Lane Street Improvements Coming in 2017 > City of Kannapolis | City of Kannapolis

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The City of Kannapolis and the N.C. Department of Transportation will work together on a project to improve the safety of the Lane Street corridor which is a state roadway and one of the City’s major gateways.


After reviewing the number of accidents and issues with sight distances along the corridor the state began studying opportunities to improve safety for motorists and cyclists along the roadway.

The current four lane undivided roadway will be converted to a safer two lane street with bike lanes, landscaped center medians and turning lanes, from the intersection of Main Street to the I-85 interstate exit. A traffic island with a traffic signal will be installed at the Ruth Avenue intersection and a traffic signal will be also be added at the China Grove Road intersection.

Additionally, gateway signage will be added to the Lane Street intersection in conjunction with the I-85 widening project.

The city’s approximate $100,000 contribution to the project will pay for the cost to add landscaping in the traffic island. NCDOT will contribute $1,575,000 for the project which is expected to begin in 2017.

 

Project Overview:
Lane Street is a state road controlled and maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). 

• NCDOT will reconfigure Lane Street from a four lane undivided roadway to a three lane roadway using a transportation engineering technique referred to as a “Road Diet.”
• When completed the 3.1 miles of Lane Street from the intersection of Main Street to the I-85 exit will have two through lanes, a center left turn lane, bike lanes, and center median from Pearl Avenue to Hazel Avenue.
• The improvements also include installation of traffic signals at Ruth Avenue and China Grove Road and a pedestrian crosswalk at Ruth Avenue.
• The speed limit will be reduced to 35 mph along the 3.1 mile corridor.
• The corridor will be repaved and restriped as part of the improvement plan.

Why is a Road Diet being implemented on Lane Street?
• To reduce vehicle crashes, personal injuries and property damage on Lane Street
• A total of 228 crashes have occurred within a 5-year study period of this corridor including:
 1 fatality
 6 disabling injury crashes
 19 visible injury crashes
 78 minor injury crashes
 124 property damage only

• The study determined there were a number of locations along this 3.1 mile corridor that needed to be addressed in order to reduce accidents. Thus, NCDOT is working to improve the entire 3.1 mile corridor.

How is safety improved with a Road Diet?
Studies show that a Road Diet results in a reduction of rear-end and left-turn crashes, and reduced right-angle crashes because motorists use the center turn lane and are removed from the through lanes of traffic.

What is the annual number of vehicles that the Road Diet could accommodate on Lane Street?

 

Road Diets have been implemented successfully on roadways with over a 20,000 average daily traffic (ADT).  The current average daily traffic is 10,000 vehicles on this section of Lane Street. (According to NCDOT traffic counts, the ADT on Lane Street has not increased since 1998 and is not expected to reach 20,000 until after 2060).