ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation is proposing to add roundabouts to a stretch of Hughes Boulevard (U.S. 17).
The department said the $40 million project is intended to ease congestion and increase safety, but some residents and business owners in the area aren’t sure such a large project is needed.
“We’d really like to know why? The main concern for myself is not just my business, but the other businesses there,” said Renee Stallings, a business owner.
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The project could mean the relocation of several businesses and could encroach on the property of homeowners.
NCDOT is taking public comment on the plan through March 6.
The design presented to the public includes five roundabouts along U.S.17 or Hughes Boulevard that would replace traffic signals.
Left turns would be eliminated from side streets and there would be a raised median along the corridor.
NCDOT found that over a five-year period, there were 270 crashes and two deaths along the 1.5 mile stretch of highway, numbers higher than the state average. Roundabouts have been effective in reducing the number of crashes, the agency found.
“When you look at it, from that perspective, if we maintain the signals, we're still going to have a propensity for accidents along that corridor,” said John Abel, a project manager for NCDOT. "We know it will be higher than the roundabout."
Stallings, who is running for county commissioner, was among the 200 people who attended a NCDOT public meeting on Tuesday.
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“We came out of there not knowing more than we went in there by researching ourselves,” she said.
Abel said the design of the project itself is still a work in progress, and what was shown on Tuesday may not be the final result at all.
“The first step was basically to come up with a conceptual design for the project,” he said. “The roundabout, talking with our congestion management group was the best alternative for this area.”
NCDOT will review public input once the comment period ends and develop a final design. Construction on the project isn’t expected to begin until 2029.
