County motorists not pleased with new traffic pattern
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
ROCKINGHAM — A variable message sign. A “stop ahead” warning sign. A stop sign with a flashing light. To the right of the new paved roadway is a pile of rubble — what’s left of the old way.
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
What motorists see as they travel U.S. 1 southbound approaching the new traffic pattern.
More than a dozen orange traffic barricades mark the edge of the road. A few hundred more feet and there are multiple stop signs. Multiple large arrows painted on the ground to direct motorists towards a right turn. Multiple no-left-turn signs. Across the road, at eye level of a seated driver, is a One Way sign to go along with at least two others.
And yet, the improvements designed and manufactured by workers with the North Carolina Department of Transportation at the point where U.S. Route 220 North intersects with U.S. 1 South, south of Highway Business 74, seems to have Richmond County motorists dazed and confused since the new traffic pattern opened at 1 p.m. Monday.
More than half a dozen readers of The Pee Dee Post reached out to their local digital newspaper to express concern. Pam Greene was among the first.
“Somebody’s going to get hurt,” said Greene, of Rockingham.
U.S. Route 1 has been extended slightly south and east of its previous path. After stopping, motorists wanting to continue on 1 South are to cross 220 with a righthand turn into a turning lane that will guide drivers onto 1 South, much like a backwards “S.”
Kevin Spradlin | PeeDeePost.com
During a period early Thursday afternoon, every motorist that approached the intersection navigated it successfully – and safely. Earlier that morning, at least six vehicles had turned left into oncoming, one-way traffic.
Some readers have told the Post the new way is not working and might be worse that the old traffic pattern. Greene said Wednesday she’d already seen two near-accidents, as people who had come to a stop started to turn left, which put those motorists going the wrong way on 220. Greene is not the only Post reader to express concern.
One man wrote and called it a “stupid traffic pattern.” Another referred to the new setup as “the convoluted death trap (that) is a very intense and dangerous passage going south.”
There’s plenty more.
“Many of us think it is the stupidest thing that the DOT could have done,” said one loyal reader and 35-year county resident. “Already (I) have seen several cars turn left there, which is more dangerous than how it was. It is a very dangerous situation.”
It is, said yet another reader, “a mess.”
Kevin Hedrick, district engineer for the Department of Transportation, talked with The Pee Dee Post Thursday afternoon and seemed taken aback by the backlash he and state workers have experienced since Monday afternoon.
“We’ve been called ‘crazy’ and ‘stupid,'” Hedrick said. “A lot of things have been hollered out the windows. We’ve had some confusion. It’s been a certain way for a very long time.”
Image courtesy N.C. Dept. of Transportation
This image shows the new traffic pattern, with northbound U.S. 1 on the right.
But Hedrick is sticking to his guns that the new pattern can work — given drivers’ time, patience and awareness. The projected, which cost an estimated $250,000 and began this spring, is nearly finished. The original option to eliminate a drivers’ ability to head straight, or south, onto Route 1 and instead travel north to Midway Road, then south, was eliminated with local public safety officials expressed concern about response time to fires or medical emergencies. Some in Rockingham, Hedrick said, were concerned about the time and distance — approximately three-quarters of a mile there and back — added onto motorists’ drive time.
Another option was simply to stop the southbound traffic and reroute it all together, Hedrick said, perhaps going from Highway Business 74 to 220 South.
The public, he said, “doesn’t necessarily want that.”
The only other option is a bridge, or bypass, as one Post reader suggested. But that, Hedrick said, would cost millions of dollars.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Hedrick said. “One life is worth whatever it takes. If we continue to have accidents, and serious accidents, then we’ll have to look at that option. We’ve got to do something We’re responsible.”
Safety concerns prompted action, Hedrick said. According to a DOT report, there were 18 accidents at the intersection from 2008 to 2012. Some of those accidents included loss of life, and another in July 2013.
“We’re going to monitor this,” Hedrick said, “and make any necessary changes we need to.”
With all the current signage, Hedrick acknowledge he was at a loss to adequately explain motorists’ inability to follow the new traffic pattern.
“I don’t understand what people are doing,” he said. “We hope (the number of drivers turning left) decreases.
And that part is the constant of the project.
This screenshot of a Google Map shows an aerial shot, positioned in a similar manner as the image above, with the previous traffic pattern.
“You’ve never been able to turn left before,” Hedrick said.
