If you’ve ever driven along Northview Drive with plans for heading west toward Cross Creek Mall, then you surely know the potential danger you could face.
It’s a perilous intersection with traffic along Morganton Road coming at you from both ways.
A long-awaited stoplight is on its way along with other safety measures.
“It has been a long time coming,” Fayetteville City Councilmember Lynne Greene said Monday about the estimated $500,000 project announced by the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Work was planned to begin Tuesday, according to NCDOT, but an unforeseen delay has pushed back the project.
Van Story Hills residents and motorists need not worry. The stoplight is coming, and the wait is about to end.
“It’s a great project,” said Andrew Barksdale, an NCDOT public relations officer
Barksdale worked for The Fayetteville Observer for 17 years before joining NCDOT in 2017, and Barksdale came to know this city well, and the potential dangers for the Van Story Hills neighborhood ingress onto the highly traveled Morganton Road.
Once completed, the project will include metal poles with mast arms to support the new stoplight signals, according to NCDOT, and there will be marked crosswalks and pedestrian signals, too.
A Little Patience
But don’t expect an overnight fix in the name of roadway safety.
There’s work to be done, and it includes a cul-de-sac for Dundee Road across the street from Northview Drive that, NCDOT said, will remove access to Morganton Road. NCDOT said it’s waiting for the manufacture and delivery of the metal mast poles later this year before it can install the new signal.
“The work on Dundee Road across from Northview is a direct result of this addition of this stoplight,” Greene said. “The two streets do not align, so that a true intersection could be created. NCDOT designed several possible solutions. Ultimately, they decided for safety reasons to close Dundee at Morganton by creating a cul-de-sac to keep traffic from entering Dundee from Morganton.
“City staff and NCDOT met with homeowners and included Councilman [Deno] Hondros and I,” Green said. “We met at the site and answered questions from homeowners. They are pleased that the road will be closed. It will prevent the ‘thoroughfare’ nature of that street as well.
“It is my understanding that the cul-de-sac will be completed first and then the stoplight will begin. I am not 100% certain of the expected completion date at this time.”
But again, resurrecting this Van Story Hills roadway onto Morganton Road is coming, and none too soon.
NCDOT said that an average of 25,000 vehicles daily travel this section of Morganton Road. And Northview Drive is a popular access point for neighborhood residents and Vanstory Hills Elementary School.
The project, according to NCDOT, will add a left turn signal for westbound motorists turning from Northview Drive. Most of the time, the left-turn arrow will flash yellow, which means motorists must yield and turn only when there is a safe gap in oncoming traffic. At other times, the arrow will turn solid green, giving left-turning drivers the right of way.
“The general consensus is that the Northview traffic light project and the cul-de-sac will bring welcome relief to the left of Northview and the cul-de-sac will provide overall safety at Dundee and Morganton roads,” said Hondros, who represents District 9. “It’s better late than never, and before we have a fatality.”
Epilogue
Some of us have been harping about this dangerous access from Northview Drive onto Morganton Road for more than 10 years.
Oncoming traffic along Morganton Road heading west moves fast, and there is not much gap and little time for motorist error.
It’s risky, it’s dangerous, and it is as simple as that.
