The primary function of a collector street is to draw traffic from local streets and expedite the movement of this traffic in the most direct route to an arterial or other collector street. Collector streets, thus, form the intermediate link between local (or, residential) and arterial streets in the roadway network. Most of us intuitively head for a collector street as we drive away from our house because the collector street tends to have fewer stop signs and is the most direct connection to an arterial road.

The collector street plan is to provide citizens, the development community and government staff with an easy-to-understand and rational document to guide collector street location and design. They must be able to rely on this plan to make future decisions on the location of collector streets in a variety of land use types and densities, and they must be confident that adherence to the plan will produce the safest roadways and highest level of service possible while achieving the goal of connectivity.

The southwest Durham and southeast Chapel Hill area has grown rapidly over the last few decades, and this rapid population growth is expected to continue into the future. The result of this rapid growth has been reduced driving safety, deteriorating congestion conditions and limited transportation access. The lack of adequate collector streets often contributes to these negative conditions by creating a circuitous road network that does not provide connectivity among existing and new developments and by forcing much traffic onto a few congested arterial roads.

The study area will be, more or less, the area enclosed by the New Hope Creek wetlands and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer property, NC 54, US 15-501 and the Durham/Orange County line. Click here (146 KB) to download a map of the study area.

The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO), which is staffed at the City of Durham Transportation Division, has dedicated staff and hired a consultant to complete the Collector Street Plan. The consultant is Kimley-Horn Associates. The City of Durham , Durham County and Town of Chapel Hill, which have planning jurisdiction for various parts of the study area for the Collector Street Plan, will be charged with implementing the completed plan.

The TAC reviewed the Revised Southwest Durham/Southeast Chapel Hill Collector Street Plan at their September 13th TAC meeting and voted to forward the Plan to the Town of Chapel Hill for their public hearing. In addition, the TAC requested that staff conduct another public workshop to collect citizen input on the Revised Plan.

The Town of Chapel Hill conducted a public hearing on the Southwest Durham/Southeast Chapel Hill Collector Street Plan on October 18, 2006. The Chapel Hill Town Council also addressed the Collector Street Plan at their meetings on November 20, 2006 and December 4, 2006. For more information on these two activities, see Town of Chapel Hill or contact:

David Bonk
Transportation Planner
Town of Chapel Hill
(919) 969-5064 x347
dbonk@townofchapelhill.org

The corridor for the Southwest Durham Drive, which runs through the middle of the collector street plan study area, has been adopted in the 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan (2030 LRTP) for the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO). Changing this minor thoroughfare corridor is beyond the scope of the collector street plan, and therefore the collector street plan will assume the current corridor as designated in the 2030 LRTP.

The details of designing and configuring the NC 54 intersections within the study area are beyond the scope of the collector street plan. Thus, the collector street network map shows street connections to NC 54 without designating the intersection design, e.g., traffic signal, median. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has short-term plans to:

1. widen the loop off of I-40 to add an additional lane, carry that lane on NC 54 westbound through the Farrington Road intersection, and end that lane at Falconbridge Road;
2. install a median at Falconbridge Road that will not allow lefts (or throughs) from the side streets, but permit lefts from NC 54 to Falconbridge Road on the south and to Celeste Circle on the north;
3. add a traffic signal at Hunting Ridge Road.

The NCDOT will continue to study the NC 54 corridor and will likely consider mid-term improvements to improve traffic flow without implementing a significant construction project. Long-term improvements will likely involve a major reconstruction of the I-40/NC 54 interchange.

You can contact:

Andy Henry
Transportation Planner
City of Durham Transportation Division
101 City Hall Plaza
Durham, NC 27701
(919) 560-4366
(919) 560-4561 fax
andrew.henry@durhamnc.gov