Last week, Renaissance Park resident, Anthony McLeod and I headed down to the North Carolina Legislature to meet with our House Representative, Deborah Ross. I’ve known Representative Ross for many years and had her guidance when I was working to get Lineberry Drive paved. She is a positive voice for her constituents and helpful legislature when you need advice.
Anthony and I meet with Representative Ross on the morning of February 15, 2010 regarding the Tryon Road realignment project (sign the petition at http://renparkonline.com/tryonroad/).
Representative Ross, Source NC General Assembly: http://bit.ly/cTERZZ
She was glad to see us and even brought in an expert to help us determine the next steps that we, as citizens, could take. Our meeting included Bob Weiss, from the North Carolina General Assembly Fiscal Research Division.
Anthony and I explained the situation and our concerns about the replacement of Bridge 259 on Tryon Road. The Renaissance Park builders have completed the pre-work for the realignment of Tryon road. Raleigh is preparing to start the expansion of “Part C” of Tryon Road, which is from Lake Wheeler Road to the bridge. Our main concern is the funding for the replacement of the bridge and the coordination effort of the expansion project with the bridge. It would be a tragedy for Raleigh Public Works to complete the expansion of Tryon Road and have it end at a two-lane, out-dated bridge.
Representative Ross and Bob Weiss listened to our concerns and helped us formulate an action plan. Mr. Weiss is going to look into the funding situation and the project priority from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO). Once we have this information we will try to determine what we can do as citizens, to move the ball forward.
We are already working with Nina Szlosberg who’s on the North Carolina Board of Transportation. She is helping us coordinate a meeting with CAMPO Director Ed Johnson. We are hoping to learn if the NCDOT’s new prioritization process can help with the Tryon Road bridge project.
Tags: CAMPO, deborah_ross, ncdot, nc_general_assembly, renaissance_park, tryon_road