Raleigh plans a new Midtown bridge over the Beltline, seeks feedback on its options

For those who live and work in much of North Hills and the midtown Raleigh area, there are two ways to get across the Interstate 440 Beltline: Six Forks or Wake Forest roads.

Now the city is planning a third crossing, in between the two busy thoroughfares, that would be designed for local traffic as well as pedestrians and cyclists.

The proposed Midtown Multimodal Bridge would connect St. Albans and Navaho drives on the north side of the highway with Barrett and Wake Towne drives on the south. The bridge would serve a growing number of office buildings and apartments on both sides of the highway, including Kane Realty’s North Hills and the planned The Exchange Raleigh, a 40-acre mix of offices, apartments, retail and a hotel off St. Albans.

“Midtown is a rapidly developing area, and I-440 is frankly a barrier,” says Anne Conlon, a transportation engineer with the city. “So it would really help us tie together the local street network in a location that is getting the sort of density that requires a denser street network.”

The City Council endorsed the idea of a new Midtown bridge in 2020. Now city planners have come up with three options and are seeking public feedback, through an online survey and at an open house Thursday evening, Feb. 16.

Transportation planners want to hear how people would use the bridge, which option is most appealing and why. All three options entail extending Wake Towne Drive to Barrett Drive, but in different ways.

They also want to hear how people would organize the bike and walking paths. Should they be mixed or separated from each other, on one side of the bridge or both? The bike and walking paths would be part of the planned Big Branch Greenway trail.

The bridge would carry Quail Hollow Drive over the Beltline. Except for a small section off Navaho Drive, Quail Hollow is a residential street that dead-ends north of St. Albans Drive. Development along St. Albans, including The Exchange Raleigh, will allow the city to extend the road south.

At two lanes, the extension of Quail Hollow would be sized and designed for local traffic, said Conlon. Someone passing through the area on either Six Forks or Wake Forest wouldn’t find the new bridge a good alternative, she said.

“It would not reduce their time to try to cut over to this bridge and cut back. So we don’t see that as an issue,” she said. “We do think it’s going to help people making shorter trips, where it might actually reduce their time because they can avoid those interchanges, or it might just be more comfortable. Obviously that’s especially true for people walking and biking.”

City planners are not emphasizing the project’s potential cost at this stage. All three options would cost roughly the same, an estimated $30 million including right-of-way, Conlon said, but that number could change significantly after more study. Planners want to know which design the public will support and use and then take it back to the City Council to consider whether and how to pay for it.

For more information, including a link to the survey, go to raleighnc.gov/projects/midtown-multimodal-bridge. The city will accept survey responses through Feb. 28.

Thursday’s open house will run from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Five Points Center for Active Adults, 2000 Noble Road.