20161221_CP1 Meeting Minutes_20120319

BEVERLY FAVES PERDUE
GOVERNOR
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
March 19 2012
EUGENE A CONTI JR
SECRETARY
MEMORANDUM TO Merger Team Members
FROM Kim L Gillespie, PE
Project Planning Engineer
Project Development and Environmental Analysis Branch
SUBJECT US 13/NC 11 from the NC 11 561 intersection to the
US 13 158/NC 45 intersection Hertford County Federal
Aid Project NHF 00 13(37) WBS Element 45449 1 1
TIP Project R 5311
A concurrence meeting for the subject project was held on September 14 2011 at
10 00 A M in the Structure Design Conference Room C of the NCDOT Century Center
Building A The objective of the meeting was to discuss the project purpose and need
(Concurrence Point 1)
The following people were in attendance
Donnie Brew
Ron Lucas
Bill Biddlecome
Chris Militscher
Gary Jordan
Justin Oakes
Kevin Hart
Cathy Brittingham
David Wainwright
Travis Wilson
Renee Gledhill Earley
Jerry Jennings
Gary Lovering
Thomas Stoddard
Kerry Morrow
Eddie McFalls
Mark Johnston
Tyler Stanton
MAILING ADDRESS
NC DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
1548 MAIL SERVICE CENTER
RALEIGH NC 27699 1548
Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
US Army Corps of Engineers
US Environmental Protection Agency
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Peanut Belt Rural Planning Organization
NC DENR — Div of Marine Fisheries (by phone)
NC DENR — Div of Coastal Mgmt
NC DENR — Div of Water Quality
NC Wildlife Resources Commission
SHPO /Dept of Cultural Resources
NCDOT Division 1 Engineer
NCDOT Roadway Design
NCDOT TIP Unit
NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
AECOM
AECOM
NCDOT PDEA NEU
TELEPHONE [phone] LOCATION
FAX [phone] TRANSPORTATION BUILDING
1 SOUTH WILMINGTON STREET
WEBSITE WWW DOH DOT STATE NC US RALEIGH NC

R 5311 September 14 2011 Merger Team Meeting Minutes
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Rob Hanson NCDOT PDEA
Jay McInnis NCDOT PDEA
Kim L Gillespie NCDOT PDEA
Kim Gillespie opened the meeting by reviewing items in the meeting handout
Project Description
The proposed project involves improvements to NC 11 and US 13 from the NC 11 561
intersection to the US 13 158/NC 45 intersection in Hertford County
Ms Gillespie explained NC 11 SR 1212 (Shortcut Road) and US 13 are a continuous
2 lane 12 foot road northwest of Ahoskie She walked the attendees through the project
and discussed the information depicted in the chart below
She then discussed adjacent projects TIP Project R 2507A which was let to
construction as a design build project in July 2011 will convert the US 13 158/NC 45
intersection into an interchange and widen US 13 158 north of NC 45 to four lanes
with a 46 foot median R 2583 was let as a design build project in March 2011
This project will widen US 158 to a 4 lane facility with a 46 foot median from
Murfreesboro Bypass to US 13/NC 45 west of Winton
TIP Project R 2205 (Ahoskie Bypass) extends from the intersection of NC 42 with
US 13 at Powellsville in Bertie County to US 13 north of Ahoskie in Hertford County
This project would construct a 4 lane facility with a 46 foot median with a bypass of
Ahoskie on new location The portions of NC 11 SR 1212 and US 13 to be improved
under the subject project were a part of two alternatives (Alternatives 12 and 19)
studied for the proposed US 13 Ahoskie Bypass Project R 2205 is no longer funded in
the STIP due to public controversy over the project Project development studies for
Project R 2205 have been discontinued
Accidents occurring within the R 5311 project area prompted local officials to request
improvements be made in those areas The intersections of NC 11 with NC 561 and
SR 1212 have experienced a number of serious accidents over the years Due to this
accident history Hertford County and the Peanut Belt Rural Planning Organization
passed resolutions in 2010 asking that these intersections be addressed
Project Status and Schedule
Project development studies for this project began in February 2011 A scoping meeting
was held in August 2011 Wetland delineations and protected species surveys will be
conducted soon after Concurrence Point 2 is reached
Right of way acquisition is scheduled for federal fiscal year 2017 and construction is
scheduled for 2019 in the 2012 2018 STEP

R 5311 September 14 2011 Merger Team Meeting Minutes
Page 3 of 6
Protect Needs Discussion
Ms Gillespie addressed the needs for the project
• Fatal accident rates at the NC 11 intersections with NC 561 and SR 1212 are over five
times higher than the statewide average and twice the critical rate
• The portion of NC 11 SR 1212 and US 13 in the project area has a fatal accident rate
over twice as high as the statewide average and slightly above the critical rate
• The portion of US 13 between SR 1212 and the northern NC 461 intersection has no
control of access and several driveways Over 43 percent of the accidents occurring
within the project limits have occurred along this section of US 13 The accident rate
for this portion of US 13 is above the statewide average and the critical rate
She continued with traffic volume traffic capacity Strategic Highway Corridor (SHC)
and Intrastate System information concerning this project
Accident data was obtained for the time period between January 1990 and June 2010
One hundred forty crashes occurred at the NC 11 /11 /SR 1212 intersection resulting in
five fatalities Ninety six accidents resulted in injuries which represented 68 percent of
the total crashes Ms Gillespie then showed an accident figure representing any
accidents between January 1990 and June 2011 at this intersection She noted 37 angle
accidents occurred when a driver traveling east tried to cross NC 11 at this intersection'
She could find no reason behind these accident occurrences
Ms Gillespie informed the group the SR 1213 leg of the NC I I/NC 11 /SR 1212 /SR 1213
intersection was closed recently Jay McInnis stated the aforementioned intersections
have had accident problems and many types of improvements have been used to try to
remedy these problems Jerry Jennings added the signal at NC 11 561 had been installed
at least ten years ago along with other types of improvements and it only seems to have
made a marginal improvement At the NC 11 /SR 1212 intersection a signal is not
warranted here due to the low traffic volumes However beacons with different
configurations and advance beacons have been tried to no avail The most recent interim
improvement was to close off one leg of the intersection (SR 1213) this past year The
public has not been happy with the closure but Mr Jennings has noticed some
improvements in the accident situation A formal analysis will be done within the next
few years to assess the improvement
Freeway versus Expressway Discussion
Mr McInnis told Chns Militscher an expressway was proposed for TIP Project R 2507A
Mr Militscher wondered why US 13 158 was to be built as an expressway when the SHC
vision for this stretch of US 13 158 is a freeway Mr McInnis explained upgrading
US 13 158 to a freeway would be very expensive and outside the project scope
However building the project to expressway standards would be one step closer to
reaching the vision
Mr Militscher asked if an expressway is planned for R 5311 since this project has
similar issues to R 2507A and to keep driver expectation consistent Mr McInnis
explained portions of NC 11 and US 13 in the project area were constructed as future
freeways with limited control of access Limited control of access means at grade

R 5311 September 14 2011 Merger Team Meeting Minutes
Page 4 of 6
intersections are allowed but no driveways He continued only the project section from
SR 1212 US 13 and from US 13/NC 461 (northern intersection) has no control of access
Right of way exists for interchanges at the intersections of NC 11 with NC 561 NC 11
with NC 11 and an interchange is being constructed at the US 13 intersection with
US 158/NC 45 Rob Hanson pointed out most projects don t have limited control of
access within the majority of its limits
Mr Militscher stated even with the limited control of access in this project he couldn t
see upgrading this project to freeway status with the low traffic, volumes traffic capacity
SHC and Intrastate System information presented earlier He stated the safety issues are
well documented Mr McInnis stated it hasn t been decided how the road will be built
mainly because the reason for this meeting is to discuss purpose and need not
alternatives He clarified the other information was dust for the group s knowledge and
was not presented to offer any alternatives That issue is for another time Cathy
Bnttingham asked if the SHC vision was intended to be a part of the Purpose and Need
Statement Mr McInnis said the vision was not intended to be a part of the Purpose and
Need Statement Ms Brittingham asked why not when that vision has been an
imperative part of the purpose and need for other projects and has been imperative for
NCDOT in the past Mr McInnis stated the Purpose and Need Statement addresses the
main issue of this project (safety) instead of focusing on the SHC vision Ms
Brittingham wondered if the SHC would be a critical factor when determining
alternatives in the future Mr McInnis reiterated we are only discussing safety in our
Purpose and Need Statement A large truck traffic volume (20 %) exists on segments
within the project (even with overall low volumes) but the Purpose and Need Statement
only addresses safety Ms Brittingham asked if this information will be documented in
the meeting minutes due to past projects being elevated because of SHC visions Mr
McInnis stated the Purpose and Need Statement will take care of this issue
Mr McInnis and Mr Jennings mentioned TIP Project R 2700 which extends along NC
11 from the NC 11 NC 42 intersection and ends at US 64 Mr McInnis & Ms Gillespie
told Mr Militscher two lanes exist on NC 11 south of NC 561 Mr Militscher wondered
if there were other safety issues existing on this section of NC 11 that would be addressed
on the subject project looking at the big picture for any safety problems that may exist on
the entire section of NC 11 from US 64 to the Virginia State Line Mr McInnis stated the
safety problems existing at the NC I I/NC 561 or NC 11 /SR 1212 intersections do not
exist at the NC I UNC 42 intersection (reason unknown)
Mr McInnis discussed with the group a new location section is being considered where
60 feet of right of way exists along existing US 13 this new location section would be
similar to two alternatives studied for the Ahoskie Bypass He continued three historic
properties exist in this project section along with other information obtained from the
Ahoskie Bypass project He added the distance of this section was about 3 4 miles in
length Gary Jordan stated the project section with no control of access appeared to only
be about 2 5 miles on the map provided Ms Gillespie and Mr McInnis stated the
mainline is 3 4 miles in length Mr Jordan stated he understood a certain critical length
was needed in order to build a freeway However he was uncertain of the needed length
to keep the freeway from being a short section and keep traffic flowing as needed

R 5311 September 14 2011 Merger Team Meeting Minutes
Page 5 of 6
Mr McInnis asked if the group was in agreement with the purpose and need statement
Ms Gillespie expounded about any controversies on this project In talking with the local
officials and a group called The Citizens Against The Ahoskie Bypass they expressed
their dislike of the Ahoskie Bypass Project but they also stated they were concerned
about the accidents occurring at the NC 11 561 & NC 11 SR 1212 intersections Mr
McInnis stated not much opposition is expected because of these requests
Safety
David Wainwright understood safety was not allowed as a primary purpose and need by
the guidelines set by FHWA. Mr McInnis stated safety was only discouraged from being
a primary purpose and need without evidence The evidence shown earlier supports using
safety as the primary purpose and need since the crash rates are higher than the statewide
averages and critical rates at the project section and intersections discussed earlier Mr
Wainwright understood widening a road does not necessanly improve the safety of a
road and that was his reasoning for questioning using safety Donnie Brew answered
using safety as a primary purpose and need depends on the safety charactenstics It has
appeared in the past building a road to design standards would automatically make the
road safer He reiterated the evidence exists to back up using safety for this project and
as Mr Militscher pointed out the driver expectation will be interrupted by the change in
control of access throughout this project if the road is not widened He continued the
number of alternatives available for this project will not be limited if the safety issues are
addressed
Ron Lucas told Mr Wainwright the alternatives will need to be quantified to address the
safety issues Mr Wainwright stated this action is necessary to keep the project process
working Mr McInnis stated predicting the future for safety issues is hard Past accident
information on freeways show fewer crashes occur on them as opposed to fewer lane
roads
Mr Wainwright however wanted to know how to quantify that this improvement will
not increase or add other accidents to offset the improvement especially with such a
small sample size of fatalities He also noted this issue is mentioned in the FHWA
guidelines Mr Brew stated safety is our primary purpose and need in order to solve
problems in the short term We will consider many alternatives and evaluate them based
on their impacts It will be up to our safety engineers to inform us whether or not we
have reduced the crash rates enough with our improvements to ensure we have met the
project purpose and need Mr Brew noted this FHWA statement was a guideline not a
law He explained this guideline was established in order to ensure the evidence existed
to justify using safety as the purpose and need We will be able to quantify safety or else
we will find those alternatives will not meet purpose and need More discussion will be
held during Concurrence Point 2 (Alternatives to be Camed Forward for Detailed Study)
Mr Militscher agrees the accident information justifies using safety for purpose and need
He said he does not want the SHC vision to be the main reason for limiting alternatives
Mr Jordan also agreed the sample size is very small statistically for validity of the fatal
crash rates He repeated his statement when Ms Gillespie asked if he thought the sample
size was small even for a rural area with 20 years worth of information Mr Jennings

R 5311 September 14 2011 Merger Team Meeting Minutes
Page 6 of 6
noted the crash rates are number of accidents per 100 million vehicle miles traveled
which needed to be taken in account Mr McInnis noted the exposure and number of
occurrences exist in order to compare different areas to show the chances of something
happening may be greater in one place than in the other for similar facilities Mr
Militscher agrees with this evidence as well as with Mr Jordan s statement Mr
McInnis wondered if the purpose and need statement needed to be tweaked to emphasize
fixing serious accidents only but the group decided to remain with the same statement
The group also approved the study area shown
Concurrence
Ms Gledhill Earley asked about access to possible farms located east of the no control
of access area Mr McInnis suggested discussing this issue at a later time to determine
better access for those areas Mr Militscher questioned the southern terminus because
the safety issues have not been identified south of the area Mr McInnis said the issue
had been discussed before and it was decided the terminus needed to be at NC 561
instead of NC 42
Ms Gillespie restated the project s purpose and need and requested concurrence The
merger team concurred with the following purpose statement
The purpose of this project is to improve the safety of NC 11/US 13 between the NC 11/
NC 561 and US 13 158/NC 45 intersections in Hertford County
A copy of the signed concurrence form is attached to this memorandum

i
NEPr A04 MERGER I EAM lbIFETING AGREEMEN T
Concurrence Point No 1 PurposL and Necd
PROJLC 1 NO /TIP NO/ NAM) /DP SCRIP I ION
1 cdc,al Aid Prod xt Numbs, NHl 0013(31)
Statc Pioj,,ct Numbei WETS 1 Icnxcat 45449 1 1
rip P,oject Numbct R 5311
rip Description US 13 /NC I I from the, NC 11 561 intersection to the US 13 158/
NC 45 tntersec sum 1 fcrtlord C otmty
I he Project I e urn coucure ed on this date of SEptentber t4, 2011 with the purpose of and
need for the proposed project as stated below ind the project study area as described
below and shown in the attached exhibit
Purpose, and Need of Proposu3 Ptolc.ct
I he, purpose of thus projc.ct is to improve the, safety of the, NC 13IUS 13 eorrudot betwan the
NC 11 563 tntet5ectton tnd the US 13 158 /NC 45 uttcrsectton rut Het tfotd County
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