Raleigh Voters Will Consider $75 Million in Transportation Bonds

The News and Observer

by Bruce Siceloff

 – The city will ask permission from Raleigh voters Tuesday to borrow $75 million to widen streets, improve bus stops, add roundabouts, and build miles of sidewalks and bicycle lanes.

“The roads people are using every day are the ones that are going to be improved,” said Sig Hutchinson, chairman of the Friends of the Transportation Bond Committee, which is campaigning for a “yes” vote. “The city has adopted a ‘fix what we have first’ approach, so all these projects are on existing roads.”

If the bond issue passes, Raleigh taxpayers will see their property taxes increase next year by 1.12 cents per $100 valuation, about $33 more a year in taxes for a house valued at $300,000.

Most of the streets marked for improvement handle 8,000 to 20,000 cars and trucks each day. The busiest one is Six Forks Road, which serves 44,000 vehicles. The bonds would include $1.6 million to design improvements for 1.4 miles of Six Forks from Rowan Street in North Hills to Sandy Forks Road.

“The Six Forks corridor is going to be a big component in North Raleigh,” Hutchinson said. “As North Hills continues to expand, we need to make the area more friendly to all types of transportation.”