My Turn: The issues of traveling between New Hanover and Brunswick | Traffic

It's theme week for the My Turn segments this week.  The theme is traveling between New Hanover and Brunswick counties.   Our other segment featured Dale Janney delivering a Guest My Turn about the grid-lock created by the planned closure of the Memorial Bridge last weekend.

We can't deny the fact that we are becoming a metro area encompassing both sides of the Cape Fear River, and travel between the two counties is critical.  It is plain to see there are problems here - and they are getting worse.

Currently, there are only two ways to travel by car directly between the two counties.  You must travel on the U.S. 74/76 causeway or take the Fort Fisher Ferry.  If that causeway gets shut down, it won't matter how many downtown bridges we have.  We will be in a world of hurt.

I'm not a traffic engineer but I can play one on TV.  As I see it, we need at least two things to happen here.  We need to complete the I-140 plan as quickly as possible.  And we need to revisit the Skyway Bridge proposal to come up with an alternative route that connects at Wilmington close to the port and feeds that traffic onto the major routes south and west in Brunswick County.

Please, let's get moving on this so we can keep people and commerce moving in the future.

That's my turn.  Now it's your turn.  To comment on this segment, or anything else, email me at yourturn@wect.com.

Emailed comments from viewers:

I fully agree
with you on the I-140 bypass, why they are working on the southern part of it
connecting 74/76 to 17 when there are 3 existing routes to get between these
roads in a 7 mile stretch is beyond reason.  The skyway Bridge will not
work and it will take too long. What needs to be done is a cross over on the
west side of the Holmes bridge and connecting to 74/76 just east of Village Rd.
This would be a faster solution then waiting for the I-140 bypass to be
completed. Once both are completed there would be no need for the Skyway
Bridge.

********

For the future, please let's stop thinking with minds
from the past.  This 100+ year old
technology is not forward thinking.  We
must stop thinking about mass transit as one person in a 2000 lb car. 

With a billion dollars Wilmington can create one of, if
not the best, mass transit system in the country.  Let's be leaders in our thoughts as well as
our actions.  One more road, one more
bridge gets us absolutely no where. 
Imagine a skyway rail system encompassing our city and connecting to a
200 mile an hour monorail to Raleigh.

That's a good place to start the conversation.

********

I am not sure what the best solution is to improving the
traffic problems between the two counties. As far as I am concerned the Skyway
bridge project has been tainted by the mayor and Jason Thompson purchasing land
in Brunswick county where the bridge is planned to connect.  They used their public positions to take
advantage of us all for their own personnel gain. They should be required to
donate the land to charity before anymore discussion of construction of the bridge.
That is my spin.

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