As costs balloon, Raleigh looks to scale back its plans to improve Six Forks Road
With the estimated cost soaring, the city is considering scaling back plans to overhaul a busy section of Six Forks Road near North Hills to something it can afford.
The city has spent more than a decade crafting a plan to widen and rebuild a two-mile stretch of Six Forks from Lynn Road south to Rowan Street, near Carroll Middle School. The plan includes a grassy median, new sidewalks and bicycle paths and three travel lanes in each direction.
The city budgeted $46.1 million. But ballooning prices, primarily for property the city would need to buy, have more than doubled the estimated cost to $119 million, creating a shortfall of nearly $73 million.
On Tuesday, city planners presented the City Council with five options, including canceling the project and trying again in the future. Council member Mary Black, whose district includes the area, said that choice was unacceptable.
All four of the other options involve eliminating significant parts of the project, particularly along the northern half between Millbrook and Lynn roads. City staff will present them to the public online and at two public meetings, with the aim of making a recommendation to the City Council next month.
The most expensive of the four options entails doing only the southern half of the project as planned. That means widening Six Forks from four travel lanes to six between Rowan and Millbrook, building separate bicycle lanes and sidewalks on both sides and improving intersections, lighting, crosswalks and landscaping.
That would cost an estimated $62.4 million, still more than the city has budgeted. The city would seek a federal grant that could close the gap to about $10 million, said Kenneth Ritchie, the city’s mobility strategy and infrastructure manager.
Final design work and construction would take about four years, Ritchie said.
The next three options would shrink the project further, to get within the city’s budget.
One would entail widening the road and building the new sidewalks and bike lanes between Rowan and North Glen Drive, while leaving the remaining stretch of Six Forks as it is.
Another would add new sidewalks and bike lanes between Rowan and Lynn without widening Six Forks itself. And the fourth would also leave the road as it is but add 12-foot multi-use paths to both sides.
The latter two options would significantly reduce the amount of property the city needs to buy, Ritchie said.
The city now wants the public’s feedback
The city will post descriptions of the options on its website Monday, along with a survey seeking public feedback. The survey will be up through Nov. 10.
The public will also be able to speak about the Six Forks Road project at Black’s District A town hall meeting on Oct. 25, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the Sertoma Arts Center off Millbrook Road and at the City Council’s transportation committee meeting at the municipal building downtown on Oct. 26 at 3 p.m.
City staff will collect and summarize the feedback to present to the City Council on Nov. 21, Ritchie said, with the hope of getting a decision then.
The outcome may determine whether Allen Oakley loses his home at the corner of Six Forks and North Glen. The city told Oakley three years ago that it would need to take his property to widen the road, though Oakley says he could tell that would be the case as early as 2018.
Oakley told the council Tuesday that he was told to expect an offer from the city at several points earlier this year.
“We still have not had an official word ... on when, if, maybe, never, we may get an offer,” he said. “We feel we’ve been held hostage.”
Council members agreed that there’s a sense of urgency around Six Forks.
“This has been something the public’s been expecting, and there’s a lot of anxiety, particularly for the folks who are along some of these routes,” said at-large member Jonathan Melton. “I don’t want people to feel stuck in limbo, so we need to make this a priority.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 1:27 PM with the headline "As costs balloon, Raleigh looks to scale back its plans to improve Six Forks Road."
