Business 40 Construction to begin in October 2017
Jimmy John’s employee Timothy Halvorson is not looking forward to his daily commute to his early morning shift on West 4th Street during the construction of a new downtown interchange on Business 40.
“I live in Lewisville and use Business 40 every day to get to work, and the traffic and detours during this time will be a nuisance,” he said.
Officials started closing off traffic from 9PM to 6AM, and non-peak, daytime (9AM- 4PM) for lane closures according to the Winston-Salem Business 40 website.
Construction of Business 40 and Peters Creek Parkway began on October 25th, 2017, and is scheduled to be finished by the fall of 2018, according to the website.
At the beginning of December, inside lanes on Business 40 will be closed all hours of the day and night for a 45- day period.
North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer Mazak Tucker believes the traffic during the business 40 construction will not be as bad as drivers are expecting.
“The distance of the lane closures is going to be a short stretch of road, only the amount necessary to merge two lanes of traffic into one.”
Courtesy of Journalnow.com
Two lanes of traffic in each direction will be maintained on Peters Creek Parkway during most of the construction process.
From October 25th through early December, workers are closing the inside lanes of Peters Creek Parkway so that bridge supports can be built for the new Peters Creek Parkway Bridge, according to the project website.
In order to complete this large bridge, houses located on Gregory and Apple Streets will have to be removed.
The reason for the removal of those houses is due to the plans calling for the relocation of the ramp that will redirect traffic from Business 40 to Peters Creek Parkway. In order to redirect the traffic, it will curve into the area where the Gregory and Apple Street houses are located.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation paid the home owners an average of $62,000 for the removal of their homes, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
A noise wall will be constructed, creating a barrier from the neighborhoods near the bridge.
Although neighboring citizens have worries about increased traffic during construction, drivers look forward to the benefits an improved Business 40 and Peters Creek Parkway will bring.
Jessica Serrano lives in one of the homes closest to Peters Creek Parkway in Salem Pointe.
“I am not looking forward to be kept up almost every night due to the construction, but when it is completed it will be a great improvement to the Downtown roadways,” said Serrano.
When asked about the noise barrier, Serrano was very animated about the addition to the project. “It will provide me ease of mind to know that I will have peace and quiet from the new traffic going by my house.”
Once the Peters Creek Parkway Bridge is constructed, work will begin on the main project of the 1.2 mile stretch of Business 40 Downtown.
Business 40 will reopen in stages and should be completely reopened by the summer of 2020.
The main motive behind construction is to improve the traffic buildups on this road, as well as increasing the speed limit from 45 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour.
The Design Build Team has $99M to complete the entire project. Eighty percent of the project is paid for by federal funds, with the remaining 20 percent coming from State and local funds, according to the Winston-Salem Business 40 website.
The first phase of the Business 40 project involves the replacement of the Peters Creek Parkway Bridge with a seven lane bridge and restored access ramps. The new bridge should be finished by late 2018.