Alston Avenue - (CSS) National Dialog 2

Alston Avenue (NC 55) in Durham, NC
CSS to Support
Environmental Justice
Area Context
Project Overview/Background
The North Carolina Department of Transportation
(NCDOT) proposed to widen NC 55 a busy
two-lane corridor for through and local traffic
along a one-mile stretch in northeast central
Durham from NC 147 (Durham Freeway) to US
70 Business/NC 98 (Holloway Street). As project
studies progressed, the proposed designs were
revised substantially to address communitybased issues and concerns for Environmental
Justice. Key issues addressed by the project
include supporting community connections
across Alston Avenue, accommodating bicyclists
and pedestrians within the corridor, and avoiding
irreversible impacts to significant community
resources, including a community grocery and
rescue mission.
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Alston Avenue runs through a historically Black/
African-American area of Durham, NC with a
burgeoning Hispanic population. The area of
the project is predominantly low-income and
numerous vital community facilities and services
are present within the area. These resources
include an elementary school, several churches,
two community parks, publicly assisted housing,
a grocery store (Los Primos Supermarket), the
Durham Rescue Mission (men’s campus), the
Salvation Army/Boys and Girls Club, and multiple
historic districts and individual historic properties.
When the Alston Avenue project was initiated
in the early 2000’s, the area around the road was
beginning to undergo a major transformation with
the removal of a large housing project, the Few
Gardens complex, as part of the implementation
of a major HOPE VI redevelopment for the area surrounding the project.
Additional community redevelopment efforts including plans undertaken by
the Northeast Central Durham Livability Initiative have since been initiated.
Coordination Process
NCDOT worked with a variety of stakeholders throughout the project
development process for Alston Avenue. Key components of the outreach
included:
• Ongoing coordination with the City of Durham and FHWA
• Consultation with resource and regulatory agencies including the
State Historic Preservation Office
• Community leader/key stakeholder interviews
• Community surveys
• Traditional public meetings
• Bilingual outreach
Stakeholder input informed the CSS elements that were included in the final
alternative and design for the project.
Community Impact Studies
The use of CSS was first recommended in a Community Impact Assessment
(CIA) prepared for the project in 2003. That CIA identified many community
facilities and resources that would be impacted by the project and
documented the substantial proportion of minority and low-income residents
in the area. Key potential impacts included the proposed removal of Los
Primos Supermarket, impacts to those traversing the corridor on foot or by
bicycle, and overall effects to community cohesion.
Subsequent CIA supplemental reports and addendums analyzed specific
issues in detail to support Environmental Justice evaluations. Unique data and
studies reviewed as part of the project included:
• School demographics
• Vehicleless households
• Housing characteristics
• Crime statistics
• Sidewalk network gaps
• Ped shed analysis
• Potential alternate grocery sites comparison analysis
• Detailed inventory of grocery and non-grocery services
through local providers
• Community survey data (grocery use, mode of travel)
Technical studies provided the foundation for impact evaluations and
provided direction as to CSS elements appropriate to include with the project.
CSS Elements and Outcomes
Through the preparation of follow up CIA technical studies and community
outreach, NCDOT developed a range of CSS elements to incorporate in the
design of the project including:
• Reductions in width of travel lanes and shoulders
• Removal of some of the turn lanes at intersections
• Pedestrian accommodations – crosswalks, extended center medians,
enhanced sidewalk treatments, and curb radii reductions
• Streetscaping, landscaping and lighting
• Avoidance of Los Primos Supermarket
• Provision of contiguous property to support campus development
and offset right of way impacts to the Durham Rescue Mission
In the final stages of project development and coordination, NCDOT prepared
an updated traffic analysis and generated a new proposal to address
community issues in the near term. While the project will be built with
adequate width to provide future four-lane capacity, the opening phase of
the project will consist of a two-lane facility with on-street parking and bicycle
lanes that will support multimodal travel along the corridor.
More information on the Alston Avenue (NC 55) project can be found at: http://
www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/environmental_justice/ej_and_nepa/case_
studies/case04.cfm