Potential closure of this downtown Durham street casts cloud over light rail plans

Blackwell Street is at the center of downtown Durham talks about the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit plan.

The project is a proposed 17.7-mile light-rail line connecting UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill to Duke University to N.C. Central University, with stops in between, including downtown Durham. But the potential closing of Blackwell Street, which connects the American Tobacco Campus and the Durham Performing Arts Center with the rest of downtown Durham, has been met with umbrage from DPAC and American Tobacco leaders.

The head of DPAC, which is city-owned, called the potential closure “a mistake” last week in a six-page letter to city leaders.

City leaders past and present are listening, but a decision hasn’t been made yet.

What a former NCDOT leader and mayor thinks

Former N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Nick Tennyson knows about transit and Durham, and remembers downtown before revitalization took off.

“People directly affected certainly have an opinion that’s got to be considered,” Tennyson said. “We shouldn’t put at risk things we worked so hard [to achieve].” He was mayor of Durham from 1997 to 2001.

Tennyson said that many cities have the advantage of being built on a river or a bay. “We were built on a railroad, and did our best to turn our back on it,” he said.

Railroad tracks run through downtown Durham along Pettigrew Street. Tracks that were once a practical matter should now be developed as an asset in a more public sense, Tennyson said. The light-rail route follows much of the railroad tracks downtown, running parallel along Pettigrew Street.

Blackwell Street potentially closing is not the only downtown road change on the table.

Durham City Council members voted last week that they are open to changing downtown streets with closures and making some one-way or two-way. Other potential changes include making part of Pettigrew Street one-way, making part of Ramseur Street two-way and making part of Dillard Street one-way.

“I think the fewer one-way streets we have, the better,” Tennyson said.

Shelly Green, director of Discover Durham, formerly the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau, said it is very concerned about the potential closing of Blackwell Street.

“We know that a signature civic plaza [that goes over the street] is on the table, but we don’t know what that looks like,” Green said.

Green said that another worry is the direction that light-rail doors will open — either the North side or South side of the tracks.

Blackwell/Mangum Station

A 19th stop on the 18-stop Durham Orange Light Rail Transit plan is still pending. It would be at Blackwell and Mangum streets downtown, between a stop at Durham Station and another on Dillard Street. A Blackwell/Mangum stop would be mid-downtown and close to DPAC, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the jail and the courthouse.

Blackwell Street was named for W.T. Blackwell of the Blackwell Durham Tobacco Company, according to the Museum of Durham History. Blackwell Durham made Bull Durham tobacco.

Durham County Commissioners Chair Wendy Jacobs, who serves on the GoTriangle Board of Trustees, said that the Blackwell/Mangum station is still at the proposal stage.

Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, who is chair of the GoTriangle board, said that station is part of the supplemental environmental statement.

“We’re in the process of finalizing it,” Reckhow said. She would like the 19th stop.

“Oh, definitely. The addition of a stop has not been controversial — it’s the closing of Blackwell that’s controversial,” Reckhow said.

According to GoTriangle, the Blackwell/Mangum station would not have worked until the latest design plan refinement that makes station platforms long enough for two-car trains instead of three-car trains. The recommendation came in an engineering review that said two-car station platforms are cheaper than three-car platforms and can still meet ridership capacity through 2040. The three-car platform was not possible for Blackwell/Mangum because of nearby historic buildings, according to GoTriangle.

The $2.47 billion project is in the engineering phase, with GoTriangle scheduled to apply for federal funding in the spring. Construction would begin in 2020, with light-trail operations starting in 2028.

Two weeks ago, Capitol Broadcasting executive Michael Goodmon quit the light-rail fundraising board over the street-closing plan. Capitol Broadcasting owns the Durham Bulls and the American Tobacco Campus. And last week, DPAC General Manager Bob Klaus wrote a letter to Mayor Steve Schewel and City Manager Tom Bonfield that “problems that this plan will create for the general public, the DPAC, the DBAP, and downtown Durham businesses far outweigh any benefits the GoTriangle Plan might provide.”

Reckhow said that if Blackwell Street is closed to cars, it could still be open to bikes and pedestrians. Keeping it open to all traffic “would be optimal because it keeps the current street fabric unchanged.”

She said there is $20 million designated for accessibility in the project that could be used toward a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Blackwell Street crossing, and more resources would be needed. She said they could possibly look to the city for it.

“We want to keep Blackwell open to as many modes as possible,” Reckhow said.

Jacobs says the light-rail project is about jobs and population growth.

“This is just so much bigger than any one road,” Jacobs said.

But she would like Blackwell Street to remain open for mobility, though she thinks it is unsafe.

“Right now it is very dangerous walking over the railroad tracks,” Jacobs said. “It’s not safe. We need some longer term solutions. We need to have that big picture mobility.”

Durham City Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton said Blackwell Street is “a major artery” and that the letter from DPAC is important.

“I cross Blackwell Street. I realize how important and vital that connector is by as many modes of transportation possible,” Middleton said. “It’s going to cost money.”

He said that when the city dedicated the public art on the Corcoran Street garage nearby, the whole point was for people to be able to walk through that area along a “SmART” corridor.

“We have to come up with a design to keep Blackwell open,” he said.

Jacobs said that Durham’s light-rail stakeholders will meet later this week to address concerns around the stops.

Green called it a complicated issue.

“We have concerns, but at the end of the day we have faith in our elected officials to make the right decision,” Green said.

She said she doesn’t know what that right decision is yet.

This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Potential closure of this downtown Durham street casts cloud over light rail plans."