Lake Wheeler Road near Raleigh’s Dix Park will get sidewalks and unusual roundabout
The former Dorothea Dix psychiatric hospital has become a city park, and high-rise apartments are going up nearby. Yet the two-lane road between them hasn’t changed in decades.
Now Lake Wheeler Road is about to get an overhaul that will make it a better neighbor to the park and people who live nearby. Construction begins this summer and is expected to take two years.
Here’s what the project includes:
▪ Sidewalks on both sides of the road and a bike path on the park side. There will also be several crosswalks, most with flashing beacons to tell drivers when someone is waiting to cross.
▪ A new roundabout at the intersection of Lake Wheeler and South Saunders Street, and three other roundabouts at side streets, including a novel double or “peanut” roundabout at Goode Street and Mercury Avenue. The roundabouts will slow traffic and help enforce a lower speed limit of 25 mph, down from 35 mph now.
▪ A new entrance to the park from Lake Wheeler Road, directly into the parking lot for the new Gipson Play Plaza, which opened earlier this month.
▪ GoRaleigh will begin a new route from downtown south on Lake Wheeler Road, with three stops near the park. GoRaleigh Route 21 now uses that section of Lake Wheeler but only northbound toward downtown.
The city presented the final plans to a meeting of nearby residents last week. Many who live in the Fuller Heights neighborhood across Lake Wheeler Road said the coming changes are welcome.
Allen and Trudy Dickerson own a house along Lake Wheeler that her parents moved to in 1952, when she was a child. The Dickersons now rent out the home, but are very familiar with Lake Wheeler Road.
“The traffic through there now is a speedway,” Allen Dickerson said. “I see all the improvements there as a great thing. It’s going to, I hope, slow the traffic down some and make it flow smoother.”
Access to the park important to residents
Keri Dixon, who bought the house two doors down from the Dickersons 13 years ago, is less sure about the roundabouts. Dixon doesn’t think they work well in urban areas, because drivers don’t always know how to behave, particularly around pedestrians.
But she’s thrilled with the sidewalks and the new access to the park.
“Right now, there’s nothing. It’s very dangerous to walk,” Dixon said. “For the longest time to get to the park, you had to climb through a fence. So I’m very excited.”
The city awarded the $21.8 million construction contract to Rifenburg North Carolina. Rifenburg will do the work in four phases, starting with the new entrance to the park.
Through traffic will be detoured during much of the project, but residents along Lake Wheeler Road will still have access to their driveways from one direction or another, said Riska Dees, the city’s project manager. Visitors to the park will also have access from Lake Wheeler at either Goode Street or Umstead Drive, Dees said.
“There might be some detour routes to get into the park,” she said. “But our big thing is just making sure at all times everyone can get to the park one way or another.”
The overhaul of Lake Wheeler Road was originally expected to extend farther south, to include a new traffic light at Maywood Avenue and the entrance to the State Farmer’s Market. Those plans, Dees said, have been delayed while the city works with the R.J. Corman Railroad on planned improvements to the nearby railroad crossing.
To see digital images of what Lake Wheeler Road will look like in two years, go to bit.ly/3IhY84m.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Lake Wheeler Road near Raleigh’s Dix Park will get sidewalks and unusual roundabout."
