Make U.S. 13 Bypass A Freeway - Not An Expressway

Yesterday from 4 to 7 PM at the Jernigan Building on the Roanoke Chowan Community College campus, the NC DOT held a meeting to solicit public opinion about the alternatives for the U.S. 13 Bypass of Ahoskie.



There was a good turnout for the event


This is a road project paid for with federal money that will benefit the entire Inner Banks region as a part of a planned North South high speed corridor from Virginia to South Carolina using U.S. 13 and U.S. 17. It will be a major economic boon for Ahoskie, Windsor, Williamston, Washington, Jacksonville and Wilmington, much as I95 has helped the region just to our west.



Two of the really helpful DOT executives present were Win Bridgers, Division Engineer and Barry Hobbs, Division Project Manager


There are two controversies going on with regard to this proposal. One has to do with which road the money is spent on. The other has to do with the type of road to be built.

Let's deal with the type of road first. You can read an article that explains the difference between Expressway and Freeway by clicking here.

A quick explanation of the type of roads is that an Expressway is a local divided highway with driveways, intersections, traffic lights and left turns. A Freeway is what they build when they build an Interstate, with bridges, no intersections, off ramps to slow down and allows sustained high speed travel safely. Freeways are up to 17 times safer than Expressways. Our region needs access to high speed freeways to allow us to get to far away points faster and safer, as well as to allow others to come here faster and safer. A freeway is cheaper than an expressway which widens existing roads and a freeway has significantly less impact on the local community.




Bob Spivey, Mayor of Windsor, Wallace Perry, Bertie County Commissioner and Zee Lamb, Bertie County Manger, discuss the information provided


The second controversy has to do with the plan Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners support on behalf of some of their population which is opposed to the overall plan for the region.

Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners have decided that rather than having a North South high speed corridor for the entire region, they want to make it easy for local Ahoskie people to drive to Greenville instead. A local group No on U.S. 13 Bypass has been formed to support the commissioners. They propose that the federal money for the U.S. 13 bypass be given up in hopes that they can persuade the State of North Carolina to give Ahoskie money to widen NC 11 all the way to Bethel as an Expressway. Forget the fact that an Expressway is vastly more lethal than a freeway and that the project to widen NC is vastly more expensive that the Ahoskie Bypass since it is more than twice as many miles. Those issues are important but ignored by Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners. In addition it is ignored that giving up this money probably ends for 2 or 3 generations ever getting a high speed North South corridor completed for Eastern North Carolina.

There is at least a secondary question of whether this NC 11 plan does not harm the business community of Ahoskie and Hertford County, even if this complex money swap giving up certain federal money for a hoped for state subsidy had any political chance of success. Doesn't this encourage people to take their money and spend it in Greenville instead of spending it in Ahoskie? Doesn't it mean that the chance to draw more businesses like Walmart to Ahoskie is damaged? Do the local Commissioners grasp that? Does the local business community understand that the NC 11 proposal may hurt them badly?




Map showing various optional paths to bypass Ahoskie


However even though Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners support this plan, why would anyone think that the rest of Eastern North Carolina would not resent their sabotaging the North South Corridor plan that benefits all? Can you give me any reason anyone else should back efforts to support the proposal to swap federal money for state money when it kills the high speed corridor that all have been waiting for? How does it benefit anyone but Hertford County?

Two high speed road projects will benefit huge parts of our region well beyond the immediate area of Hertford County. These two projects are; making U.S. 13 a freeway from Virginia down to Windsor and making U.S. 158 a freeway from I95 to Winton. The continued widening of U.S. 17 as a freeway will support the North South high speed corridor and benefit eco-tourism and historical tourism for all Eastern North Carolina. Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners should support the long term plan to build these high speed connections for the region.



A great number of the people present were, like these citizens, concerned about whether the roads would impact their personal property


The proposal to build a highway that benefits nothing but local shoppers who want to leave the area to shop just doesn't make sense . . . regionally or locally. Build a freeway bypass around Ahoskie.