Ep. 2: How Did We Get Here? The History of U-5860

In this episode of Wake Up Washington, host Ellen Brabo walks listeners through the full timeline of the 15th Street project, from its origin as a simple safety improvement to its current status as a $38.6 million widening proposal by NCDOT.

You'll learn how a locally-supported plan to add a center turn lane was gradually transformed into a four-lane divided highway, and how Washington’s City Council, residents, and business owners responded along the way. Ellen explains the key decisions, turning points, and funding changes that shaped the proposal now facing our community—and why the 15th Street Coalition believes it's not too late to demand something better.

Whether you’re new to the issue or have been following it for years, this episode connects the dots and makes the history clear.

Transcript

Ellen Brabo: 0:00

Welcome back to Wake Up Washington. I'm Ellen Brabo, host of this podcast and coordinator of the Fifteenth Street Coalition. Today, we're answering a common question we've heard throughout the community. How did we get here? How did a safety improvement plan for Washington, North Carolina become a nearly $40,000,000 highway style expansion project? Why are so many residents, business owners, and neighbors pushing back? To answer that, we want to first break down the nearly thirty year history of this project. The Fifteenth Street improvement project has roots all the way back to the 2,000 City of Washington thoroughfare plan, which identified Fifteenth Street as a corridor in need of safety improvements. At the time, the proposal was simple. Add a center turn lane to reduce collisions and improve traffic flow. But by 02/2014, the scope changed. Due to increased utility relocation costs, the project lost its original safety funding through the spot safety program and was moved into the State Transportation Improvement Program or STIP as a widening project. This shift from safety improvement to major expansion was never rooted in overwhelming community demand. It was a shift in how the project was funded. On 08/11/2016, a public meeting was hosted to provide information about the widening project and solicit input from the public. The initial design proposed by NCDOT did not incorporate sidewalks, crosswalks, or a multiuse path. The community rallied together and overwhelmingly opposed the design. Later that year, on December 16, the Washington City Council voted to not move forward with NCDOT's design. And on 03/27/2017, the city council again declined to adopt a resolution of support and voted to not approve the utility preliminary engineering agreement. At that point, the city, at the urging of local residents, said, we wanna see something different. So in November of twenty twenty, the city hired Stantec, an international engineering and design firm, to create a corridor plan that would address the community's safety concerns in a thoughtful and locally aligned way. The city invested $75,000 into that process, and more than 600 residents participated in it. That included resident surveys, virtual roundtables, and focus groups with emergency services, hospital staff, and business owners, among others. It was a collaborative, data informed, and inclusive process. The result, a thoughtful alternative design that stayed within the current 60 foot right of way, included sidewalks, crosswalks, and a 10 foot multiuse path, incorporated traffic calming measures and limited medians, and protected access to homes and businesses. It was a complete streets approach designed for safety, walkability, and local character. In September 2021, the city council voted to adopt the Stantec proposal and forwarded it to the Mid East Rural Planning Organization or RPO for consideration. But instead of advancing it, the RPO's transportation advisory committee voted to halt it. In August 2022, NCDOT stated that they believed the Stantec design would function very poorly without formally evaluating it. Due to the addition of sidewalks, crosswalks, and a multiuse path, if the design had been scored, it would have received points. As a road that does not have pedestrian facilities, these additions would have been viewed as betterments that improve the corridor. It has been mentioned in presentations by the City of Washington and the RPO that the design was scored zero by NCDOT. But in speaking with multiple engineers across the state, it has been made clear to us that this sentiment makes it evident the design was never truly scored. In September 2022, the city council cited projected growth and future traffic as reasons to deem the Stantec proposal not technically feasible. From there, the original NCDOT widening plan returned to the table. On 01/24/2023, the city council agreed to continue moving forward with the NCDOT Super Street design, a four lane divided highway with a 17 foot six inch concrete median. It was agreed upon that an updated design proposal would incorporate the complete streets concepts from the Stantec design, including sidewalks, a multiuse path, and crosswalks. These were added because of a change in the complete streets policy that now requires NCDOT to cover the costs of these betterments. The following year, in early twenty twenty four, the city executed the utility preliminary engineering agreement with NCDOT. A public input session was held on February sixth of this year, and comments closed on February 15. '80 '8 percent of the public input received by NCDOT opposed the design as it's proposed. On April 4, we launched a petition opposing the road widening and in favor of a community minded solution like the Stantec design. By April 14, we were able to present to city council four hundred and eighty five signatures along with a plot map showing the diverse range of residents from across our community that have come together opposing the widening of Fifteenth Street. Currently, utility feasibility is scheduled to begin in July with right of way acquisition scheduled to start in August. You can read through past city council meeting minutes from 2022 where promises were made to keep residents informed and engaged in the process. But, unfortunately, that is not what has taken place. As a coalition, we have met with and spoken to dozens of key stakeholders and subject matter experts trying to truly understand the project proposal, alternative solutions, and the politics at play here. Unfortunately, through that process, it has been made very clear to us that the city of Washington has been pressured by the RPO and NCDOT into accepting a singular version of the project as the solution with the threat of taking all of the money away as the alternative. Our goal is not to see the project unfunded, but to see it reconfigured or rescoped to a more community minded solution. What we are advocating for as a coalition is not unprecedented within NCDOT, both from a design and a process standpoint. In a future episode, we will break down a detailed case study study of how the city of Asheville was able to successfully navigate away from a proposed widening to a road reconfiguration, reducing their crash rate with minimal impacts to traffic congestion. It is a great example of what's possible when government listens and residents organize. Washington deserves that same opportunity. Thank you for sticking with us through this deeper dive. Understanding how we got here gives us the tools to ask for something better. I'm Melen Bravo, and on behalf of the fifteenth Street Coalition, thanks for waking up with us. If you found today's episode helpful, here's what you can do right now. Visit fifteenthStreetCoalition.com, sign the petition opposing the proposed widening, share this episode with a friend or a neighbor, Follow wake up Washington so you don't miss future episodes, and help us continue building momentum for a safer, smarter, and more connected Washington.