The Road Ahead

Four score and seven years ago….make that actually three years and six months ago, the NC Department of Transportation commandeered almost an acre of JLBG for the construction of the new Raleigh outer loop, Interstate 540. Below is an image from 2021 as land clearing had just begun.

Here’s the same view this week, as the construction cleanup continues in anticipation of a September 25 grand opening to traffic.

It was nice of NCDOT to label the bridges, which I know will be of help to highway traffic. Each bridge also has a depiction of our state flower, Cornus florida, white flowering dogwood. Perhaps the folks at NCDOT don’t realize that Cornus florida is actually an old Asian import that snuck into North America while the Bering land bridge was open for business, then moved into Mexico, where it lived most of its life, before sneaking back north across the southern border and retiring to the East Coast of the US. Isn’t it great that plants don’t pay attention to border walls or the artificial human concept of nativity as a physical location instead of a place in time.

The last few months of construction have been painful for those of us living nearby, as crews used massive concrete saws to cut groves in the concrete, as well as deeper grooves, known as rumble strips just outside the travel lanes. In functional roadways, these have proven useful to awaken sleepy drivers, reducing drowsy driving accidents up to 70%. Unfortunately, it’s been sort of like living next to a dentists office, with a megaphone tied to their drills. Thank goodness, the cutting is complete.

We had hoped the Interstate would be open for our fall 2024 Open House, but the most recent delay, purportedly due to tropical storm Debbie (a convenient and publicly palatable excuse that no one would actually question), made it where our 2025 winter open house will be the first time that Open House visitors can give it a try. There is no exit on our road (Sauls), but there will be exits one mile to the east (NC Highway 50), and one mile to the west (Old Stage Road). It will be interesting to see what commercial construction follows the opening of the new interchanges.

Since botanic gardens don’t qualify for a wall (housing density is currently the only qualifier), we opted to construct a giant 5′ tall berm, that’s been planted with an array of unusual evergreens. While they’ve grown well, they aren’t quite large enough yet to hide either the view, or help with the sound or particulate pollution. Perhaps, one day soon. Until then, we’ll get to enjoy the sights and sounds of human trafficking.