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Worst Construction Projects


NCtarheel

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What are some projects that you know of that were constructed in NC, but make absolutely no sense (like the placement, location etc.)?

Personally I think Raleigh made a huge mistake by putting the RBC center out in the boonies...there is nothing around it--no other entertainment venues, no restaurants, no houses, etc. They could have put it closer to downtown at least and benefitted the Glenwood South, warehouse district, etc. etc.

The parking lot at Southpoint mall is another horrible project--its one of the largest malls in the southeast and yet there are only a couple two lane entrances. At night on the weekends the lines to get out of the mall are crazy. I always thought that if there were some tragedy at the mall that law enforcement wouldnt be able to get to it because of the screwed up entrances/exits. Oh yeah--and would it have killed them to put up a parking deck?

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One project I think is the interchange I-40/Bus 40/421 in Winston-Salem. If your going southbound on 421 and want to go east you can't! There's no exit ramp. And another example would be if your driving westbound on Bus 40 you can't go eastbound I-40. What makes this even more stupid is that they rebuilt this interchange new back in 1992 and they didn't even add those ramps!

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rbc was a sad decision. They should have put it on campus somewhere. I don't even think they really considered downtown. It was built before downtown arena's became the rage.

I think the single worst project has been I-40 through GSO. Took many many years to complete and now with gso beltway construction it will be another 5 years of greensboro construction near, on or about 40. Winston's non beltway construction is just as bad

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One project I think is the interchange I-40/Bus 40/421 in Winston-Salem. If your going southbound on 421 and want to go east you can't! There's no exit ramp. And another example would be if your driving westbound on Bus 40 you can't go eastbound I-40. What makes this even more stupid is that they rebuilt this interchange new back in 1992 and they didn't even add those ramps!

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I think you mean if you want to go west on I-40 from Southbound 421 you can't. You must get off in Lewisville, take Lewisville Clemmons Rd. to Clemmons and get on I-40W. You can easily access both Eastbound I-40/Bus 40 from Southbound 421. And you can go east on I-40 from westbound business 40, I do it all the time. The only thing DOT left out was the South 421 to Westbound I-40 connection, DOT said traffic wouldn't justify that ramp. I have to disagree, but now there is so much development in that area, any additional ramps or improvements to this intersection would be very costly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of the worst projects IMO is not converting Independence Blvd in Charlotte to a full freeway. It is so wrong that the state allowed access to the businesses that line the corrider. The stores that remain on the highway will eventually fall on bad times. That will only add to more blight. Also, the fact that this is 2005 and the 'freeway' is only completed to Albemarle Rd is just not right.

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The worst project would have to be the Global TransPark in eastern, NC. The state put in millions and millions for a global shipping hub in the middle of nowhere far away from Interstate highways. The project itself was not a bad idea, it was the location. If the Transpark had been built near Raleigh-Durham Intl airport or near Piedmont Triad International Airport I think it would have been successful with nearby biotech manufacturing facilities. The Triad itself is a transportation hub so it should have been built there. Even if it werent successful as a "Global" facility it would still have been more successful in the Triad even if it served the east coast or southeast. If it had been built in Greensboro, the FedEx Hub would likely be a part of the Transpark as well. But we built the Transpark in the middle of nowhere and its not getting used at all. Building that Transpark in its eastern NC location is alot like building a 2,000 room hotel in Kinston, NC. It just doesnt make sense at all. If they had to build it in eastern NC, it would have made more sense to built it in Wilmington which is a port city and the largest city in eastern, NC.

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The worst project would have to be the Global TransPark in eastern, NC. The state put in millions and millions for a global shipping hub in the middle of nowhere far away from Interstate highways. The project itself was not a bad idea, it was the location. If the Transpark had been built near Raleigh-Durham Intl airport or near Piedmont Triad International Airport I think it would have been successful with nearby biotech manufacturing facilities. The Triad itself is a transportation hub so it should have been built there. Even if it werent successful as a "Global" facility it would still have been more successful in the Triad even if it served the east coast or southeast. If it had been built in Greensboro, the FedEx Hub would likely be a part of the Transpark as well. But we built the Transpark in the middle of nowhere and its not getting used at all. Building that Transpark in its eastern NC location is alot like building a 2,000 room hotel in Kinston, NC. It just doesnt make sense at all. If they had to build it in eastern NC, it would have made more sense to built it in Wilmington which is a port city and the largest city in eastern, NC.

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As talked about in another post, i beleive the GTP should of been located closer to I-95 to serve the eastern part of the state. Why was Kinston chosen as the city to host the GTP other than its centralized "eastern NC" location is beyond me. Rocky Mount or Wilson would of been better canadates.

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rbc was a sad decision.  They should have put it on campus somewhere.  I don't even think they really considered downtown.  It was built before downtown arena's became the rage.

I think the single worst project has been I-40 through GSO.  Took many many years to complete and now with gso beltway construction it will be another 5 years of greensboro construction near, on or about 40.  Winston's non beltway construction is just as bad

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DOWNTOWN ARENAS WERE THE RAGE, RBC was built when charlotte was trying to get one downtown, because everyone was building arena's downtown, building them on the outskirts has never been the rage.

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The worst project would have to be the Global TransPark in eastern, NC. The state put in millions and millions for a global shipping hub in the middle of nowhere far away from Interstate highways. The project itself was not a bad idea, it was the location. If the Transpark had been built near Raleigh-Durham Intl airport or near Piedmont Triad International Airport I think it would have been successful with nearby biotech manufacturing facilities. The Triad itself is a transportation hub so it should have been built there. Even if it werent successful as a "Global" facility it would still have been more successful in the Triad even if it served the east coast or southeast. If it had been built in Greensboro, the FedEx Hub would likely be a part of the Transpark as well. But we built the Transpark in the middle of nowhere and its not getting used at all. Building that Transpark in its eastern NC location is alot like building a 2,000 room hotel in Kinston, NC. It just doesnt make sense at all. If they had to build it in eastern NC, it would have made more sense to built it in Wilmington which is a port city and the largest city in eastern, NC.

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Amen

I hear that AIRFORCE 1 uses it for practice landing.

I stayed at the airport, in the NC Forest Housing, a few years ago when I went down to help on the flood repairs. They do not have regular passenger air service there, it pull out years ago.

The NC Forest Service has a few airplanes there. They could take off on the taxi way without any trouble.

I agree eastern NC needs help with jobs, but this is not going to help. Wasted

money.

The Navy needs a landing strip in eastern NC, guess who has an airport for rent.

:silly:

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It's a really beautiful building too. If it were downtown it would give Durham a very respectible skyline. I think the (former) BBC building is about the same height though, and that's the most prominent building downtown. UT's just on the highest slab of land in the city.

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It's a really beautiful building too. If it were downtown it would give Durham a very respectible skyline. I think the (former) BBC building is about the same height though, and that's the most prominent building downtown. UT's just on the highest slab of land in the city.

According to Emporis the University Tower is 109 meters/356 feet tall while the Suntrust (CCB) Tower is 62 meters/202 feet tall.

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One the other hand, the outskirts RBC Center:

1) Was built on free land

2) Is easily accessibly from the Triangle's 4 cities (unlike downtown)

3) Doesn't have panhandlers approaching single women in the parking lot on weeknights

4) Has excellent access from major roads nearby

5) Is not constricted by a street grid; (doesn't alter the grid)

6) Allows for tailgating before the game

7) Has plenty of space in the parking lot for carnivals, circus trucks, etc

8) Has excellent, convenient, close by parking

An on campus site would have been a low profile disaster for bringing in revenues. No pro sports team wants to be in the middle of a campus. If it weren't for the Carolina Hurricanes, NCSU's replacement for Reynolds would have been a slightly improved version of Joel Coliseum that looks Charlotte Coliseum-ish on the outside.

I was in favor, too, of the downtown site. However there are plenty of virtues to its location. The whole thing was planned as NCSU's Charlotte-envy. Their officials were really impressed with the Charlotte Coliseum's ease of entrance, as opposed to the Dean Dome. They even got the dreadful Odell to do the original design. That was the scope, period. Had NCSU not graded the land in ?1993? the site probably would have been abondoned in favor of downtown when the Hurricanes got involved 4 years later.

Here is the artist rendering of the pre-Canes interior design. Once again, Charlotte Coliseum v2.0.

esa_concourse.jpg

While the location and exterior glass of the final building are wrong, I'm just glad to have it. There were PLENTY of people fighting the process for a building which has been so good for Raleigh, so far.

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  • 1 month later...

As a longtime fan of NC State Athletics, I'll be the first one to tell you that NC State Basketball does not belong in such a large area as the RBC Center. I as most people absolutely loved Reynolds for its atmosphere, on campus location, as well as the size. However, I did also realize that for the program to grow it needed a larger venue. The layout of RBC is the problem. It was built for hockey i.e. the oval shape which takes fans further away from the court.

NC State would have (fans at least) benefitted much more from a venue much more to the shape of UNC's Dean Smith Center or WFU/W.S.'s Joel Coliseum. Dean Smith Center was made specifically for basketball, and the Joel Coliseum was made as a mixed purpose arena but with the basketball being the foremost important event. I believe the fans of NC State basketball would have griped much less had the team of moved into a facility much more similar to those.

With that said, I am very grateful for the Hurricanes coming to Raleigh because honestly without them and the funds they've given, NC State's future home could have still been in limbo as it had been for so long.

The RBC Center has enabled Raleigh to land many events that it was previously unable to host because there was no venue. Sure there is Alltel Pavilion for concerts, but thats only open from April to October and sure there is the Memorial Auditorium downtown, but lack of seating becomes an issue there. Yet one thing still makes me ponder; Why is it that even though Raleigh has a large and fairly new arena that we still do not get concerts and other events that places such as Charlotte and Greensboro host? One night a tour of some sort could be in Charlotte and the next night be only an hour and a half north in Greensboro. The RBC Center is much newer than the Greensboro Coliseum and is further from Charlotte, so why aren't groups touring making a stop in Charlotte and Raleigh? Why's it still Charlotte and Greensboro 6 years after RBC opened it doors?

Finally, I'd just like to say that I do wish that Raleigh's main arena, in this case being the RBC Center was downtown. Downtown is in major need of being revived and I think that having a major sports and entertainment arena down there could have done nothing but help it. If you'd of placed something like that there, I'm sure many companies, especially the banking ones would have invested money in downtown Raleigh as the banks have in Uptown Charlotte making it a destination rather than just a place. This would have brought new life such as restaurants, hotels, stores, bars, and night clubs to an area that could use some serious sprucing up. Maybe the day when the RBC Center becomes outdated, the new venue will be placed in a revived and thriving downtown.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are virtues to RBC's present location--convenience, unbelievable parking, um... I guess those are the biggies. A downtown location would've been sweet and I know downtown businesses would've loved it during an event.

At the very least something like that needed to be in some kind of large urban area where all those event-minded people can find something to do once the shindig is over. If placed on the southside of downtown, Hammond Rd is practically a freeway spur connecting downtown to I-40. Other infrastructure changes could've been made to make entry/exit more convenient.

If this were a football stadium (i.e. Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte), a suburban (or nearly rural) location like this would be great. You can't tailgate that well in a parking deck, and as we all know, tailgating and football are definitely paired activities.

Perhaps in 10-15 years there will be some kind of urge or need to copy Charlotte by building a big fancy arena downtown and imploding the RBC Center. :lol:

I think Wakefield Plantation is one of the worst construction projects in this area... but I suppose if you have the money and want to live so far away, go for it.

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