From Staff Reports

A new study from the N.C. Department of Transportation released a recommendation to widen Interstate 240 to eight lanes in West Asheville, if the state has the money to do the job.

The Bowen Bridge, which carries traffic east and west across the French Broad River, is the busiest section of highway in Western North Carolina, according to DOT.

 It is unclear, however, when or if the work ever would be done because the state’s 10-year plan does not include money for widening I-240 between the west end of Bowen Bridge and the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange on the west side of the Asheville.

The draft environmental impact study for the Interestate 26 Connector project also reports that separating local traffic from through traffic on Bowen Bridge would add $74 million to $101 million to the cost of the massive construction project scheduled to get underway during the first half of the next decade — and the number of homes and businesses affected would be larger.

What’s more, the study calls for adding as many as two additional lanes in each direction to the stretch of Interstate 40 that runs from the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange west to the I-40/Smoky Park Highway interchange. The lanes, which would be mostly separate from existing travel lanes, would allow westbound drivers moving from I-240 to Smoky Park Highway to avoid merging with through traffic on I-40.

The release of the study is sparking another round of community debate that has heated up and cooled down periodically since the 1990s.

DOT has set a public hearing — to get comments on the document — at 7 p.m. Nov. 16  at the Renaissance Hotel Grand Ballroom, 31 Woodfin St., in downtown Asheville. An open house earlier — from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

The newest DOT study considers four ways to build a new I-240 crossing of the French Broad River west of downtown. It also examines four ways the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange could be rebuilt — and only one way (the eight-lane option) to widen I-240 in West Asheville.

State transporation officials reportedly are hoping to choose an option early next year, then publish the final study in late 2016 or early 2017.

Construction would begin on the new interchange and approaches in 2021, with work on a new crossing of the French Broad starting in 2014, according to DOT’s long-range plan.

Any work to widen I-240 in West Asheville would occur after 2015.

Julie Mayfield, executive director of local environmental organization MountainTrue, said recently that, after meeting with a group of neighborhood representatives and environmentalists who are following the project closely, they felt, overall, “This project still strikes us as too large for Asheville.

Mayfield, who also is a candidate for Asheville City Council, noted that the study does not include a detailed comparison between a six-lane and an eight-lane I-240 in West Asheville that would allow individuals to evaluate the pros and cons of either option.

“It is frustrating to me that DOT is not allowing us, as a community, to understand that difference and have a conversation about it,” Mayfield told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “That is what we have asked for for years.”

However, the study notes that DOT considered widening I-240 in West Asheville to six lanes, but that that would result in more traffic congestion than allowed for projects built with federal highway funds.

West Asheville residents and others have opposed the eight-lane plan, contending that traffic levels do not warrant such a wide road and that eight lanes would have a negative impact on the rapidly revitalizing neighborhood.

The study points out that an eight-lane I-240 would require demolishing 81 homes and 17 businesses in West Asheville.

Meanwhile, Mayfield noted that the latest DOT study uses traffic data from 2010, but engineers have said they will re-evaluate their findings using a new local traffic model and data. She said that could yield different results.

Kit Cramer, president and chief executive officer of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is not endorsing a particular route, but wants a road that will be “safe ... cost-effective and achievable in my lifetime.”

Of the four ways (along two general routes) to get traffic over the river and off the bridge, all would involve building a road through the golf course a short distance west of West Gate shopping center. 

One general route envisions bridges across the river to the north of that point, connecting to U.S. 19-23, a little south of the Broadway Street/UNC Asheville exit. That route would cost $230.7 million to $236.7 million to build, depending on the route variation, the study said.

The other general route would also run just west of West Gate, but would curve immedately across the river to connect to U.S. 19-23, not far north of its current interchange with I-240.