Expect delays and detours when this major Chapel Hill road project starts

Drivers heading west from East Franklin Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will need to take an alternate route when crews start a long-awaited road construction project on Estes Drive in October.

The $6 million-plus project will add new sidewalks, bike lanes, a multi-use path and new travel lanes over 15 months to 18 months. Westbound traffic will be routed to Weaver Dairy Road and connect with MLK Boulevard about two miles north of the Estes intersection.

The town is working with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and its transportation officials to handle congestion and keep walking paths open for Phillips Middle and Estes Hills Elementary students, transportation planning manager Bergen Watterson said.

The long-awaited changes, expected to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians and help with traffic congestion at one of the town’s busiest east-west thoroughfares, started as a Safe Routes to School project in 2009, Watterson said.

It’s also a central feature of the town’s Central West Small Area Plan adopted in 2013 to guide the future development of roughly 97 acres east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, from north of Estes Drive to Mt. Bolus Road. The council has since approved two projects for the district: the Azalea Estates retirement community and the pending Aura Chapel Hill project.

The bike and pedestrian improvements along Estes Drive in front of the Aura site and in front of an undeveloped lot just west of Somerset Drive will be made when those lots are developed, Watterson said. The town risked losing the federal money if it delayed planning any longer to include those segments, she said.

The town also is working with the N.C. Department of Transportation to secure a future traffic light at the Estes Drive intersection with Somerset Drive.

Federal money, including COVID grant funding, will cover 80% of the cost for the Estes Drive Connectivity Project, and the town will pay the other 20%. The cost has tripled since the project was approved in 2016, in part, because of design changes and the rising cost of labor and materials, Watterson said.

Town staff will be available to answer questions at a virtual drop-in question-and-answer session from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday.

Project details

The 0.87-mile project will add raised, 6-foot bike lanes on both sides of Estes Drive, from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Caswell Road. A 5-foot sidewalk is planned for the southern side of Estes Drive and a 10-foot multiuse path for the northern side. The town already has secured the land needed for the project, which will occur mostly in the public right of way.

The travel lanes at the MLK-Estes Drive intersection also will be updated, adding new turn lanes, crosswalks with signals and divided medians on both streets. Pedestrian signals and crosswalks also will be added at both ends of Caswell Road, Cumberland Road and Somerset Drive. Midblock crossings at Somerset Drive and Phillips Middle School will have pedestrian refuge islands.

Future projects could extend the bike lanes and sidewalks along Estes Drive Extension to North Greensboro Street in Carrboro. Bike lanes also could be added later when Estes Drive is repaved from Caswell Road to Library Drive.

Construction phases

There is no specific start date for the work. Town staff outlined this schedule, which will be updated as the project advances at townofchapelhill.org/estes:

▪ August: Town staff and contractors wrap up planning for the project.

▪ September: Crews begin to prepare the corridor for construction.

▪ October: Construction begins north of Estes Drive. Crews will allow one-way only traffic heading east between Somerset Drive and Caswell Road. Lanes initially will remain open to two-way traffic from MLK Boulevard to Somerset Drive.

In the next phase, the one-way, eastbound traffic will extend past Somerset Drive to the MLK Boulevard intersection. Crews, in the last phase, will add median islands to Estes Drive, pave the length of the project route and paint the traffic markings.

Current, future traffic

The N.C. Department of Transportation reported in 2019 that about 20,000 vehicles traveled south of Estes Drive on MLK Boulevard daily, and roughly 27,500 vehicles traveled north of Estes Drive. Between 12,000 and 15,000 trips a day were reported east and west of the boulevard on Estes Drive.

Aura Chapel Hill could add at least 1,500 trips a day to the Estes-MLK intersection, while Azalea Estates is projected to have a minimal impact. Additional traffic will be generated by the approved redevelopment of University Place mall on South Estes Drive, where another 1,363 more cars could be added to surrounding roads in the morning and 4,034 more cars in the evening.

Waiting at intersections

Traffic engineers rate the level of service at intersections on an A-to-F scale, which represents anything from little or no delay to an unacceptable delay. Traffic studies for three key intersections show:

▪ Estes Drive-MLK Boulevard currently operates at a “C” or “D” level of service — an average to long traffic delay — with waits of 38.4 seconds at traffic lights in the morning, 32.6 seconds at noon and 54.2 seconds in the evening.

A traffic study for the Aura project, which also accounted for the redevelopment of a site at 1200 MLK Boulevard, Azalea Estates and University Place, showed that the Estes-MLK intersection might improve slightly, with wait times of 36.2 seconds in the morning, 31.8 seconds at noon and 52.3 seconds in the evening.

▪ Drivers waiting at the Estes Drive-Somerset Road intersection could see longer wait times. The intersection currently operates at a “C” or “D” level of service, with waits of 18.2 seconds in the morning, 15.4 seconds at noon, and 25.8 seconds in the evening. In the future, drivers may have to wait 21.1 seconds in the morning, 18.2 seconds at noon, and 36.1 seconds in the evening.

▪ Wait times also could be longer at the Estes Drive-Caswell Road intersection. The intersection now operates at an “A” or “B” level of service, with waits of 13.9 seconds in the morning, 9.7 seconds at noon, and 18.6 seconds in the evening. In the future, the wait could be 14.7 seconds in the morning, 9.9 seconds at noon, and 21.1 seconds in the evening.