NOTE: If you want your comments heard, you MUST email the project directly BY MARCH 2ND at NC55-Technology-Williams@publicinput.com. 

Also - here is the email to the Project Engineer, Zahid Baloch: zbaloch@ncdot.gov

Dear Zahid Baloch, PE; Steve Brown, PE; Diane Wilson, and the NC DOT:

We are petitioning against the limited access to: both Pemberley and Miramonte neighborhoods, Exxon, CrossFit, Rock Solid Warrior, Showtime Elite, The Biscuit Garden, Hope Community Church, Boxdrop Apex, and Raleigh Winwater - that would occur based on the current proposed NCDOT Project HL-0007 (55/East Williams St/Technology Drive). In addition, we want our concerns over the project as a whole to be heard and highly considered.

We are fully aware of your concern over the 85 car accidents that occurred in this project study area from Nov 2015 to Oct 2020. But, how many of those accidents occurred on East Williams Street in front of Bobbitt Rd and Straywhite Ave? With many of us having lived and worked here through your study sample, we do not perceive a traffic concern on East Williams Street. We understand that during high traffic times there is a lot of traffic build up, but we also know that once the 540 construction is completed, this should decrease the amount of traffic turning onto East Williams Street at 55 (ideally). 

Next, we have SIGNIFICANT concern over the lack of change proposed in front of the BP/Bojangles on 55. We see the number of car accidents that happen there, and from our perspective, that is the riskiest, largest accident-prone area. This is well known, so much so that a sign reading "High Crash Area" was installed on 55 near the Police Department, just past the East Williams/Technology intersection on the way toward Hwy 1. We URGE you to consider making changes to 55, closer to Hwy 1, as this area of 55 has very heavy traffic regardless of the time of day and has the most accidents.

Furthermore, this current proposal is of great concern to our neighborhoods and businesses. Many businesses will now have limited access (right turn in and right turn out only). This will also interfere with emergency vehicles trying to access both Miramonte and Pemberley and will increase their overall response time. Additionally, it will flood a large portion of traffic trying to access both of these neighborhoods onto Colby Chase Drive, then onto Straywhite Ave., a street that was never designed to manage the traffic for two neighborhoods. In fact, 5 years ago, Miramonte had to petition the Town of Apex Transportation Department to add 2 speed humps along Straywhite Ave. after many neighbors noticed cars speeding past only feet away from children playing. Cars were clocked driving 45 MPH along Straywhite Ave. This road is simply not designed to handle an increase flow in traffic into and out of the neighborhood. 

And lastly, we have concerns over how this will affect the future market value and resale of our homes and businesses. No one wants to live or work in an area that has limited access, creating challenges for getting to and from where you are going. 

We understand you are only accepting feedback until March 2nd, which is not a lot of time to collectively respond, especially when we have all still been trying to make sense of the proposal. Please take this petition as a sign that the planning process should be elongated and that you should take the time to get more feedback from those in our community who live in this area, ultimately changing the design to allow full access to our neighborhoods and businesses. Thank you.