Project 20/10: Eno Drive killed as Durham shakes up transportation priorities (#18)

As the N&O noted in its 2003 coverage of the event, planners of that summer's Festival on the Eno had a bigger reason than usual to celebrate.

After decades of planning, debating, bickering and fighting over the proposed Eno Drive loop project -- slated to be a freeway/parkway connection from I-85 in northeastern Durham County to I-85 near the Durham/Orange border -- the General Assembly passed a change to the 1989 state Highway Trust Fund enabling legislation that pulled the controversial road off that fund's enabling legislation.

The law replaced the Eno Drive plan with a series of proposals negotiated by local government leaders and NCDOT after a firestorm of negotiation and community discussion, with then-first-term Mayor Bill Bell getting much of the credit for brokering the compromise.

The Eno Drive drew a host of complaints from residents and environmentalists, particularly over its proposed segment west of Roxboro Rd., which Eno-lovers argued would have devastated the Eno River waterway and parks as well as neighborhoods in its path.

In the place of Eno Drive came a collection of individual road projects. First up would be the East End Connector, a mini-loop relieving Durham's central neighborhood roads -- and now, with the construction of the NC540/Triangle Parkway toll road, the last link in a freeway connection from the US 1 corridor near Holly Springs to I-85.

Also on the list would be the widening and upgrading of US 70 as a freeway from the East End Connector to the Wake County line, followed by I-85's widening north of US 70 to Red Mill Road. 

Then would come the Northern Durham Parkway -- the remaining eastern vestige of the Eno Drive corridor -- a two-to-four lane road running from near Treyburn down past I-85 along Durham's eastern side to US 70. 

Northern Durham Parkway can be seen in the dotted gray line shown along that corridor in the map from the Durham area's long-range transportation plan, seen above. (Click the image to view full-size.)

In fact, one of the first portions of the Northern Durham Parkway got built out by the developer of the Brightleaf at the Park subdivision that opened mid-decade. 

And man, if residents of the subdivision thought that they were surprised to learn the scope of retail plans for their neck of the woods, just wait a decade until this road starts going through and they learn that a major thoroughfare connector will cut right through their neighborhood.

Then again, given the current state of North Carolina's funding for road construction -- and unsettled questions first over the political role in shunting dollars towards cities not originally part of the Highway Trust Fund, like Fayetteville, then the more recent questions over what formulas the state will be using to prioritize dollars as it seeks to de-politicize the process -- it might be more than a decade, for all we know.

Initial reports were that the East End Connector would be under construction by 2010, and open a few years later. That date shifted forward and backward in times at different points in the decade, though largely backward. Now a mid-teens opening seems the best-case scenario, though the proof will really come next summer, when we see how the state's new road prioritization process plays out.

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In many ways, the whole process leading up to the late-2002 compromise brokered by Bell over Eno Drive's future represented the kind of solution that hizonner has specialized in over three decades in public service, following his 1990s work to merge the city and county school systems into today's Durham Public Schools. (These kind of compromises from Durham's most persistent political insider earned him BCR's support in the fall election cycle.)

The demise of Eno Drive has led to few tears in the years since the 2003 compromise. 

Some might have argued that the loss of the loop damaged North Durham's prospects for growth -- but it's hard to see how strong those are in the first place.

After all, the growth restrictions came into place for much of northern Durham in the first place due to the presence of Durham's Lake Michie and Little River reservoirs, plus the much-larger Falls Lake to their east, all three serving as regional water supplies.

At the same time, the larger Triangle region's growth has happened in the RTP-Western Wake corridor, making south Durham a more logical location for new residential units, retail and jobs in the first place. After all, if you're commuting to (say) RTP, or UNC, or Cary's Harrison Ave. corridor, or Brier Creek, it's a much shorter shot from Woodcroft or Parkwood or even the resurgent neighborhoods around downtown than it is to commute in from the more northerly reaches of the Bull City.

At the same time, those attempts to bring households and jobs to that side of the county have moved slowly. Treyburn's seen jobs arrive at Merck's influenza vaccine plant (which has expanded even while in its FDA proving period), AW North Carolina, bioMérieux and elsewhere, but the reservoirs-edge development has taken years to grow slowly towards its maximum planned size.

Meanwhile, north Durham remains whisper-quiet for retail, with residents still trekking down the Roxboro, Duke and Guess corridors towards Northgate, South Square or Southpoint for shopping. 

The only big box general merchandiser north of the I-85 corridor closed earlier this year when Walmart decided to move its north Durham location to a new supercenter site off Glenn School Road. Meanwhile, plans earlier in the decade to bring a large retail shopping center to the corner of Infinity and Roxboro fell apart, likely due to a mix of worsening retail conditions and poor soil conditions.

Would a new highway link in the form initially proposed by Eno Drive have brought more growth?

Perhaps. There's no question that beltway and connector roads tend to spur new development. 

Yet the countervailing environmental and regional growth factors seem strong enough that even if the Eno Drive had been built, it may not have made much of a difference anyway.

Ironically, the continued growth in RTP and Western Wake -- spurred in part by the arrival of Brier Creek -- may see eastern Durham County leap ahead in the next twenty years, regardless of how quickly the Northern Durham Parkway arrives. But that's a story for later in our top-twenty stories of the decade.

Comments

[GreenLantern]

I've been following the East End Connector/Eno Loop saga for many years, given the fact that I live next to the proposed NE Durham Parkway. I hope the EEC, now part of the proposed Triangle Expressway, is kept as our number one priority DOT project. It will not only serve to divert traffic off of the downtown neighborhoods to northern Durham County, but will also divert a large portion of the commuter traffic off of the Miami Blvd/US70 route, and make my own commute much less of a hassle. Most of the traffic I deal with each day comes from northwestern Wake residents who work in RTP but can't bring themselves to live in eastern Durham county.

I've often been frustrated reading comments and DOT reports/maps about how the NE Durham Parkway is some sort of bypass to RTP (it does NOT go to RTP!!), or that it will be used as a commuter route, etc. The NE Durham Parkway is last on the list from the 2003 compromise, and is not expected to carry much traffic since it will be separated by medians, maxed out at 45 mph, and contain multiple traffic light controlled intersections along its route through eastern Durham County. With the EEC and widening/leveling of US70, it will be seen only as a secondary alternative to Brier Creek, RDU airport, and RTP. Given the bottleneck at Miami Blvd/US70/Sherron Rd and multiple traffic lights, it will not serve as a primary commuter route from RTP.

Alas, when our jobs are moved to China, I will probably have moved on in ten years and will not be around to see final completion of these projects. Most eastern Durham County residents want to see more growth, more shopping, higher property appreciation, and easier commutes from the completion of the NE Durham Parkway. It will only happen if the new Triangle Parkway proposal gets strong support from Durham residents, including newcomers who have a knack for not doing their research before moving here, and then complaining about change in endless public hearings that regurgitate the same old concerns that receive the same counterpoints. While it was a good thing that the original Eno Drive proposal from 1958 got sidetracked, it's time to get moving on the 2003 compromise before any more NIMBY's and left-wing enviro-whackos stick their heads in the sand and start the process of delay and obstruct all over again.

[Todd P]

@GL, BCR - The priority list of "loop projects" that was put together in 2003 pretty well ensures that the N Durham Parkway will not be built for decades, if ever. There just isn't enough money to go around - which is probably the intention behind the list that was created.

http://www.dchcmpo.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=14&limit=8&limitstart=8

From the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan priority list projects, costs and completion dates:

- EEC - Deserves to be at the top of the list, and will cost $155 million, 2017 completion.

- Converting US 70 to a 6 lane freeway - expensive and complicated due to the number of commercial properties that will be effected / condemned by a widened, limited access freeway with interchanges surrounded by access roads. $129 million, 2025 completion.

- Widening I-85 most of the way to Falls Lake - a dubious and unneeded project - there just isn't that much traffic on 85 north of US 70 and Falls Lake watershed protection won't allow much growth out that way ever. The project will absorb another large chunk of money - $76 million, 2025 completion.

- N Durham Parkway, 3 sections, $114 million, 2025 completion. GL's comments about the need for this are well put.

- N Roxboro St widening to Goodwin Rd, $41 million, 2035 completion. A project that deserves to come right after the EEC due to existing traffic congestion in this corridor every day. Just completing intersection improvements at Roxboro/Latta/Infinity would solve much of the problem, yet this poject waits behind a completely unnecessary I-85 widening, along with N Durham Parkway?

The total is $515 million worth of 'loop' projects in Durham by 2035. That's just not gonna happen. So everything at the bottom of the list will continue to slide further and further out. "Delay and obstruct" is already built in.

[CJ]

I beleive that the Northern Durham Parkway wiil be built eventually. The pressure to build this road will not only come from residents of Durham, but it will also come from Person County. They need this more direct and lees congested route to the Triangle to provide badly needed development in their county.