New Marion street open, 'appealing' pole goes up

By Mike Conley
Published: December 09, 2009

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A new street is now open in Marion while an old railroad crossing will soon be closed. And a busy intersection in downtown Marion will feature a new kind of traffic signal.
The North McDowell Avenue extension opened to traffic last week. The opening concludes a two-year project by the city of Marion to improve traffic flow in the vicinity of East Court Street, Oak Street and McDowell Avenue.
As part of the new street alignment, motorists on North McDowell Avenue will have the right of way at the intersection with Oak Street. Motorists on Oak Street will have to stop at this intersection. Traffic signal improvements were made by the N.C. Department of Transportation at the McDowell Avenue/East Court Street intersection to provide for safety on the new street.
The city acquired land from retiring dentist Dr. James Peppers in 2007 to allow for the North McDowell Avenue extension to take place. The city got funding from both the state DOT and Norfolk Southern Railway to pay for 100 percent of the design and construction costs of the street extension. The funding was part of the city's agreement to close the Clay Street railroad crossing.
In an agreement with the city, the DOT completed part of the construction work and hired contractors to complete parts of the project that could not be done by DOT personnel. The DOT began work on the street extension in June and completed the final work on the traffic signals at the East Court Street/North McDowell Avenue intersection on Thursday, allowing the street to be opened immediately.
The Clay Street railroad crossing will be closed on or around Jan. 13 and the traffic signal at Clay and East Court streets will also be removed on that date.
"The North McDowell Avenue extension is a creative example of the city trying to meet a local need by helping to alleviate traffic congestion in several residential areas," said Mayor Steve Little. "This project will hopefully help improve traffic flow around the city, particularly between East McDowell Junior High School and Marion Elementary School and surrounding areas."
Little added that the city appreciates the efforts of DOT in providing funding for the project and in coordinating the construction.
At the same time, the DOT is busy putting up a new kind of traffic light at the intersection of West Court and Logan streets.
It will consist of a single large black pole with traffic lights that will stick out over the intersection. The old lights and their wires will be taken down when the new one starts working.
Green Light Electric of Weaverville is the company contracted by the DOT to install the new traffic light. David Rice, vice president of the company, said the DOT is putting in the new black pole mostly for "cosmetics."
"It's a more appealing design for downtown locations," he said.
Rice said he hopes that the work will be done by the end of next week, weather permitting.