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University plans new access road |
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
by JULIA MERCHANT
Intern News Reporter
In an attempt to alleviate growing traffic congestion, Appalachian State University plans to build a road that will start behind the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center and provide access to U.S. Highway 105.
“We’ve done the preliminary design and are trying to get [the
Department of Transportation] to help fund it,” Design and Construction
Director Clyde Robbins said. The proposed road will be approximately
one
mile in length according to blueprints the university received Feb. 26.
The road would extend from Bodenheimer Drive and connect with Homespun Hills Drive, the street next to Poplar Grove Connector.
Robbins said the majority of the 26 acres of property for the road has
already been purchased, and currently “99 percent of it is owned by the
university and the Department of Transportation.”
The acreage includes one or two former residential parcels as well as
land purchased several years ago by the university from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which originally planned to build a
church on the site but opted for a location on Poplar Grove Connector
instead.
In a luncheon with students Jan. 30, Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock
discussed the need for a road that provides more than one way out of
the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center in bad weather conditions like
snow and ice.
Peacock said people have been stranded at the Broyhill Inn during icy weather.
Robbins said another road is needed as an alternative to Poplar Grove
Connector, which is curvy and not built for a large amount of traffic.
There has been some speculation as to whether the road will cut through the Appalachian State
Biology Preserve, also closely situated to the Broyhill Inn. Robbins,
however, said that the road “won’t affect any of [the preserve].”
An environmental impact study has not yet been assessed of the area
where the road will be built, as that is generally part of the
construction process.
Robbins said the road could take six or seven years to build, as the
university is still trying to secure funding from the Department of
Transportation and, by his estimate, is currently a low priority for
Watauga County.
“We won’t build it ourselves … it would be a town, county and state road,” Robbins said.
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