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I absolutely agree. I have always said this about downtown Greenville when folks view it negatively: "It can change overnight"...why? Because it is a fairly small definitive place.
The 10th St Connector will absolutely create smaller districts and those borders make change in those districts easier to manage. Before the connector, the area was just too big that needed change. Roads create the borders you need.
Downtown has the river, it has Reade Circle and it will have the 10th St connector. It needs ECU to get in there and invest...it always needed that, but ECU kept fighting it (and trying to move East).
Definitely. Just a little at a time instead of expecting everything to change overnight. I think we can see the same thing happening over on 5th street at the edge of West Greenville with lots of new houses and nice sidewalks and then the new roundabout being built as well as that family renovating the old frat house. It just takes time.
Surprisingly I think that demolishing all those houses and businesses actually helps the area. It creates vacant lots and even though they will probably build low income housing and apartment complexes, it is still new construction and that helps the overall look and hopefully gives those people a sense of safety and that they are a part of the city and not considered "the bad part of town".
I believe that if people stopped looking at West Greenville and other areas as dangerous then it would make a dramatic impact in downtown. I think we all know that shootings and gangs aren't just confined to one area and sadly it will always be a part of the city in some way but I think there can be better ways of improving the lifestyle and infrastructure. I have helped out with many ministry related things in these areas and the people that live there are great people just like us but they just have had different struggles to deal with such as living conditions and lack of jobs. I think some people act like there is a big dark cloud over these areas but I really think that these improvements are helping these areas dramatically and it just will take time for people's thoughts about an area to change.
Brody School of Medicine adds six pediatric specialists:
Dr. Uduak S. Akpan - Neonatology
Dr. Robert J. Hartman - Pediatric cardiologist
Dr. Leonard C. Hymes - Pediatric kidney specialist
Dr. Shannon Longshore - pediatric surgeon
Dr. William Wooten III - Pediatric pulmonologist
Dr. Beatrice Zepeda - Pediatric critical care specialist
Admin said they would recruit pediatric specialist during their Children's Hospital expansion, and it seems they are.
Also joining Brody is:
Dr. Konstantinos Spaniolas - Minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon
There is NO reason for residents east of I-95 to have to go to Raleigh or further west for almost any medical need.
Plato’s Closet has opened a Greenville location at 425-C S.E. Greenville Blvd. between Cici’s Pizza and Sound Feet Shoes.
The local Plato’s Closet, opened by Nick and Colette Tresslar, is part of a national recycling retail store chain that specializes in clothing and accessories for teens and 20-somethings.
Until last week, the store has been open to buy merchandise from the public, but now the store can sell the products it has been collecting the past two months.
Plato’s Closet buys and sells gently used, brand-name clothing and accessories, including shoes, belts, purses and jewelry.
No appointment is necessary to sell clothing and accessories to Plato’s Closet.
The store pays cash for goods it purchases from consumers and only buys items that have been in retail stores within the past 12 to 18 months and are current styles. Items brought for sale should be laundered, folded and in containers.
The design and reconstruction of Evans Street/Old Tar Road connecting Greenville and Winterville, scheduled for a public meeting on Tuesday, is one of four major projects in the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan focused on the Greenville and Pitt County area.
NCDOT resident engineer Bill Kincannon, Division 2 construction engineer Ed Eatmon Jr. and their staff provided updated information this week about the following area projects that are either in design or nearing construction:
Southwest Bypass
The purpose of this estimated $250 million project is to improve traffic flow and congestion on Memorial Drive (N.C. 11) and Stantonsburg Road (U.S. 264 Business) within the project area; to relieve congestion in Greenville, thereby improving safety and reducing the potential for accidents; and improve regional travel along the U.S. 264/N.C. 11 corridor.
The selected alternative for this project consists of an eleven-mile, controlled-access facility that begins at Memorial Drive approximately 2.9 miles south of N.C. 102 and ends at the existing U.S. 264 interchange.
The construction schedule for the Southwest Bypass project has been updated, state officials said. Right-of-way acquisition for all three sections of the project is scheduled to begin in June 2014.
In addition, NCDOT will award design-build construction contracts for all three sections of the project in June 2014. By doing this, the final design of the project can proceed while the department acquires the needed right-of-way, they said.
As an adjunct of this project, DOT proposes to extend Fire Tower Road from the proposed Southwest Bypass to Memorial Drive. The primary purpose is to provide improved east-west system connectivity between the two highways, while also relieving traffic congestion on Forlines Road in the design year, Kincannon said.
Additionally, the proposed improvements will offer a better means of access to Pitt Community College, other local destinations in the Greenville/Winterville area and adjacent residential developments, Kincannon said.
10th Street Connector
The new 4-lane traffic corridor will directly connect the East Carolina University and Vidant medical campuses on Stantonsburg Road on the west side of the city with the university’s campus along East 10th Street. An overpass will be built over the CSX railroad tracks located at the Dickinson Avenue intersection.
Traffic will be separated by grass medians with turn lanes and lined with curb and gutter storm water removal, Eatmon said.
A total of 34 businesses are affected by the new design that straightens the corridor by demolishing many buildings and establishing rights of way.
NCDOT has finished most of the right-of-way acquisition and continues with those not yet made. Most businesses already have relocated. Crews continue to remove buildings and move utilities.
The contract is scheduled to be let in December 2014 for the construction process, Eatmon said.
Right of way acquisitions are estimated at just less than $13.5 million, and the construction estimate is just less than $22 million according to state planners.
Dickinson Avenue Corridor
Right of way acquisition for the project is scheduled for 2015, and construction tentatively is scheduled for January 2016 for this modernization project for Greenville’s commercial corridor through west Greenville to Memorial Drive.
Budgeted costs will not be estimated until the contract is let sometime in 2015, officials said.
Contractors will replace all the existing lane configurations, remove the thin layer of pavement and several layers of old roadway that were built upon, then lay down new and improved layers of asphalt, resulting in a higher grading and much-improved ride performance, Kincannon said.
Also slated for the project will be modern drainage for the roadway, including replacement of all the curbs and gutters. All utilities also will be replaced and modernized as well.
______________________
Non-major road improvement projects scheduled to begin in 2014 include: January 2014: replace Bridge on N.C. 33 over Johnson Mill Run.
January 2014: construct Right Turn Lane on N.C. 11 (Memorial Drive) at Intersection with Firetower Road.
March 2014: replace bridge over Middle Swamp on Moye-Turnage Road.
April 2014: widen N.C. 43 to 3 lanes between Blue Banks Farm Road and Voice of America Site C Road.
May 2014: bridge-to-pipe bridge replacement over Hunting Run on Whichard-Cherry Lane Road.
June 2014: replace bridge over Cow Swamp on Blackjack-Grimesland Road.
June 2014: latex-modified overlay on bridge over Tar River Overflow on North Memorial Drive.
June 2014: bridge-to-pipe bridge replacement over ditch on Marvin Taylor Road.
August 2014: replace bridge over Parkers Creek on Industrial Boulevard.
August 2014: replace Bridge over branch of Swift Creek on Littlefield Road.
September 2014: replace bridge over Clayroot Swamp on Clay Root Road.
Commuters and residents who travel or live along a corridor connecting Greenville and Winterville are invited for a look at a vision for the thoroughfare this week - and opinions on what they see will be welcomed.
The N.C. Department of Transportation proposes to widen Evans Street/Old Tar Road along a four-mile corridor linking the adjoining communities. The unscheduled project will extend from Cooper Street/Worthington Road in Winterville to Greenville Boulevard in Greenville. The primary purpose is to increase mobility and safety along the highway, according to DOT officials.
The project was first identified on the local level during the long-range metropolitan planning process for the county's transportation needs, project development supervisor Brian Yamamoto said.
The rules require that agencies provide opportunities for the public to participate throughout the decision-making process. This will be DOT's second public meeting on the project. The first public meeting was in September 2012. At that meeting, people mostly were curious about DOT's plans, Yamamoto said. They asked whether the road was going to be transformed into a freeway coming down the middle of town, and how the project would affect driver access and turning, he said.
Department planners and engineers paid close attention to the residents' and commuters' concerns and suggestions about the road's construction as they moved forward with the planning and design process, Yamamoto said.
"This is envisioned as a widening of the street," Yamamoto said. "It will still have access and it won't have (freeway-type) interchanges along the route."
Likely to be a major change will be the addition of wide 23-foot-long medians that will incorporate turn lanes, he said.
"Any time we come down with a proposal about a median, there's always a lot of questions about where things like median breaks will be placed," Yamamoto said.
At this point, DOT only would be placing grass in the medians, but a municipality would have the opportunity to do further landscaping for low-impact development and effective management of storm water runoff, he said.
Unlike last year's meeting, there will be maps and schematics on hand showing what the vision looks like and what DOT plans to do during the next year, Yamamoto said.
"Since last meeting, our contracted designers have taken a look and given their first shot at actually putting some designs on paper," he said.
Mulkey Engineers out of Cary is the design contractor for the project.
Other design options being studied include a roundabout intersection at Old Tar Road and Worthington Road, Yamamoto said. The standard intersection with turn lanes and light signals also is available as a choice at this point, he said.
Other creative options are being studied for the other major intersections at Fire Tower Road and Greenville Boulevard, he said.
"Attendees will be able to take a look at those options, and might be able to see some of the right-of-way locations and see where their houses are in relation to those locations," Yamamoto said.
Bicycle lanes also are being considered for the Evans Street/Old Tar widening project. Engineers and planners will hand out diagrams of what an intersection might look like that contains a 4-foot bicycle lane on each side of the road, Yamamoto said.
"We're also showing sidewalks on both sides of the road," he said. "Before we could actually do that, we'd have to show the plans to the involved municipalities and gauge their ability to share in the costs of some of those items."
Another major aspect of the highway's redesign and redevelopment will be storm water management, Yamamoto said. Engineers are looking at whether they should drain the road with curbs and gutters or with ditches alongside. The use of ditches will make inclusion of sidewalks more difficult, he said.
"We know at this point that curb and gutter use would be adequate for managing the storm water," Yamamoto said.
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Originally Posted by Dr Bret Wickstrom
How do you all feel about the potential for a food co-op in downtown Greenville? This area is sorely missing quality local and organic food.
A couple of thoughts about this. Population demographics play a large part in an area's demand for such products. As Greenville continues to grow and the population becomes more affluent and educated, you'll see the demand for these types of products increase.
There currently are a couple of options for these types of products in Greenville. The Fresh Market is still in business on Memorial. I would have thought that their current location was kinda "iffy", but they're making it work.
The Pitt County operated Farmers Market is still open on selected days next to the animal shelter on County Home Rd. It does a very brisk amount of business.
As far as a co-op in downtown goes... I'm thinking that one of the empty warehouses would be an excellent site for a market house. The particular format (co-op, farmers market type, commercial businesses, etc) would be left up to the operator but I think it would work. This area has an abundance of locally manufactured food (Anne's Pastries for example), locally grown food and lots of fresh seafood from Washington. Getting it all together under one roof would be incredible.
Disappointing that the 10th St connector doesn't list sidewalks/bike lanes as part of the project. If one of the main objectives is to connect both ECU campuses, wouldn't it be obvious that you would want bike lanes for students to use.
And usually the excuse is the design was already done. That's engineering BS that happens all the time. Its not yet built and can be changed now, not after its built, when it then becomes very expensive to make changes.
One thing that the city may be able to do is to add lampposts in the median. Lights are a huge detractor for crime, could light up the road even more, and be a nice gateway addition.
The schedules all look positive, hopefully everything stays on those schedules...DOT has a tendency to delay Greenville projects. One reason it took me almost an hour last Friday to go on Memorial Drive from Sam's Club to the 264 bypass at 11.
Disappointing that the 10th St connector doesn't list sidewalks/bike lanes as part of the project. If one of the main objectives is to connect both ECU campuses, wouldn't it be obvious that you would want bike lanes for students to use.
And usually the excuse is the design was already done. That's engineering BS that happens all the time. Its not yet built and can be changed now, not after its built, when it then becomes very expensive to make changes.
Maybe I misread, but I don't see anywhere about the exclusion of sidewalks or bike lanes. On the final Right-of-way plans, there are 6' sidewalks and 4' bike lane on each side.
Quote:
One thing that the city may be able to do is to add lampposts in the median. Lights are a huge detractor for crime, could light up the road even more, and be a nice gateway addition.
I agree. All of the houses on the road will be gone, so it should stay "sunny" 24/7 through this corridor.
[quote=MrBojangles;32305219]Maybe I misread, but I don't see anywhere about the exclusion of sidewalks or bike lanes. On the final Right-of-way plans, there are 6' sidewalks and 4' bike lane on each side.
That would be great...both are really needed...and can tie into the sidewalks on 10th St. 10th St also needs median and bike lane improvements in the long run...really all the way through Greenville to the new Wal-Mart. That would be an ideal corridor (as well as Evans and Charles) for bike lanes and extending medians in the long run.
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