I-40 bridge on the ATT?

Online petition asking Durham City Staff and Officials to complete the American Tobacco Trail in Durham.

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This is about getting Durham moving on the I-40 bridge and "Phase E" of the American Tobacco Trail that will connect the existing six (or so) miles of paved trail in Durham south across the Interstate and down to Massey Chapel Rd on a 10' wide paved surface. From Massey Chapel south to the Chatham line may be paved, or may be surfaced with compacted granite screenings (to be determined—in the petitioned design). Either way, this would mean paved trail from (at least) Massey Chapel north all the way to the American Tobacco Campus and Durham Bulls Ball Park.

AFAIK, under the current situation (without the bridge), to connect to the Trail from Raleigh (or Morrisville or Cary) the best biking options are to:

• bike up S. Miami to Cornwallis, or
  
• go through the Grandale neighborhood and take the Fayetteville Rd bridge, or
  
• go through the Grandale neighborhood and take NC-54 under the Interstate( a somewhat-hilly, fast and narrow underpass )
  

I don't mind those options riding solo, but I wouldn't take kids on those routes, or even a group of adults, unless I was really confident in their biking-with-traffic skills.

If the Chatham Co. section is paved, it makes sense to pave ALL of this section, including Chatham Co-to-Massey Chapel Rd., but even if we only get Massey Chapel to the existing Durham Trail paved, it'll be a BIG benefit. Around Massey Chapel Rd. there's lot of small low-speed neighborhood streets that could really use good bike/ped connectivity to Durham. (Take a look at the
map of these neighborhoods—lots of good redundant routes instead of squeezing all the traffic into one corridor—nice!)

This bridge should have been built when the Southpoint Mall was built and the Fayetteville Rd. bridge expanded. From a utilitarian point of view, this makes a LOT more sense than the Meredith/Museum of Art bridge built over I-40 in Raleigh last summer. The Durham Bridge should not be put off any longer.

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From: Bill Bussey
Subject: American Tobacco Trail Petition
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:14:38 -0400

Hi American Tobacco Trail Supporter,

We've set up an online petition asking Durham City Staff and Officials to complete the American Tobacco Trail in Durham.

This is the same petition which was available for signature at the Festival for the Eno last weekend. Over 400 folks signed it! If you are among those that *did* sign the Festival printed petition, you are welcome to sign this one as well. Or not! Do as you please. Do note that you can leave comments on this online petition that you could not with the printed material.

The petition is self explanatory, so I won't include more here.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this. Please call at my phone below if you'd prefer.

Also, please pass this link http://www.petitiononline.com/att2/petition.html along to other groups or persons who you think have an interest in the American Tobacco Trail. Thank you for your continued hard work on and support for the American Tobacco Trail.

Happy Trails

Bill Bussey, President
Triangle Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
http://www.triangletrails.org/
americantobaccotrail@earthlink.net
919 545-9104

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Phase E—I-40 to Chatham Co.

This is a detail from the Sections 3&4 Map.