Murphy – A traffic roundabout is at the center of a planned, three-piece revitalization of downtown. Although the roundabout itself is not a town-led venture, local officials are working to help convince the public of its merits.
“Roundabouts scare people, but they’re so efficient, and they’re putting them in so many places now,” Council Member Charlene Smith said during the Jan. 3 meeting. “Change is always hard for people. There are growing pains, but when you get through it, it’s going to be really nice.”
The roundabout will be located on the town square at the intersection of Valley River Avenue and Tennessee, Hiwassee and Peachtree streets. The project, which is being handled by the N.C. Department of Transportation, could begin work in early 2024.
Mayor Tim Radford said the timing of the work is designed to coincide with DOT street repaving, installation of new water and sewer lines – pending approval of a $4.9 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to replace 7,000 linear feet of infrastructure from the Tennessee Street bridge to the Mountain Vista Inn to the Murphy Fire Department bridge and Konehete Veterans Park bridge – as well as the revitalization of four “pocket parks” downtown.
The park overhauls will be funded by a $665,000 N.C. Rural Transformation Grant award that was recently announced by the town.
“There are three pieces of the puzzle we’re trying to put together to make Murphy better, while not creating a lot of construction in our downtown,” Radford said.
Downtown Development Director Laura Lahance said the town coordinated with the DOT in 2018 to examine traffic flow and pedestrian safety issues in the downtown area. The DOT hired Vaughn & Melton, a consulting engineer firm, to study the issue.
From that study came a plan to bring four travel lanes down to one in each direction, with a center lane that can be used for truck parking as well as a turning lane. Lachance said the changes are expected to result in better traffic flow, longer parking spaces and lower speeds of vehicles at crosswalks, among other improvements.
“After looking at this, it was the most efficient configuration to move cars through downtown, while also increasing safety for both drivers and pedestrians,” Lachance said. “This plan has been reviewed by two mayors and two sets of town council members.”
Lachance added that the upcoming changes don’t alter downtown parking quantity or orientation. Nor do they cut into the footprint of the town’s four pocket parks or relocate Veterans Memorial Park, which is on the corner of Hiwassee and Tennessee streets.
“There’s a lot of misinformation (out there), and I think it was super important that you spoke today and kind of cleared some of that up, because one person will say one thing and an opinion turns into a fact,” Council Member Keisha Dockery told Lachance.
“This is the real social media, when you come to these meetings,” Council Member Frank Dickey added. “We’re picked by the voters to do these decisions. It makes no difference what you see on YouTube or Twitter and all this stuff – and life would be a lot simpler if you just didn’t let it bother you.”
Town officials cite safety as one of the most important factors in the switch to a roundabout. According to studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, roundabouts provide a 90 percent reduction in fatal crashes, 76 percent reduction in injury crashes, 30-40 percent reduction in pedestrian crashes and 10 percent reduction in bicycle crashes.
Council Member Barry McClure said he is all too familiar with pedestrian safety issues posed by the current downtown configuration.
“I’ve almost been run over many times if I wasn’t watching because people are in such a hurry,” he said. “They do not pay attention to the walking sign.”
Radford said he was skeptical about a roundabout until he researched the safety data himself.
“There will be accidents like there are now with a four-way stop, but (drivers) are entering at an angle versus a T-bone, so one engineer said it’s the difference between calling a tow truck or an ambulance,” Radford said. “With roundabouts, it’s usually a tow truck versus an ambulance. Look at the safety data DOT has on roundabouts (online).”
Dockery and Dickey said they have been assured by DOT officials that the work will be done in increments that do not force numerous streets to be shut down at one time.