45 years in the making, the loop road around Fuquay-Varina is finally finished

The idea dates back to the 1970s: Build a circle road around Fuquay-Varina to help keep drivers who are just passing through town from jamming up downtown streets.

On Friday, the final segment of that circle road, Judd Parkway, was opened to traffic. The 1.8-mile northwest leg connects N.C. 55 with N.C. 42 through a largely undeveloped landscape of fields and woods, completing the parkway’s seven-mile circle around the town.

The land around the road won’t remain undeveloped; Fuquay-Varina’s population has nearly doubled in the last decade, to about 33,000. Unlike the highways and old farm roads that lead in and out of town, Judd Parkway was largely built from scratch, opening up land for development on the edge of town.

But the road was conceived as a way to relieve congestion in the twin historic downtowns of Fuquay and Varina. Mayor John Byrne said before the northeast section of the parkway opened in 2010, the center of Varina was “so crowded” with cars.

“But once we opened Judd Parkway, it made a huge difference,” Byrne said. “And that will happen all throughout our community.”

Byrne led a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday that included clergy and politicians, including U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, who used the occasion to plug President Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Byrne noted that Fuquay-Varina becomes only the third Wake County municipality with a loop road, after Raleigh and Cary.

Eric Boyette, the state Secretary of Transportation, said the parkway will help handle a growing number of people who commute to Wake County from Harnett and Cumberland counties. Apple’s planned campus at Research Triangle Park and other corporate moves into the Triangle mean those commuters and town residents will become more numerous, Boyette said.

“We’ve got a lot of growth coming to this area. But the vision for me is what’s amazing,” he said. “This started in the ‘70s, so to have that forethought and continue to have the perseverance to move forward is great.”

Parkway opens in phases over more than 2 decades

The parkway is named for the family of Dr. James Mahlon Judd, a prominent town resident in the first half of the 20th century whose family donated land for the southeast leg of the parkway. That section, which allowed U.S. 401 traffic to avoid the center of Fuquay, was the first to open in 1997.

Other sections opened in 2010 and 2012, along with an upgrade to part of the first leg in 2019. The town and NCDOT pieced together various sources of money for each part, including local, state and federal tax money. Much of the southwestern leg that opened in 2012 was built by the developers of the Southern Oaks and Southview Pointe subdivisions.

“We didn’t do it all at one time,” Byrne said. “We did it little bites at a time.”

Northwest Judd Parkway, which opened just before noon Friday, cost $24.8 million, with $8.7 million coming from a federal grant and the rest from local taxpayers. The four-lane road has a grassy median and sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides.

The project also included an extension of Washington Street to connect Lincoln Heights Elementary School and the surrounding neighborhood to the parkway. Byrne and others who spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony referred to the importance of providing a convenient link to the school and a historically African-American neighborhood.

Rev. Karen Cozart, the senior pastor at Rogers Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on Washington Street, thanked God for completion of the parkway in her invocation.

“We are grateful for this transportation access,” Cozart said.