Not just about traffic: sustainable innovation and improved quality of life

When it comes to battling air pollution, California is one of the most progressive states in the nation. 

Thanks to continuous emission reduction initiatives over the past 30 years, levels of air pollutants have fallen in the state. The improvements being made to the I-10 are helping further California鈥檚 goals by reducing congestion and emissions.

Lastly, by enabling travel time savings and improved trip reliability, more companies and people will choose San Bernardino and the surrounding area to settle. Less time going to and from work means improving the quality of many lives.

A game changer for motorists

Traveling in southeastern Wake County today often means congestion and less predictable travel on many different roadways, such as I-440, I-40, NC 42, NC 55, and Ten Ten Road, especially during peak hours. These roads not only serve their towns and cities for local traffic but must handle commuting traffic as well. 

Over the years commuting times in the area have increased exponentially. Dennis Jernigan, the Deputy Chief Engineer for Highway Operations at the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, has seen first-hand the extraordinary growth in the area and the longer commutes. He grew up in the eastern NC town of Benson, off I-95, and spent 10 years working in Durham. Commuting from Benson to Durham should be about an hour commute each way, up and down I-40.

Instead, on some days, especially Fridays and holidays, the commute could be as much as three hours 鈥� with no incidents¹, especially with beach and vacation traffic during the summer months.

As a part of the Complete 540 project, Lane is delivering 8.5 miles of modern roadway, including the construction of 29 bridges, and 3 interchanges. With a posted speed limit of 70 mph, and new interchanges allowing drivers to arrive at their destination more easily, commuting times will drop, which will be a game changer for motorists in the region.

According to Jernigan, 鈥淔or motorists traveling from points south and east to the west or vice versa, currently they must use I-40 into downtown Raleigh 鈥� a lot of closely spaced urban interchanges, a lot of congestion, especially during peak hour. This will give motorists a chance to bypass that congestion and avoid that rush hour traffic.”²

Growing strategically in an urbanizing environment

With more than 1.1 million current residents, Wake County is projected to gain more than 200,000 more residents by 2030³. RTP and the area鈥檚 science and technology companies have been transforming the small Wake County towns into busy suburbs. 

The Complete 540 project is designed to improve mobility and reduce projected congestion on the existing roadways as the region grows. A secondary purpose is to improve system linkage in the regional roadway network 鈥� rural towns may see their local roads reclaimed and used for local traffic, rather than for commuters.

Lane is delivering:

The I-440 and Wake County

From its humble origins just prior to the Revolutionary War, Wake County has seen steady population growth, standing today at well over 1 million residents. 

Seeing steady growth in agriculture prior to the Civil War, the region saw a steady increase in automobiles by the 1930s due to better roads.  By WWII, Wake County was more urban and industrialized 鈥� in need of more and better infrastructure to support growth.

Planning for the first phase of I-440, or the Raleigh Beltline began in the 1950s.  The first section of the I-440, from Walnut Street to Wade Avenue was completed and opened to traffic in the early 1960s.  Back in 1960, the population of Wake County was just over 169,000 residents.

Today, Wake County is North Carolina’s most heavily populated county.  Today, the original section of the I-440 from Walnut Street to Wade Avenue must handle high traffic volumes with four lanes, little shoulder space, and pre-interstate designed interchanges. 

The improvements that Lane is making to the I-440 will widen this section of the roadway from four lanes to six lanes 鈥� modernizing interchanges and replacing pavement and bridges.  Help is coming for the many residents of Wake County.

Construction that will deliver progress

Because this section of the I-440 has four lanes, this forms a bottleneck between the six through lanes at both ends, causing congestion.  This congestion is only expected to get worse, increasing 26% by 2035.¹  Needless to say, travel speeds are well below the posted speed limit during morning and evening peak hours northbound and in the evening peak hours southbound. 

In addition to the congestion, this section of the I-440 experiences significantly higher crash rates, increasing risk to drivers.  Additionally, these crashes lead to even more traffic slowdowns caused by lane closures and detours to local streets.

The widening of I-440 will coincide with lowering the grade of Blue Ridge Road and constructing new bridges for Hillsborough Street (N.C. 54), Norfolk Southern Railway/North Carolina Railroad/CSX Transportation, and Beryl Road.  This corridor is not only used by freight traffic, but three Amtrak passenger rail routes use this corridor as well, making it heavily trafficked.  The improvements Lane is making will reduce congestion and train-related conflicts with vehicles and pedestrians. 

The benefits are clear to everyone travelling on the I-440 to the State Fair at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, to see a game or a show at the PNC Arena, to see a visitor at the UNC REX Hospital, or to go to work at the Research Triangle Park.

Today: restoration and modernization

The approximately 94,000 daily drivers using the oldest section of the I-440 must contend with pre-interstate roadway design including poor sight lines, narrow shoulders and medians, short acceleration and deceleration lanes, and train bridges not designed for today鈥檚 large trucks.  This will be the last four-lane section of the Raleigh Beltline to be widened.

Lane is restoring and modernizing this section of the Raleigh Beltway by delivering:

• Upgraded interchanges
• Replacing pavement and bridges           
• Building railroad grade separations for:
  • Beryl Road and Norfolk Southern Railway/North Carolina Railroad/CSX Railroad
  • NC-54 (Hillsborough Street) at Blue Ridge Road

More than just traffic: A regional project to enhance mobility

The widening of the I-440 is a part of a larger, regional plan to address deficiencies in mobility.  Roadways, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian walkways have been under careful consideration before any improvements were proposed. 

As the population in Wake County continues to grow, this region must support not only the shopping, entertainment, and employment destinations that are reachable by automobile via the I-440, but must support and encourage growth in other areas, such as the university community, an important population in the project area. 

Made up of large student populations, both Carolina State University (35,000 students) and Meredith College (2,000 students) house students in campus housing, as well as apartments and homes in the project area.  This population demands bicycle, pedestrian, and alternate transit.

Additionally, the urbanizing of this area will just continue, bringing a greater need for mobility so residents can reach apartments and mix-use housing.

Modernizing and restoring the I-440 and improving regional mobility will ensure that opportunities and benefits of the region鈥檚 continuing growth are available to all residents of Wake County.

Washington D.C. and the Anacostia River

At the time that Washington D.C. was created in 1790, the Anacostia River had already been in use for decades as a shipping channel for tobacco.  By the mid 1880s, so much silt had accumulated on the bottom of the river that it had to be abandoned for business. 

By 2010, the population of Washington D.C. grew to about 600,000 people with the Anacostia River seeing more and more pollution from garbage coming from communities surrounding the river, and raw sewage, particularly during rainstorms.  Urban runoff of stormwater was flowing into the river via its antiquated combined sewer system at an alarming rate.

In 2011 the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DCWASA) started a project to construct four large and deep sewage storage tunnels, running next to the Anacostia and Potomac rivers that would address the combined sewer overflow problem into the Anacostia River.

The first tunnel was operational in 2018.  This tunnel prevented 90% of sewage overflows into the Anacostia River and has kept 7 billion gallons of untreated sewage out of the river, including 3,100 tons of trash.

The second tunnel, or the Northeast Boundary Tunnel (NEBT) being delivered by Lane, is a large deep sewer tunnel that will increase the prevention of sewage outflows to the Anacostia River to 98%.  Even better news 鈥� it will be online 2 years ahead of schedule bringing much needed improvement to the Anacostia River.

Benefits to Washington D.C.鈥檚 Residents and Commuters

D.C.鈥檚 combined sewer system is more than 100 years old and can鈥檛 handle today鈥檚 population.  Around the time of development in 1900, Washington D.C.鈥檚 population was 278,718.  Today it is 689,545, according to the U.S. Census.  If you add the number of people commuting everyday into Washington D.C. (approximately 500,000), this number goes well above 1,100,000.

For decades the neighborhoods of Bloomingdale, Trinidad, Ivy City, Brentwood, and LeDroit Park have been flooded by the undersized system.  Commuters using the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station, Rhode Island Avenue NE, and Mount Olivet Road NE have had to endure major flooding on an all too regular basis. 

The flooding has been around for a while. Thirty-five years ago in 1987, speaking about these problem areas, The Chief of Sewer Services Bureau for the D.C. Department of Public Works, Otto James told the Washington Post 鈥淚n a sudden, heavy rainstorm, these areas often get too much water for the drain.”¹

Help is finally coming to the many residents and commuters.  Doing its part, Lane will deliver:

• Installation of 26,700-foot-long tunnel
• 90 to 180 feet below ground
• Seven deep shafts
• Ventilation control facilities to regulate air flow
• Construction of diversion facilities along tunnel alignment
• Green infrastructure for 11 sites
• 100-year life requirement

Delivering a Positive Impact to Washington D.C.鈥檚 Waterways and the Environment

The NEBT is a part of the Clean Rivers Project, DC Water’s ongoing program to reduce combined sewer overflows into the District’s waterways 鈥� the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek 鈥� by capturing and reusing stormwater before it enters the sewer system. 

Additionally, the NEBT and the Anacostia River Tunnel projects have fostered a greater connection between area residents and the health of the community. This can be seen in the reduction of litter, improved water quality, and vibrancy of outdoor recreational use since the project began.

Bringing a resurgence to the waterfront is what is behind the Anacostia Watershed Society鈥檚 鈥淲aterway to 2025,鈥� the goal of which is to restore the Anacostia to a fishable and swimmable healthy urban river by 2025.  This broad vision sees bikers and pedestrians enjoying the many trails in the area.  Bass are now plentiful, and Beavers are helping to navigate the clean channels of the Anacostia River.²

They might be onto something. Even though swimming or wading in the Anacostia has been illegal since 1971, in 2019 Washington D.C. officials considered changing this law, proposing to build public river pools.  According to D.C. Department of Energy and Environment鈥檚 Director Tommy Wells, 鈥淚 believe we will have swimming platforms in Washington, D.C. by 2025.鈥�

At the end of the day, this project鈥檚 design will accommodate Florida鈥檚 future 鈥淏eyond the Ultimate鈥� project, which will add four express lanes down the median of I-4. This is just one of Lane鈥檚 projects in the Sunshine state 鈥� Lane Construction has nearly $500M in active highway projects in Florida.