Raleigh — A safe route for pedestrians
crossing Trinity Road in Raleigh between parking lots for N.C. State’s
Carter-Finley Stadium and the State Fairgrounds is on its way. The N.C.
Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to build a pedestrian tunnel
under the roadway slightly east of Youth Center Drive.
The project is scheduled to begin Monday, March 5, when the roadway
will be closed to start the staging of contract equipment and do preliminary
work before the digging for the tunnel will begin. That means the road will be
open for Carolina Hurricane games on Friday and Sunday, and the N.C. State men's
basketball regular-season finale on Saturday.
Although the $4.3 million contract calls for the tunnel to be ready
for pedestrians by Sept. 15, there is a financial incentive for the contractor
to have it ready one month earlier. N.C. State has home football games the first
three Saturdays in September.
The tunnel will also
provide a safe crossing for attendees to the state fair in October, when
thousands of vehicles are parked on the stadium side of Trinity Road.
The project allows for the closure of Trinity Road
between March 1 and August 1 as the tunnel is being built, although the
contractor can also earn an incentive bonus for every day earlier than August 1
the road re-opens.
A detour route will send vehicles
onto Edwards Mill Road, Wade Avenue and Blue Ridge Road to get around the work
zone. Access to the stadium and fairgrounds parking lots off Trinity Road during
the closure will remain open through other entrances.
This was one of 16 road and bridge contracts recently awarded by the
N.C. Department of Transportation. Per state law they went to the lowest
qualified bidder for each project. The contracts are worth $138.6 million, $1.8
million under engineer estimates.
Contact: Steve
Abbott
(919) 707-2600
swabbott@ncdot.gov