The city of Raleigh is ready to lay the groundwork for North Carolina’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) line, along New Bern Avenue.
The City Council awarded $28.6 million on Tuesday to Rifenburg North Carolina, LLC, for paving, sidewalk and utility work along the route along New Bern Avenue and Wilmington, Blount, Edenton streets between downtown and Poole Road. Work is expected to begin within months.
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"They are supposed to maintain traffic, business access, [and] access to driveways," said Raleigh Assistant Transportation Director Het Patel.
Raleigh transportation leaders say the project will increase frequency and reduce travel times to public transit users along the busy corridor.
"Right now, that roundtrip takes almost 30 minutes. We're trying to cut that down by 10 minutes," Patel said.
This is part one of three for the project. The remaining two pieces will be advertised for construction bids later this year.
"It really focuses on the horizontal roadway work and the underground utility work that needs to happen to set up for the vertical stations that will come in the future," Patel said.
The finished project will span 5.4 miles, with 3.3 miles of dedicated bus lanes and 19 bus platforms at 10 stations, most of them to be located in the median between the different directions of traffic. It also includes a new sidewalk and a multi-use path along New Bern Avenue from the downtown core to Sunnybrook Road.
New Bern Avenue is the first corridor in the state to get this service, which provides bus-only lanes to get travelers out of traffic and to their destinations more quickly.
"I hope that everything with the timeline and construction stays on track. We're not exactly looking forward to having construction. We're not exactly looking forward to having construction for years and years," said Sara Kreuser, who lives along New Bern Avenue.
A parking lot off New Hope Road, across from the Walmart, will serve as a park-and-ride lot for 100 cars, giving commuters from eastern Wake County the option to park their car and get on the BRT.
What is a Bus Rapid Transit program?
A Bus Rapid Transit has higher capacity than a regular bus transit system. It has bus-only lanes and give buses priority at traffic signals. New Bern Avenue is the first of four BRT corridors planned for Wake County.
Richmond, Virginia, has had a BRT line in place since 2018.
The city of Raleigh said the BRT will cut travel times by 10 to 20 minutes roundtrip – compared to the current bus service and car commute times.
The complete plan calls for building approximately 20 miles of transit lanes along four BRT corridors within Wake County.