13 Bypass - Let The Battle Begin

by Cal Bryant - November 19th, 2007 - RoanokeChowan News-Herald

But there are several flaws in the bypass proposal. For starters it makes no sense to start and end a four-lane bypass at a two-lane road. Even if the projected four-laning of US 13 from Tarheel Barbecue in Gates County all the way to Windsor does become a reality years down the road, has anybody given any thought to the fact that all this progress “bypasses” Ahoskie, the retail giant of the Roanoke-Chowan area?

Cal is a friend, but on this he is dead wrong. The bypass does not automatically hurt business or hurt our area. It really depends on the intelligence with which the bypass is built. There are two ways to build it.

One is called an Expressway, which is really not "express" at all but simply a 4 lane divided road with traffic lights, driveways and rapidly growing congestion which quickly stagnates the new road after it is built. When expressway bypasses are built, all the town's businesses frequently feel they have to move to the new road. It causes a lot of building for no gain, just disruption. This is the old way of doing things and really does not connect us to the world as it should. Most of Cal's complaints are more relevant if that is how the bypass is built.

However if the bypass is built as a Freeway, with interchanges and off ramps (like the Interstate Highways), there is little impact on making existing businesses move from their current locations. There is less impact on the whole community. The off ramps allow traffic to easily exit the high speed freeway and get to the town's existing businesses as long as off ramps are intelligently located. At the same time Freeways keep truck traffic and through traffic that is not stopping . . . off our local streets. It is an illusion to think that making people drive through downtown Ahoskie, creeping along at 35MPH, gets us any significant business we would not keep if a Freeway was built. Look at the Hitching Post in Williamston. It is a half mile off the Freeway and yet has no problem drawing traffic. That is the same distance that Ahoskie downtown would be off the Freeway Bypass if an east route is selected. Freeways are much safer than expressways as well.

Rocky Mount and Williamston were opposed to making US 64 a Freeway, and far from harming them it ignited development. To act as if US 13 will not ultimately be a part of a new north-south freeway corridor continuing down US 17 is simply short sighted. That will allow us to easily get to cities and destinations far away, linking the Inner Banks together, as well as easily bringing others to us . The north-south corridor will happen if we don't kill it. The question is whether it is built near Ahoskie and Ahoskie grows or it is driven away and Ahoskie shrivels. How can a town that grew from railroads and then died when the railroads moved away not appreciate the failure to participate in the transportation network of the times?

Across America rural and small town areas that have fought freeways are shrinking and shriveling up. Towns which either welcomed freeways or had them forced upon them are growing dramatically. The only counties that are shrinking in North Carolina are the ones not served by a freeway. All other counties are growing. America is still growing every year and we must allow for growth here or there will be no jobs for our children or places for them to build homes. Freeways are a necessity for modern life.

The only chance we have for a decent future is if the bypass is built and built as a Freeway. Cal is right that we need to contact our representatives. Contact the members of the Hertford County Board of Commissioners; phone NCDOT (919-733-3141); call NC House Representative Annie Mobley (919-733-5780), State Senator Ed Jones (919-715-3032) and State Senator Marc Basnight (919-733-6854). Tell them we want a future for Ahoskie.

Tell them to build the bypass and build it as a Freeway.