After months of waiting, residents along Roxboro and Mangum are finally seeing progress on a long-term goal: Conversion of the busy roads to two-way streets.
In a March 3 meeting the City Council approved hiring a consultant, at a cost of $498,500, to begin design work on converting the two streets.
“We’ve decided that we want this to be a two-way street. We’ve gotten some good feedback from NCDOT that they’re willing to work with us on this,” said city Director of Transportation Sean Egan.
The vote came after the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) okayed the initial design work, according to a city memo. Roxboro and Mangum are state-owned streets, a fact that has slowed the conversion process.
The consulting firm, Stantec, will be responsible for roadway design, traffic analysis, public engagement and more, according to the city.
While it has okayed the initial design phase, NCDOT must still approve the entire project.
“We’ve got a little bit of work to do to make the case and get that final approval from the state DOT,” Egan said. “But they’ve been very collaborative in working with us through this process.”
“We want to make sure that all of their questions and concerns are addressed. But we’re moving forward with the design.”
The transportation department has requested city funding to complete the design process, Egan said. If that is approved, implementation of the two-way street conversion could take place in 2027-2028, he said.
Bike Durham Director John Tallmadge is both “pleased and encouraged that the city is moving forward with the design for the two-way conversion.”
At the same time, he has some reservations about the project’s momentum.
“We’re concerned at the pace that this is going,” Tallmadge said. “It took a long time for them to get to this stage because of some delay in NCDOT’s response to all the information that the City provided, and then just the slow working of the city government.” Tallmadge also represents Safe Streets Durham, an organization run by Bike Durham and neighborhood volunteers to improve road safety.
Both Tallmadge and Egan see the Roxboro and Mangum conversions as a crucial part of Vision Zero, the city’s commitment to end traffic deaths. According to Vision Zero, Roxboro is among the city’s more dangerous streets, responsible for a large number of serious traffic accidents.
Early this morning, a crash on North Roxboro Street killed two people and sent four to the hospital — one with life-threatening injuries —according to WRAL. Authorities identified speed as a potential factor in the deadly crash.
Chris Perelstein, who runs the X account @RecklessRoxboro, set up a speed detection camera on his rooftop aimed at Roxboro in July. The system automatically tweets to his X account when a car drives over 62 mph. Within five months, he caught people driving up to 101 mph on his 35 mph road.
Perelstein said he feels cautiously optimistic about the road ahead.
“The fact that we’ve gone from just doing the feasibility study and the traffic analysis to doing actual design work is fantastic,” Perelstein said.
“But, you know, I think I have a lot of heartburn in general about how things are going,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of ways it can get derailed.”
Converting portions of the streets to two-way was first recommended in a 2020 city study.
Roxboro and Mangum are among many state-owned Durham streets. The city’s oldest and most heavily trafficked streets tend to be state-owned, Egan says.
Funds for completing design work on the project are under consideration for next year’s city budget. A public hearing on the budget is set for the City Council meeting on March 17.
“We’re gonna stay on this and make sure that they continue to move all the way through to completion of the project,” Tallmadge said.
Perelstein says Roxboro and Mangum project has important implications for other high-traffic streets in Durham, such as Duke and Gregson streets.
“I also think this is gonna have cascading effects for a lot of different projects that we really need to do throughout Durham…,” Perelstein said.
“And if we can kind of set a new tone for how we deal with these streets now with Roxboro, I think that helps with these future streets.”
Above: Chris Perelstein has clocked speeds along Roxboro Street from the rooftop of his apartment building. Photo by Abigail Bromberger — The 9th Street Journal
Esmé Fox
