http://johnston.mync.com/site/Johnston/news/story/29264/group-pushes-for-more-bypasses-on-highway-70/
Aside from the bypasses around Goldsboro, Kinston, etc. they plan a lot of much smaller projects that will add up such as crossing closure and grade separation. Too many stoplights and too many cars crossing or entering the highway cause the traffic to slow way down. The real interesting thing is the infighting among county leaders. The fact that this project spans so many counties has riled a few in Carteret. They stand to benefit the most from this, however they have heartburn with their TIP list having a Goldsboro bypass as being the top priority.
You don't even have a clue about the infighting. Carteret County will always be East against West. Government in Carteret is more like watching a pot of crabs being steamed. Just as one is about to escape (make some sensible suggestion to benefit the entire county) the others pull him back in. Emerald Isle hates the AB end. And the fight to put the Aquairium at Pine Knoll Shores was a knock down drag 'em out fight. Morehead hates that Beaufort has become a place to go and that Morehead has become a place to go thru. Had the Morehead City officials looked farther forward than the next years fishing festival, they'd have planned for better us of the downtown area, and have done something with the wasted space along the waterfront. As it is now, there really isn't much to do in Morehead, other than eat an overpriced meal at a restaurant that is trading on better days and whose name begs the questions, "If it's true, why advertise? Or are you trying to convince someone of something that may or not be true?". It's better over 'to' Beaufort, as we natives say. And the tourist dollars seem to confirm that. As for highway improvements, the thought was to make bridges street a thoroughfare and keep the traffic on Arendell Street as is. The AB traffic peels off a the bridge intersection on 24th Street, and local traffic continues into Morehead. I hear tell of plans to place another bridge on the North side of the current Morehead high rose span that leads to Radio Island. Placing the bridge farther north will speed up the transit to Down East, but will take away the downtown Beaufort and Downtown Morehead traffic. You can easily see who'd be hurt economically there, so Beaufort and Morehead are allied, against taking away traffic from their downtowns, and competing against each other for what tourist traffic there is. That doesn't even include the lack of a decent thoroughfare into and out of the port terminal, which has always been the red headed step child compared to Wilmington. It's much worse than you thought.
Trust me I know. Got a place in Beaufort and read the Gam weekly. I am also in the transportation sector so I am fairly tuned in on projects; road, rail and port. It is political bally-hoo at its finest.
You meant you got a place "to" Beaufort...8) The "Gam" is a recent addition to the local media. I remember back when the CC News Times was actually a paper filled with information, and was useful as more than just something in which one could wrap fish. All my life, the only name I ever heard the News Times as referred to was as the "Mullet Wrapper."
I just need a bypass from Clayton to Havelock (hwy 101)! I can take the *back roads* from there. :mrgreen:
