Road planners wrestle with an old question: How to take US 401 around Fuquay-Varina
In the 1920s, it made sense for U.S. 401, the new highway between Raleigh and Lillington, to follow Main Street through what were then still neighboring towns of Fuquay Springs and Varina.
But now that Fuquay-Varina is one of North Carolina’s fastest-growing suburbs, the traffic U.S. 401 brings to town is less welcome, particularly if people are just passing through.
So transportation planners are trying to determine the best place to build a bypass to carry commuters and others between the cities of the Triangle and fast-growing Harnett County without going through the heart of town.
The idea for a Fuquay-Varina bypass goes back decades. The state Board of Transportation approved a tentative path for a U.S. 401 bypass in the late 1990s and it has been on the region’s long-range transportation plan for years.
More recently the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization or CAMPO has been considering a bypass as part of a larger study of the U.S. 401 corridor between Lillington and the Hilltop area of Wake County, south of the Wake Tech campus. In the fall of 2021, it presented five options to the public, all involving a new road skirting Fuquay-Varina south and east of town.
Now, based on public feedback, CAMPO is back with three options, including two new ones, and is again seeking reaction, both online and in person at meetings this week.
Two of three options involve Angier bypass
One option would involve widening existing roads and directing through traffic onto N.C. 55 south toward a new bypass around Angier that will tie in with N.C. 210 toward Lillington. That option would include adding lanes to U.S. 401 north of Fuquay-Varina and widening N.C. 55 to four lanes, allowing speeds of up to 55 mph.
The two other options involve building new roads.
One would function like a traditional bypass, tying into U.S. 401 south of Fuquay-Varina and near Banks Road northeast of town. The road would cross N.C. 55 but not near the Angier bypass.
The third option would also be a new road branching off from U.S. 401 near Banks Road but would continue south, to meet N.C. 55 at the Angier bypass.
Planners say both of the new roads would be four lanes, designed for speeds of either 45 mph or 55 mph.
All three options would require significant property to build. The two new roads would be almost entirely on new right-of-way, though mostly in undeveloped areas, while widening U.S. 401 and N.C. 55 would affect more existing homes and businesses.
“There’s pros and cons to each one of them. There’s trade-offs,” Shelby Powell, CAMPO’s deputy director, said in an interview. “That’s what we’re hoping people will really dig into.”
The public can see information about the three options, including maps, at www.US401CorridorStudy.com. The site includes a link to an online survey, good through Dec. 16.
People can also see the plans and ask questions at two public meetings on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at Fuquay-Varina Town Hall, 134 N. Main St., and Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Harnett County Administration Building, 455 McKinney Parkway in Lillington. Both meetings run from 5 to 7 p.m.
