Residents can give views Thursday on U.S. 70 changes

New options for improving traffic flow on the U.S. 70 corridor in the James City area will be presented at a public meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Residents and business owners in Craven County are invited to review plans and offer suggestions, said Harold Blizzard, Craven County manager and a member of the U.S. 70 Corridor Commission.

The meeting will be at Brinson Memorial Elementary School on Old Cherry Point Road. It will include a 30-minute presentation by consultants for the U.S. 70 Corridor Commission, then offer time for questions and suggestions, Blizzard said.

"The consultants have come up with two or three options to look at that deal primarily with Williams Road and Airport Road," he said. "They will show folks what they have in mind and how they work, then listen.

"This is not for the entire strip from the Neuse River to Havelock, just the area around those intersections, strictly from the Trent River Bridge to Airport Road."

The U.S. 70 Corridor Commission was formed and is supported by counties and municipalities along the highway from Wayne to Carteret counties.

The commission hired the Raleigh consulting firm Kimley-Horne and Associates to help draft the plan to help traffic flow along U.S. 70 from the capitol to the coast to help facilitate economic growth and provide for residential growth in the region.

The commission includes members from each of the counties and at-large members including N.C. Board of Transportation member Cam McRae, who represents the interests of aviation and the state ports.

Mike Rutkowski of Kimley-Horne said that "the U.S. 70 corridor has 12,000 to 54,000 vehicles per day and the highest volume is at your back door."

So far, as a direct result of local concern, suggestions, and funding assistance, the Department of Transportation has widened Williams Road at its intersection with U.S. 70 to allow for another turn lane and installed new traffic signals that allows turns on a yellow arrow following a stop.

Commission members are quick to say that many of the changes coming to the corridor are not as a result of its work.

Changes, including the closing of eight intersections between New Bern and Havelock last year, are part of a Department of Transportation thoroughfare plan that includes beginning a Havelock bypass in 2015.

"This is a work in progress," Blizzard said. "What we envision is an end result that most people feel good about."

He said the Department of Transportation has been receptive to suggestions from the commission, which is listening to the people who live and work along the corridor..