News

When will King and Church streets be repaved?

By Bill Moss, Published: January 27, 2022

There’s relief ahead for motorists weary of the bone-jarring ride along King and Church streets.

King Street from its southern end to Five Points and North Main Street all the way to the I-26 overpass will be repaved starting this summer. Church Street will be resurfaced, too, though motorists will have to endure the disruption of water and sewer line work this summer before that repaving job starts in 2023.
Road repairs and improvements in the coming months or years span from downtown Hendersonville to the Peter Guice Bridge to the N.C. 191 widening project. Lonnie Watkins, the top NCDOT engineer for Henderson County, delivered an update on the projects at a meeting of the county Transportation Advisory Committee last week. Here’s the timeline for projects in the works:
• The NCDOT is scheduled to grant a contract in the spring for the King Street repaving, which will be completed by the summer of 2023. “King Street from the railroad tracks all the way through Five Points (and North Main) to the other side of I-26 will be brand new pavement,” Watkins said. Church Street repaving is scheduled for 2023 and 2024.
• A three-year $27 million project to expand and join separate decks of the high bridge over the Green River is in the early stages. Flatiron Constructors of Morrisville, which won the $26.9 million contract for the job, is driving piles for the new segment. The expanded bridge deck will accommodate six lanes whenever I-26 is widened through the Green River Gorge. The contract calls for completion by Dec. 12, 2024.
• The I-26 widening project from the county line to Four Seasons Boulevard is 46 percent complete and on schedule for a May 2024 completion date.
• The extension of Commercial Boulevard to serve the new Garrison Industrial Park off Upward Road at I-26 is waiting final approval of funding.
• Utility relocation is complete and a contractor is expected to start work soon on the Highland Lake Road improvement in Flat Rock. The total project cost of $9.57 million is $7 million more than the 2010 projection of $2.62 million.
• In Polk County, crews have started on a “major drainage rehabilitation project for the Saluda grade, which has to be done before we can rebuild Howard Gap Road,” Watkins said.
• Repair of a sinkhole on the exit 54 ramp will be under way soon and should be completed by October.
• The U.S. 64 improvements and roundabouts through Laurel Park project is in right of way acquisition ahead of a contract let date of May 2024. The NCDOT is coordinating with Hendersonville and Laurel Park on retaining wall design.
• Right of way acquisition for the White Street improvement and extension to Spartanburg Highway is scheduled for December 2023 with a contract let date of October 2025.
• Right of way acquisition is under way for the N.C. 191 four-lane widening project. Contract let date is July 2023.
• A job to create left turn and right turn lanes into the new Hendersonville High School parking lot at Five Points is scheduled to take place this summer.
During comments from cities and the county, Commissioner Rebecca McCall asked Watkins whether the NCDOT could erect temporary traffic signals at the busiest apple stands and U-pick orchards around Apple Festival time. “We’ve gotten a number of complaints about congestion during those times,” Watkins said without committing to the temporary stoplights.
Noting that the Board of Commissioners earlier that day had voted to move forward on a $21 million project to provide sewer service in Edneyville, McCall said the new utility could spark development along U.S. 64 from the Justice Academy to Fruitland Road. “It could affect any future plans for 64 so as we look at the roads we need to keep that in mind and coordinate with each other on those projects,” she said.
Fletcher Town Council member Bob Davy said two large subdivisions recently approved on Rutledge Road are likely to “make a mess of Rutledge at Fanning Bridge Road.” Watkins responded that for large projects developers are required to conduct a traffic impact analysis and pay for improvements if the study shows they’re needed.”
Laurel Park Town Council member George Banta announced that town crews had plowed 32 miles of roads after the big snow the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.