DPK

That's because Starbucks is one of the 16 new shops and restaurants coming to Phase II of Terminal 2 in 2011. http://www.rdu.com/terminal2/future/phase2.htm

That's because NCSU is in summer mode right now. All the retail along that block has earlier close hours right now until fall.

That plan is more of a "I'll believe it when I see it" thing right now though thing for most people.

Clark is a good alternative to bypass the section of Hillsborough Street that is getting a facelift. You can pretty much take Clark all the way out to Peace, downtown, and the Krispy Kreme if you have to. Orulz is right that it will never get punched through due to the residential area that exists now a days. Especially since the majority of people that live in that neighborhood are anti-any form of urban improvements. It's fine though, Clark should not be turned into a thoroughfare. That's what Wade and Western are for. Wade is aging however and will need improvements in the coming years. Potholes are forming and asphalt is is breaking up in a lot of places. It'd be nice if they could eliminate a few lights on Wade by adding a few more overpasses like the one at Oberlin. Wade and Western are going to get pretty interesting. Western has had resurfacing within the past year which has helped. They really need to do something about the intersections at Western/Gorman and Western/Avent-Ferry. Topographically speaking, Western is raised in order to match up with Gorman's elevation at that intersection. If you have ever been to the Wendy's at that corner and try to directly get onto Western from the drive-thru lane you have quite the epic hill to climb in a short distance there. To me at least, it would seem feasible to some how pass Western under Gorman there. Now what feasible is remains to be seen. The amount of grading work involved to do that would be surreal.

Wow calm down. So I guess I can't go to the YMCA then since I don't work there and it's not NC State. Oh well.

Dear Idiot Drivers, I'm aware that construction has started on Hillsborough Street and that lanes are now down to one each way in front of the block where Brueggers is. I'm also quite aware that the side street next to Brueggers has access to a parking lot. However, I can not rationalize your idiocy of causing a mile long backup because you want to make a left turn and feel like sitting there for 10 minutes while traffic piles up behind you with nowhere to go because you can't make your left turn due to oncoming traffic. There's nowhere for anyone to go due to the giant concrete barrier that exists now to the right. Go down further and make a u-turn somewhere and not piss off everyone behind you. K? Thanks, bye, DPK

The 100% plans appear to finally be posted online: http://www.hillsboroughstreet.org/project_...tscapePlans.htm Survey work, tagging, and staking appear to be going on this week. Official construction start is May 20th.

The leg of Main Campus Drive between Centennial Middle School and the Alumni Center is now open. I went ahead and highlighted the newly paved areas in the picture below. Note that they apparently (and economically) only paved half of this leg of Main Campus Drive (the lanes that will eventually be strictly for traffic headed from east to west). Coming from the east, the new leg narrows down to two lanes to passover the creek bridge just south of the Alumni Center. You can distinguish this because the curbing is different after the road narrows on each side of the road. Also, before the bridge if you look on the left side of the road heading west, the road dead ends just before a future bridge section. Random entrances and the driveway to the future Chancellor's Residence have been paved in advance although nothing exists outside of what was cleared for staging purposes for this construction project. The parking lot for the Golf Clubhouse is complete and open. At night it is lit and there are emergency call boxes positioned on the east and west sides of the lot. Land has been cleared for the future Clubhouse. The golf course itself appears to be complete and is now just maturing the grass in prep for the future opening. The star on the map at the Golf Clubhouse I denoted to indicate one of my new favorite skyline views. I recommend everyone to go and check it out, as it's quite beautiful (especially at night/sunset)!

Same. I get my Popeye's cravings sometimes but am always let down by the only opportunity to get some around here is by a long drive to the airport. At which point I just assume go to Bojangles, mmmm. Ok now I'm hungry, lol.

Let's not start a post war here. He (transitman) does have a point (we're all entitled to them) that oil prices are going to go back up, it's just a matter of time. Whether it's 2 years or 12, eventually supply will not keep up with demand and we'll be paying more again. That's how the economy works, supply and demand. More people will begin to seek alternative methods of transportation, yadda yadda. I think if price and speed of train travel matched/exceeded air travel you would definitely see a decline in air travel. Whether you travel by train/plane, traveling when you get to a destination will always matter. Don't think narrowly however. You are leaving out emerging technologies such as bio-fuels, hybrids, fuel cells, etc. Yes they aren't available readily in most cases publicly now, but things are getting more efficient and interesting every year. If worse comes to absolute worse, you'll see people moving closer in again and abandoning suburbia. That being the absolute worst case where it is so cost counter-productive to live outside the core from public transportation that only those who can absurdly afford it, do it. People will find a way to do things, we've done it for centuries. Some of the best discoveries have been accidental so who knows. Never rule anything out, ever.

Money is already approved, I doubt anyone can do anything at this point to stop it. Thankfully. I'm excited!

Well this should help speed things along I would hope to think: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17train.html Maps, etc: http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/31 Source: http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/RRdev/hsrspfacts.pdf

RDU does have room for another runway, if not more. RDU has a lot of land. Granted a good chunk of it to the east is not developable due to Umstead Park, but to the west they do not have the same kind of restrictions. They could easily lay down another runway next to one of the current runways in the highlighted image below: They own that land, Umstead is not in that vacinity, state road 1002 (old Aviation Parkway) was bypassed a long time ago so does not serve a use really anymore to anyone outside of being a service road and being a dead end spur off Lumley Road.

RDU has 3 runways. Two parallel runways designated 5L/23R and 5R/23L. There is also a cross-winds runway designated 14/32. A fourth runway was planned but shelved when the industry took a dive after September 11.

I heard the festival was kind of a bust because of the weather. Who really has a festival during March? That could have been thought threw a tad better, I'm sorry. Campbell should definitely create some kind of development to sprout up around it. Someone will try to capitalize on those students.

Owner was trying to save money by not shucking out for electricity when it got darker.

Respective photos are below each caption. As a side note, I still have no idea what they are doing. They're still out there but a lot of the fencing is now gone and they are just working on one corner now. I'll try to get some updated pics tomorrow/Wednesday of all these and more since it's nicer outside now. I'd like to grab a couple of EBIII.

Interesting proposal. I'm all for it and glad to see they actually appear to be heavily motivated to get funding despite not being able to get federal support. This line however I can see pissing a lot of people (read - the type of people who post on wral.com) off:

Some construction updates from this past Wednesday (02-04-2009). The big map has been annotated with the photo locations; number is directly over where the photos reference. I had wanted to grab a few more from a few other projects going on, but it was roughly 30 degrees out and these were all I could stand at that moment, lol. 1 - Partners Way Parking Deck II (Planned completion in fall of 2009 with space for 400 vehicles. Will go online before Engineering Building III completes next year.) 2 - Utility Work (Not quite sure what they're doing, but each corner has work being done. Traffic lights?) 3 - Access Connector Road (Not detailed on the map, but basically links the Alumni parking lot with the new Main Campus Drive extension.) 4 - Bridge Work 5 - Lonnie Poole Golf Course Entrance (Leads to parking and future club house.)

Is there a list somewhere of grade crossings the DOT/NCRR is trying to eliminate? I thought over the next several years they are planning to reduce existing crossings wherever possible. I know this doesn't apply to new rail, but I'm curious none the less.

If you want to talk about CATS go to the Charlotte forums please. This topic is for Triangle Regional Transit.

The new tenant is Jimmy John's: http://www.gogoraleigh.com/2009/01/27/jimm...wntown-givaway/ http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4424559/ They're also giving away free sandwiches after the press conference!

I really like that idea.

Case #Z-014-09: http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/server.pt?...2&DirMode=1 In the University District 0.68 ac from NB, O&I-1, NB CUD w/PBOD to NB CUD w/PBOD. Public hearing is scheduled for January 20, 2009.

Peace China is ok in a pinch if you are already over there. I agree though that if I have a choice, I'd rather hit up one of the places on Hillsborough Street, etc. I feel like I get bigger portions and the food doesn't have an odd aftertaste elsewhere.