Contracts for East King Street widening and improvements
in Boone will now be released for bid in June, putting the project
several months behind its original schedule.
The widening of King Street in Boone will be delayed until
August. Photo by Mark Mitchell
Mike Pettyjohn, Division 11 engineer with the N.C. Department
of Transportation, said utility work could soon be under way on
the western end of the Boone project, near the Hardin Street intersection.
Utility lines and poles will be moved to make way for construction
— the town of Boone recently budgeted $1.2 million for the
work, including sidewalks and water lines near the site for the
new Watauga High School on the east end of town.
“For construction, the first thing is moving all utility
poles, then we’ll work on the other and start up,” Pettyjohn
said. He expects work will likely begin in August, with bid approvals
necessary from the N.C. Department of Transportation. That will
put a rush on the project, which was already expected to enter
a race against time to coincide with the August 2010 opening of
the new high school.
The project was originally scheduled to break ground in April,
but right-of-way acquisitions for 20 of 76 properties are still
under way on the 1.1-mile segment of roadway.
The state froze all right-of-way acquisitions due to a lack of
funds, but a $14.4 million allocation through the federal stimulus
package put the project back on the fast track.
“It throws us a couple of months behind,” Pettyjohn
said. “But we’ve started buying right of way again.”
The project will cost an estimated $15 million for construction
and another $25 million in right-of-way costs. The contractor
will begin roadwork on the east end of the project, near the intersection
of N.C. 194 and U.S. 421 at New Market Centre.
That intersection will be upgraded to a four-way intersection,
adding a connector from Morningside Drive. The street leading
to the new high school will also be upgraded to better handle
additional traffic.
The 1.1-mile project is projected to improve East King Street’s
intersections with Grove Street, Hardin Street, N.C. 105 Extension,
New Market Boulevard/Forest Hills Drive and N.C. 194.
From the N.C. 105 Extension intersection to N.C. 194, the road
will be widened into a six-lane, divided curb-and-gutter roadway,
and a raised concrete median of varying width will be constructed
to separate opposite direction travel lanes.
Both sides of the street will have sidewalks.
From Hardin Street to N.C. 105 Extension, the road will be widened
to four lanes with turning lanes and a 17-and-a-half foot raised
median and five-foot sidewalks on both sides.
NCDOT officials have said much of the early work will be concentrated
on the eastern end of the project to coordinate its completion
with the opening of the new high school.
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