STEELE CREEK NEWS
Steele Creek Road
Realignment Ribbon-Cutting is June 24
(June 2,
2011) The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Steele Creek Road and
Dixie River Road Realignment project will be on June 24th beginning
at 10:00 AM. There will be a small gathering at the intersection of
Steele Creek Road and the new Dixie River Road. A few public
officials will give their comments before the roads are opened for
traffic. Among the speakers will be Warren Turner, City
Councilperson for the Steele Creek area (District 3) and Deputy City
Manager Jim Schumacher.
The project includes
three major parts. The Shopton Road West realignment was completed
in 2009. The other parts are a new, realigned Dixie River Road and
the straightening of the curve and widening of Steele Creek Road.
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The northbound
lanes of the new Steele Creek Road (shown on the aerial image
above from last fall) have been open since last year, and the
southbound lanes have been open for a few weeks, although traffic
barrels still abound. The New Dixie River Road will be open for
traffic on June 24. Once it is opened, the old section of
Dixie River Road will be renamed Shopton Road.
The final step will
be additional landscaping, which will occur in the fall.
Folks who have been
waiting years for improvements to Steele Creek Road and the
elimination of the sharp curve at Shopton Road West should be
pleased with the new roads when they are completed.
Another new road
needed to improve traffic flow through Berewick is the extension of Berewick Commons Parkway east to connect to
the new Dixie River Road. Currently the only access from most
Berewick residential areas to Berewick Elementary School and other
areas to the northeast is through a residential neighborhood, whose
streets are not designed for through traffic. The extension of
Berewick Commons Parkway will be built by the developers of Berewick
and is not part of the city project.
Traffic signals are
required to be at least 500 feet apart. The roads were spaced so that signals at the new Dixie River Road and
eventually at both I-485 ramp
intersections would be allowed.
This is a joint
project of the City of Charlotte and the North Carolina Department
of Transportation. Most of the funding for the $11,257,000 project
came from 2004 Charlotte Transportation bonds. The bonds actually
were approved and the project started before the roads and nearby
Berewick were annexed into Charlotte in 2009.
For more
information, see the
Dixie River Road Realignment web page.
To comment on this
story please visit the
Steele Creek Forum.
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The aerial
photographs below were flown last November and are courtesy of The Charlotte Department of
Engineering and Property Management and
AeroPhoto, Inc. Derrel Poole, Project Manager for the road
construction projects, displayed them at the Steele Creek Residents
Association annual meeting in March. Click on any photograph to see an
enlargement.
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