Two Raleigh Bridges Among NC’s Worst
AAA’s latest list of the top 20 worst bridges in North Carolina is out and it contains two bridges in Raleigh. One is the Pullen Road bridge which was built in 1952 (map it). Carrying 33,000 cars a day, the bridge ranks 14th on the list, and it not slated for any service.
The state’s 4th worst bridge is the I-440 bridge over Hillsborough Street and the railroad (map it). At 47 years old, the bridge carries 84,000 cars per day. Interestingly its status is "Located on widening project in 2009".
I have not heard of specific I-440 widening plans for the western portion of the 440 "loop". The Western Blvd interchange needs to be improved. Unfortunately the state will probably take the easy way out by putting a diamond interchange with dual (artery-clogging) traffic signals on Western Blvd. Stay tuned on this project.
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February 29th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I agree that the Western Blvd. interchange needs work. I don’t expect the improved design to be a diamond, though; I would expect a SPUI instead. The site is too tight for cloverleafs with weaves that are a reasonable length; stacked high speed ramps are expensive and not necessary.
I find it hard to believe that the Pullen Rd bridge carries 33,000 vpd. Maybe 33,000 vpd travel under it. That’s really just a bizarre intersection to begin with. Traffic really isn’t that heavy on Western east of Avent Ferry, so why even have a bridge at all?