WENDELL - Wendell commissioners want to speak to N.C. Department of Transportation engineers in person about a potential remodeling of the Wendell Boulevard intersection at North Selma Road and Old Wilson Road.

Acting Town Manager Teresa Piner presented a report from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) that proposes remaking the intersection as part of its latest Comprehensive Transportation Plan.

CAMPO delivered conceptual designs for a new intersection. If the project is considered further, impact studies on the roads and the surrounding land would be needed. The studies and project could be funded up to 80 percent by CAMPO with 20 percent matching funds from Wendell.

But before town officials reach for their checkbook, they want to be able to ask questions and propose tweaks to the concepts NCDOT's engineers came up with for the intersection.

The traffic pattern

Traveling east through Wendell, the intersection at North Selma Road is the fork in the road for Wendell Boulevard and Old Wilson Road.

But two roads sitting side by side at the intersection create confusion that leads to inefficient traffic control and potential safety concerns.

CAMPO provided five conceptual designs for streamlining the intersection, which Piner reviewed for the commissioners at Monday night's town meeting.

The first proposal would replace the stoplight at the intersection with a roundabout that would allow traffic to flow from all three streets.

A second proposal would close Old Wilson Road at the intersection, leaving only Wendell Boulevard and North Selma Road at a T-intersection. A new street would be constructed to connect Old Wilson Road to Wendell Boulevard about 800 feet east of North Selma Road.

A third alternative would close Old Wilson Road and add the connector street, but also reroute North Selma Road and Old Zebulon Road to make a new four-way intersection on Wendell Boulevard.

A fourth proposal would close Old Wilson Road, creating the Wendell Boulevard/North Selma Road T-intersection, then connecting Old Wilson Road to Wendell Boulevard at a new stoplight.

An option considered with the fourth proposal would reroute Old Zebulon Road east to change the Wendell/North Selma T-intersection into a four-way stoplight intersection.

And a fifth alternative throws all the options together - closing Old Wilson Road at the current intersection to reconnect to Wendell Boulevard at a new stoplight, then adding a roundabout at the Wendell Boulevard/ North Selma Road T-intersection, with the option of adding Old Zebulon Road at a four-way stop.

Proposed changes

CAMPO recommended the last option as the best for addressing the traffic issues, adding that the project could be constructed in four phases. They would include:

Adding a left-turn lane to Old Zebulon Road at its current intersection with Wendell Boulevard for $65,000

Closing Old Wilson Road at the Wendell Boulevard/North Selma Road intersection and build a new connector to Wendell Boulevard for $310,000

Relocating Old Zebulon Road to create a four way intersection with Wendell Boulevard and North Selma Road for $225,000, and

Replacing the stoplights at the Wendell Boulevard/North Selma Road intersection with a roundabout for $220,000.

Questions galore

Commissioners had separate concerns which led them to request the engineers meet with them in a work session during the Oct. 24 meeting.

"The (Old Zebulon Road) route cuts up two properties severely," Commissioner Carol Hinnant said.

"I'd hate to take so many people's property and make the value go completely down."

Commissioner Christie Adams was more concerned about placing a roundabout on Wendell Boulevard.

"There is a lot of commercial vehicle traffic. How could that be designed to accommodate them?" Adams asked.

Piner said DOT engineers can design a roundabout large enough to accommodate commercial vehicles.

"Before I can wrap my mind around a roundabout, I need to know, mechanically, how they can do it," Adams said.

"If they put in a roundabout that slows (commercial vehicles) down too much, they will find a way around it," Hinnant said.

Hinnant also asked, "How do we decide, or do we wait for state funding?"

Piner said a detailed study would be the next step, but they would have to wait to budget for it when preparing next year's budget.

"All of these roads are DOT roads. (The traffic problem) was not created by Wendell, they are all state maintained roads, but it seems the state is looking at us for solutions. I would like to tell the state to be more help and ask the powers that be to solve these problems," Commissioner Sid Baynes said. "I would chose to endorse this report and move forward by asking (the engineers) to look at modifying the design."