Collector Streets Aim to Ease Traffic Congestion Along Highway 70

They say the answer is a series of alternate routes through neighborhoods to keep neighborhood traffic off of Highway 70.

The city calls them collector streets.

"It's a good traffic tool that can be used when you cannot widen a street like U.S. 70. It is a good planning tool to relieve the congestion," says Raleigh transportation director Jimmie Beckon.

The first collector street under construction is at the Grove Barton Road Extension. It will run from Lynn Road to Pinecrest Road, parallel to Highway 70.

The collector street cuts through several neighborhoods, including the one behind Mary and Tom Roberts' house. They question what the new road will do for traffic troubles.

"Our question to them was where are they going to alleviate it from? They have traffic congestion on Lynn Road, they have congestion on Pinecrest. So are they going to take the congestion from Lynn and add it to Pinecrest or from Pinecrest to Lynn Road?" asks Mary Roberts.

Beckon says the goal is to relieve traffic on Highway 70/Glenwood Avenue.

Roberts disagrees. "It's a development thing, it's to increase the economy for the developers. It's not to alleviate any congestion," Roberts says.

The $1.4 million extension should be finished by spring.

Developers are paying half the cost for some of the new roads.