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Leaders study N.C. 3 widening

By Ben McNeely | Media General

Published: October 16, 2009

KANNAPOLIS — Kannapolis, Mooresville and Iredell County are submitting a corridor study plan to widen N.C. 3 to the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The study, sponsored by the three entities, recommends widening N.C. 3 to a four-lane rural highway between Kannapolis and Mooresville. The municipalities also added an east-west connector road constructed to link the research campus with Interstate 77.

Based on future traffic numbers by DOT, the rural two-lane highway would see an estimated 30,000 trips a day by 2025.

While in the short term, widening N.C. 3 isn't a big need for Kannapolis, in the long term, it will be necessary as the population grows, said City Manager Mike Legg.

"Over time, having viable alternatives to connect the two interstates will be critical to the health and growth of both Lowe's (Home Improvement headquarters) and the N.C. Research Campus," Legg wrote in an e-mail. "Moving people efficiently from homes to these two employment centers will also be very important."

Kannapolis Planning Director Ben Warren said it was important to get the widening study on DOT's Transportation Improvement Plan, so DOT can move forward with planning.

"The mistake we made with the N.C. 73 corridor study is that we waited too long," Warren said. "We're trying to avoid that mistake here."

Cost estimates are not firm, but it would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Legg said, and barring any changes in the way roads are funded in the state, it would be 15 to 20 years before the widening would be completed.

Mooresville already had plans to create a connector from I-77 to N.C. 3, to connect Lowe's headquarters to the research campus. That plan was added to the corridor study.

N.C. 3 runs through the northeastern part of Cabarrus County, near the Odell community, where there has been contention between residents and Kannapolis to keep the character of the area rural.

Planners took the rural character into account in the plan, said Mooresville Interim Town Manager Erskine Smith.

"To protect the rural character, the N.C. 3 plan calls for 'viewshed buffers,'" Smith wrote in an e-mail. "In other words, the development would be set back 150 to 175 feet from the road, depending on the existing vegetation. So you still see the rural and agricultural character of the area."

Commercial and residential development would be limited to "nodes" centered around the intersections of Odell School Road and John Dairy Road, along N.C. 3, Smith said.

"It is important to Mooresville/South Iredell because N.C. 3 is a regional connector between I-85 and I-77. It connects two major employment centers: Lowe's campus and Kannapolis biotech campus," Smith said.