STEELE CREEK NEWS
Wallace Neel Road
to be Relocated to Just East of I-485
(March
4, 2007) Charlotte-Douglas Airport will be constructing a new,
fourth runway west of the current airport beginning this year.
Because the new 9,000 foot runway will displace the current Wallace
Neel Road and part of Old Dowd Road, the airport must construct an
alternate route around the northwest and west side of the airport.
Current plans place
this road along the eastern edge of I-485. In the aerial photograph
below, the blue line is Phase 1 (relocation of Old Dowd connecting
to Walker Ferry Road) and the orange line is Phase 2 (from Walker
Ferry Road south to West Boulevard). Expect to see a variety of
detours and other reroutings until the replacement road is
completed. The new runway is scheduled for completion in 2010, but
the new road should be complete before then.
West Boulevard also
will be relocated southward to accommodate an extension of the
current western runway to the south. A schedule for this relocation
has not been announced.
Watch for further
updates on the
Charlotte-Douglas International Airport web site. Also
see
Roads being moved to make way for runway (3/8/07) By
Kirsten Valle of the
Charlotte
Observer.
According to
the Dixie-Berryhill Thoroughfare Plan adopted in 2002, the
replacement road was expected to have been built on the west side of
I-485 (following the gray line on the map below).
A revision to
the alignment of roads through Berewick (the blue roads on this map)
was approved in 2006. See the story
New Intersections on Steele
Creek Road Approved and Funded but not Scheduled (December
18, 2006). Also affecting roads in the area will be the proposed
Gaston Connector, which will extend west from the end of a realigned
West Boulevard, cross Lake Wylie, continue through southern Gaston
County, and connect to I-85 west of Gastonia. See the story
Study Underway for New Gaston
Connector (February 4, 2006).
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