SMITHFIELD – A milestone to widen and extend Booker Dairy Road arrives Friday morning when new traffic signals at three locations are turned on.
The intersections are:
- Booker Dairy Road and White Oak Drive
- Where the widened portion of Booker Dairy Road built on a new location forms a T-intersection with the old, two-lane portion of the same road
- U.S. 301 and Ava Gardner Avenue
All three locations initially will remain in a yellow flashing mode for the main routes to help get drivers acclimated to the new patterns. Then on Monday morning, the signals at the three intersections will begin regular operation.
An N.C. Department of Transportation contractor has nearly completed a project that widened Booker Dairy Road into four lanes with a raised median from Buffalo Road to U.S. 301. About half of the existing route was improved, while the remaining portion has been constructed on a new route that roughly paralleled the old Booker Dairy Road.
The extension tied into Ava Gardner Avenue, which had been a dead end off U.S. 301 without a traffic signal. The project totaled 2.1 miles overall.
The $13.2 million construction project will be complete, and all lanes open within the next week or two.