Prepare to slow down soon on I-40 for blasting work. Where to look for traffic jams.
Drivers on Interstate 40 may have to slow to a crawl a couple of times a day for blasting at a construction site at Old N.C. 86 in Orange County starting next week, town officials announced Thursday.
The project site is about a mile south of UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus and the Waterstone neighborhood in Hillsborough.
The N.C. Department of Transportation is also widening I-40 to six lanes in Orange County, which has caused other traffic slowdowns.
Town officials said the blasting will start around 11 a.m. Monday, and again around 3 p.m., and continue for a couple of weeks.
It will actually bring traffic to a “slow roll,” as law enforcement merges in front of traffic on I-40 and slows it down a few miles before Exit 261 in Hillsborough, said Paul Cypher, with East Coast Drilling and Blasting. Traffic should not to come to a complete stop, he said.
“It’s just in case something goes up in the air or over the road,” Cypher said.
The work is necessary to install utilities for Orange County’s new Research Triangle Logistics Park, a light-industrial, manufacturing and warehouse project planned southwest of the interchange. The work is not expected to affect traffic on Old N.C. 86, the release said.
The RTLP site, about twice the square footage of The Streets at Southpoint mall in Durham, could be one of the Triangle’s biggest business parks, said Steve Brantley, Orange County’s economic development director. The project, an investment previously estimated at $150 million, could generate at least 1,500 jobs, the developer has said.
The actual investment could be more but depends on the price of construction — currently about $100 a square foot for commercial, Brantley said — and the tenants that end up in those buildings. There’s also additional value in the equipment that’s installed, he said.
“The park will now enable commercial land development within the county’s economic development district ... consequently creating new jobs and opportunities for both our county and the broader region, and we are extremely excited about that,” Brantley said.
An Avison Young industrial market report showed “robust demand” last year for new industrial space in the Raleigh-Durham market, with a low 4.3% vacancy rate.
“Our team is thrilled to work on a project of such magnitude,” said Avison Young Vice President Bill Aucoin. “It’s been remarkable to witness the site development and to work alongside the ownership, Orange County Economic Development, and the Town of Hillsborough to make it a reality, There is a strong demand from industrial users, and we are looking forward to marketing and leasing the space.”
What is the Research Triangle Logistics Park?
Orange County approved the zoning and a master plan for the 162-acre joint project in 2020. Hillsborough has been working with the developers for a few years to complete the project plans.
The land is in the county’s 637-acre Hillsborough Economic Development District, one of three economic districts established in the 1980s for commercial projects.
Construction also has been happening in recent years in the Buckhorn EDD in Efland. The Eno EDD is located in eastern Orange County, south of Interstate 85, near Durham.
Developer Terra Equity I LLC, a division of Louisville, Kentucky-based Barrister Commercial Group bought the land in 2023, after a court battle with neighbors opposed to the project.
The plan calls for five buildings with up to 2.4 million square feet for warehouse, light industrial and manufacturing operations on the newly named Diversity Drive.
The project will be built in phases, starting with nearly 1.4 million square feet in three buildings. Two buildings could be ready to lease by late 2025, according to Avison Young real estate officials in Chapel Hill.
