029 time frame, according to Herron.
Just last year, town officials were saying construction would begin in 2024 and be completed sometime in 2026.
What comprises utility relocation?
There are a large number of utilities with equipment and service lines along the West Catawba Avenue right-of-way.
The electric lines that are visible along the highway must be relocated to accommodate a wider road; placing them underground was prohibitively expensive.
However, pipes and lines used by Charlotte Water, Piedmont Natural Gas, AT&T and Spectrum, among others, will also need to be relocated—a lengthy process.
Could it be done sooner?
One option is still on the table: NCDOT officials are negotiating with the utilities to see if they would accept doing the relocation on a phased basis. If the utilities agree, NCDOT could move up the bidding date to summer 2025, Herron said, “which would save a few months at best.”
How will this delay impact other projects and traffic flow?
It’s difficult to predict until a firm construction schedule is established. However, some of the projects along this stretch of West Catawba Avenue, such as the Alexander Farm development, have turning lanes that must be built in conjunction with the wider road.
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Just curious… Why are they just now figuring out the complications with this project or did they already know this but have not been doing anything about it?
In the meantime, the Denver area is growing like a weed and all of those people have to get from I-77 to SR 73 to get out there – meaning more and more and more traffic on W. Catawba (and Sam Furr). It’s only going to get worse. Thank goodness it’ll all be fixed in 7 years.
Reading this story just makes me laugh.
Yep, all fixed in 7 years, about the same timeframe as Elon building a colony on Mars. In other words, “Don’t get your hopes up”.
14 years ago we were on track for what we had, years later we are 10 years behind due to the lack of planning and and action form our own council who were more concerned with expansion than infrastructure, this is also due to the lack of support and action from NCDOT, no delays on roads going to Raleigh but for anything connected to Charlotte, not a priority.
Yes, Raleigh politicians hate Charlotte… maybe due to all the Democrates in Charlotte or the attitudes of Charlotte folks.
Excellent comment! My thoughts exactly. Just keep on approving more and more building permits and do nothing about the roads! Very disappointing!
As a former reporter and editor in the northeast I can tell you there were some towns that insisted plans from builders to improve infrastructure prior to voting on a development. One small town (Guilford, CT) even managed to stall Walmart being built when the company was THE retail giant. Many of the towns up that way had councils comprised of people who grew tired of traffic on 95,91 and 15, highways built to manage 1950s traffic so they were not going to allow traffic like that on local roads without a fight. A good fried of mine lives in Steele Creek and they have two lane roads that are constantly clogged up due to rapid development with no infrastructure improvements. It takes him a half hour to get from his exit to his home (3-4 miles) at peak times. This is the future those of us who live and work off Catawba between the Peninsula and Sam Furr.