grodney

PlazaMidwoodGuy, I'm almost certain a bypass around Wadesboro is planned. I don't have details at hand, but I'm sure I've read about it in the last few years. Sorry I can't recall the approximate date for that happening. (I'm still counting the days until 12/31/2008 when the new 4-lane from Maxton to I-95 is done.) The Centrum Pkwy extension is an interesting idea. Seems like that backdoor in/out of the mall area would take some pressure off of 51 at the mall. Widening Lancaster Hwy would also be good. Lots of people already try to use that, but it gets heavily congested. I think your red line would need to go a bit further, as it is currently 2-lane all the way from 51. So I think making it 4-lane from 51 to Ballantyne Commons would do it. Of course, you might as well go 4-lane all the way down to 521 at that point. Anyway, those would help, but I still get the feeling like a ton of traffic comes from south of 485 at Rea and at Providence, and the development only continues off of those. For people going that far east, they wouldn't use a non-485 route, but maybe the Lancaster Hwy and Ballantyne people would, thus making it better for everyone. But one other thing, again, in the afternoon rush, 485 is bad from the flyover to 51. Barring wrecks, it then clears up from 51 until at least Johnston. So in other words, the problem is *getting* to the Pineville exits. I suppose if more people were exiting at the first Pineville exit (South Blvd / Polk ) to take local routes, then maybe 485 would stay a bit more clear.

Have you all driven on 485 from 77 to 85 lately? Miles and miles of clear-cutting just inside 485, all along 485. I don't know what it is, but it looks like a massive amount of development. Regarding congestion on 77: In my experience, 77 became *way* less crowded as soon as 485 opened from 77 to 85. I agree it will get even better when the NW section of 485 is done.

I live south of 485 off of Johnston. I work uptown. I would love to take a train. But the South LRT doesn't appear to be an option. In the morning, by the time I get to South Blvd, I'm past all the trouble and pretty much uptown. In the afternoon, getting from South Blvd to 485 already is, and will be even more, a nightmare. Bus isn't an answer. Simply takes too much time. A train from Johnston (or Rea) to the South LRT might be an answer. Or a pay/bus lane to the South LRT. Although, again, if I can pay to get to South Blvd, I'm not sure why I'd then park and get on a train. Mind you, my vision is warped because I have the nice flexibility to commute in the morning from 6:15 to 6:45, and in the afternoon from 3:30 to 4:00. 485 still sucks both am and pm, and 77 sometimes does, but not nearly as bad as peak times. If I had to go at higher volume times, my view on the train and/or bus might be different. Finally, semi-related, I would gladly pay a toll twice-a-day to help add a lane to 485. And as I said, I'm not even there at peak times. (And while we're talking about tolls, I'll gladly pay one to get around Monroe every time I go to the beach. Is there a thread for this project? I haven't heard much about it lately.)

Yeah, true. Crosland made me aware of the money they'd spent at Rea & Ardrey Kell when I wrote to (nicely) tell them that the entrances/exits to Blakeney need re-working. [google break] (From charlotte.bizjournals.com: "To get the complex built, Crosland invested nearly $9 million in road improvements.".) But those examples are still small-scale compared to the broad view. It goes back to your earlier comment about blaming Charlotte for approving the developments in the first place. Sure, they force the developers to do the little improvements around the developments; but with no help on the big stuff, everyone is stuck sitting on 485 or Providence Rd or Johnston Rd or 51.

Thanks dub and metro. From a grand view, it's still stupid. But I get what you're saying. Okay, so forget government. Back to the thought of the developers (Ballantyne, Crosland, etc., etc.) privately funding the road improvements. Yeah, right.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Logic tells me that at some point you gotta raise your hand and say "Ummm, excuse me Mr. State Legistators, excuse me Ms. Governor, excuse me Mr. Feds, uhhhhh, we have this money that we're supposed to use to widen this road that nobody uses, but right over there on the other side of 77, we have this road that is used by 100,000 vehicles per day. Could we just maybe go ahead and widen that part first to give immediate relief to those 10s of thousands of people, and then use that 2013 money for this part here, instead of just following the letter of the law and spending money here where it's not really needed yet?". Like I said, whoever didn't do that ought to be fired. That's how real companies go under. That's how government gets the reputation for horrible waste and illogic. Yeah, for sure, it was stupid to develop Ballantyne and all the other surrounding stuff. And the people who choose to live there pay the consequences of their choice to live there. But that doesn't make further development decisions any less suspect.

The biggest joke, and the most disgusting, was that a lane was added to 485 just *west* of 77 within the last couple years. I don't know who all was responsible for this, but they should all be fired. I don't care about "buckets" of money. I don't care about funding "rules". Don't tell me it's complicated. Don't tell me I don't understand. There is logic, and there is stupidity. Adding that lane, as opposed to adding a lane *east* of 77, was just plain stupid. There is no excuse. Period.

Day/Date? And is there a contact/phone/e-mail? Thanks! By the way, I read somewhere that "they" were told to go ahead and plan it, just in case money pops up from somewhere before then (which I believe will happen), so that once there is money, they don't have to wait on planning.

This construction news from my employer, sent in a safety memo. " Former [Duke] Power Building Site: Construction at this site will begin this month near the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Church Street. The developer will install a covered walkway in the construction area from mid-MLK Boulevard to Church Street, and down Church to a mid-block construction entrance. The developer will place a flag person at the construction entrance during all working hours. "

Apologies in advance for the slightly off-topic story: I was driving up Rea Rd yesterday with my wife and kids, and we passed a new office/retail corner development. I said: "What's going in there anyway?". My wife said: "I think a couple doctors' offices.". My 3-year old daughter piped up: "Or maybe a Harris Teeter!".

Sorry to say they filled in the pond last Friday. Once the demo guys were gone, they worked for days and days with just a small dozer and a packer, slowly bringing in fill dirt. The pace has increased a little in the last week, and they have brought in a couple more big machines. They've also been doing a bunch of drilling (at least that's what I call it) and surveying and staking. Edit: Whoops, the pond is only half-filled. But I think they're still filling it. Not that it really matters. I just hated to report something untrue.

The following is regarding I-485 on the south side of town, eastbound from 77, during afternoon/evening rush. I leave the Uptown between 3:30pm and 4pm each day (taking 77 to 485 to Johnston), so I get to see this congestion at all stages of development. But usually, I see it more toward the beginning, *not* at the full backup from 51 to the flyover at 77. It seems to me the congestion isn't so much the narrowing from 3 lanes to 2 (at the South Blvd interchange); rather, it seems like it is the tiny area that is the entrance ramp from South Blvd and the first exit ramp at 51. I know another lane for 485 in this area is planned far in the future (and I'm betting it magically happens sooner than that), but I'm thinking that's just a band-aid, giving a little more room to get around a bad entry/exit point. I don't know that I really have a good solution. My first thought would be to get rid of the entry ramp from South Blvd onto 485. Also, instead of having the right-most lane of 485 become exit-only at the second South Blvd exit, I would extend that lane to the first exit at 51. I'm no engineer (obviously), but it seems like that would help greatly, and would be really easy and cheap to implement. Of course, then there would be no way to get from South Blvd to 485 eastbound. I suppose we could build a cloverleaf entrance on the west side of South Blvd. But, 1) That would probably congest 485 all over again, and 2) It would greatly increase the cost of my tidy little solution. Thoughts? Has any re-work of this area been discussed elsewhere, where I could read and learn? Thanks.

Pictures from today, taken from 19th floor 400 S Tryon. 3 other closer-ups in my album: http://picasaweb.google.com/rodney.gardner/NovareProject The D. H. Griffin signs came down off the fencing late last week. I think it's still Griffin working on site, but they're obviously winding down with their wrecking.

Well, she gets near 30 mpg, so with a 32 mile round trip, she's barely over a gallon. So somewhere around 3 bucks extra in gas, depending on current prices. Not huge, but it does dip into the savings on groceries.

I work on the 19th floor of 400 South Tryon. I took some pictures this morning. Sorry some are a little blurry, I'm still figuring out the best way to take pictures through a window on a rainy day. I hope it's okay to link to an album instead of embedding the pictures. Sorry if not. http://picasaweb.google.com/rodney.gardner/NovareProject As you can see, after they cleared the rubble from the implosion, they had to dig out the cement floor to get to dirt. They appear to be finishing that up. But they still have cement walls from the basement that I assume they'll need to get rid of. And the parking lot too?

My wife did an item-by-item price comparison of Wal-Mart vs. Harris Teeter in Sep 2005. I thought some here might be interested. I don't think there's anything surprising here, it's just fun to look at actual figures sometimes. http://www.rodneygardner.com/grocery.jpg http://www.rodneygardner.com/grocery.xls Notes: - HT has VIC specials from time-to-time. These are not included in the comparison. - My wife readily acknowledges some quality differences on meat/produce. - It is 32 miles round-trip to the Galleria Wal-Mart vs. having 3 (or 4 or 5!) HT's within a very short drive. Thus more gas money is spent getting to and from Wal-Mart. - This is a price comparison only, and doesn't take into account the obvious tangibles and intangibles of the shopping experience. (Say, for instance, my wife being half-way through checkout (juggling our 3-year old and 6-month old) and having the Wal-Mart checker ask her to return to the back corner of the store to get a different carton of eggs due to a missing bar code sticker.)